On the move at dance awards

The ninth annual American Choreography Awards honored dance-for-camera (movies, television, music videos) at the Orpheum Theatre on Sunday with a typically delirious compendium of high-voltage live performances, splashy film clips, emotional tributes and revealing acceptance speeches.

The program opened with the powerful street dancing of B-Boy Flo Master and his crew, and ended nearly four hours later with a disarmingly offhand goodnight from Siegfried, minus his injured partner, Roy, or any of their big cats.

In between came performances to savor: singer Valarie Pettiford gave a 24-carat diva showcase and members of STOMP made music from metal folding chairs. Actress Kathy Najimy and her husband, Dan Finnerty -- a musician and former STOMP-er himself -- staged a comic battle over whether STOMP qualified as dance and belonged at the awards.

However, nothing and no one outclassed Marc Mendonca, who performed a brilliant improvisational tap solo honoring the late Gregory Hines.

Produced in association with the Academy of Dance on Film, a Los Angeles-based archive, the awards attempt to bring recognition to the amount -- and quality -- of dance on film and TV screens. But the insistence that choreographers or filmmakers nominate themselves arguably weakens the awards. Creators of many worthy projects produced far from Los Angeles -- dance on PBS and cable, for instance -- seldom bother with nominations.

As usual, the presentation of nominees and winners in seven categories went by quickly Sunday, while the segments devoted to pre-announced honorees seemed endless and ultimately funereal, as if the careers of those being celebrated had ended, once and for all, with no hope of future achievements.

But director Scott Grossman and the event’s volunteer staff managed to balance every spotlight-hogging drone with someone who invoked the spirit of dance with sweetness, swiftness and grace -- someone like actress Lesley Ann Warren, who spoke compellingly about “the dancer in you,” for example. Career achievement honoree Alan Johnson, too, remembered his career as a dancer-choreographer as a lifelong lark: “It was a good time,” he said. “It was never work.” Dancer-choreographer Caroline Richardson, who won for her short film “Horses Never Lie,” talked about the bravery, but also the isolation, of those who choose a life in dance.

And as long as dance, not celebrity worship, remains front and center at the American Choreography Awards, it will be much more than just another red-carpet irrelevance.

*

The Winners

Feature film: Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, Cynthia Onrubia, Joey Pizzi, Denise Faye, “Chicago”

*

Short film: Caroline Richardson, “Horses Never Lie”

*

TV, variety or special: Christopher Quiban, “The Wayne Brady Show”

*

TV, episodic: Joseph Malone, “Boston Public”

*

Fight choreography: Nick Powell, “The Bourne Identity”

*

Music video: Hi Hat, “Missy Elliott Featuring Ludacris-Gossip Folk”

*

Commercials: Michael Rooney, “Do It Ebay”

*

Innovator Award: Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas of STOMP

*

Educator Award: Sallie Whalen

*

Governors’ Award: Don Mischer

*

Career achievement: Alan Johnson