It’s not a big bone, it’s just a little one, an accusation of hyperbole and misleading compliments. It’s simply this: she recently compared Will’s rendition of Tyce Diorio’s contemporary dance piece to something approaching the skill of Desmond Richardson.

I almost hesitate to bring it up, simply because it seems a bit like sour grapes. It’s not, really; it’s more a cautionary word to people who may think that because they watch shows such as SYTYCD, they aren’t missing anything when they fail to buy tickets for their local ballet or contemporary dance company.

A Talented Beginning…but a Beginning, Nonetheless

Let’s not forget something: the dancers you see on the screen, pouring their hearts on the stage, are at the start of their dance careers. As Sabra showed last year, sometimes a loud scream of passion at the right time can move an audience like nothing else…but that energy of youth only goes so far. These are Dancers in the Rough, diamonds waiting to be cut and polished and then take their place in the great tiara of dance…ok, so that metaphor may be a little stoned. But do you see what I mean?

You Ain’t Seen Nuthin’ Yet

What makes it even worse, in my opinion, is that Mia’s comment may have just gone unnoticed by most. People will just shrug and say, “Desmond who? I dunno, he’s some guy who dances like Will…” They won’t realize they’ve seen him in movies like Chicago and Across the Universe, or was part of the OBC of Fosse, where sure, he got the Tony nod, but more than that he helped shape the vocabulary of modern movement for an entire culture.

This man is important. This man is more than talented, this man is not a Mozart of Dance, he’s a Leonardo Da Vinci of Dance. And Will is…talented. He has a beautiful body, and grace and expression and he and Jess did a fine, fine job.

But compare the dances – watch Desmond, first, then watch Will. And tell me if that’s really a fair comparison for anything other than the most superficial of reasons.

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• Mary Murphy: “Even though it’s slow, it still has to make us feel something. I didn’t,”
• Nigel Lythgoe: “It didn’t grab me. It was a bit like hip-hop on sleeping pills.”
• Napoleon D’Umo: “…you’ve just got to get down and grimy a little bit.”

Notice how they didn’t say anything bad about the technique, or the costumes, or the pacing, or really anything about the dance because the fact is, Kourtni and Matt did a great job with the moves.

That Je ne sais quoi

The fact is, chemistry is not something you can really fake. You can foster it, I think, by being open to connections between yourself, your partner, and the audience, but when it’s there, it’s very there. Why is it that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are so riveting – moreso than with other stars? Because while good actors can make you care, actors (and performers) that care about each other can let you see that, as well.

See for yourself if you thought they had it, or if you can identify what it was they didn’t have:

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OK, now that you’re done chuckling, I have to say that that last part is actually true, and it’s part of why I like working here: the people are great. But then occasionally an email comes to my inbox with a more unusual sponsorship tie-in to a show that I cover.

Like, So You Think You Can Dance. Which, of course, leads the mind naturally to…fabric softener.

Snuggle Up to Your Happy Dance

I don’t know about you, but I think this guy can dance.

He’s the winner from the first week of the “Happy Dance” sweepstakes, which is sponsored by Snuggle Fabric Softener. You, too, can videotape and upload your own Happy Dance to the SYTYCD website.

Why would you want to do that? Besides becoming world-famous as your happy dance is featured on entertainment blogs (sic) you can also get into the running for an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles for the finale of the show. But more than that, you have a chance to share in the enjoyment of competition, and even have your video featured on a sponsored segment during the So You Think You Can Dance season.

That’s right. Have your dance shown to millions of tv viewers. How could you pass it up?

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You can read some of her thoughts over at RealityWorld, where she sounds a lot like a professional athlete, thanking those who helped her get this far and vowing to continue the journey. That’s not to make light of what she says; in fact, more dancers need to hear what the show’s producer said when she called her time on the show a “humbling experience”: “he said, ‘No, it’s an experience. You didn’t really need to be humbled. It was just an experience and you’ll keep going on.’”

But I really thought she showed some insight into her rebuttal to Mary Murphy’s criticism of America’s Best Dance Crew. She very astutely points out that the two shows are totally different in design and aim; ABDC would never have ballroom dance on it, and, as she puts it, SYTYCD “doesn’t really get to explore our own creativity until we’re in the bottom.”

Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned from that.

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Apparently researchers in Australia’s University of New England are exploring whether tango can “boost people’s emotions.”

“While you’re doing tango you can only be in the present — you really have to focus, concentrate, and it doesn’t allow your thoughts to drive into your mind,” says Rosa Pinniger, who is heading up the research. “If people can have a break from their negative thoughts for three minutes, which is the time of the tango, they can realize that… this is what it is, nothing else. So all their problems and their thoughts, they cannot be, they are not invited in the tango.”

Sounds a lot like zen, and she admits that it is a lot like meditation. Also, it may not be for everyone, since it is a social endeavour and depressed people are not known for going out and socializing. Still, if you’ve ever been to a milonga, it does not matter what you look like – everyone moves, everyone dances with everyone else. It’s a group meditation, I guess.

So the question is: would watching a tango on So You Think You Can Dance or Dancing with the Stars be about as effective as watching someone meditate? See for yourself (and let me know if you feel better after). Alex da Silva choreographs for Mark & Chelsie:

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Welcome to the Big Show with JK Live!

Jessie is the host of a show aimed at teens on BlogTalkRadio. Aside from the normal sports talk he’s also covering entertainment news, and am I jealous: he’s managed to snag Shane Sparks (about whom we’ve raved before) for an interview. You remember Shane, fantastic choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance and current judge on America’s Best Dance Crew .

What Would YOU Ask Shane Sparks?

Here’s the best part: The Big Show is taking questions. The show is July 15 between 7-8 pm Eastern Time, but it’s ok if you can’t listen, I’m there for you as your faithful B5Media Blogger – just let me know what you’d like to ask Shane, and I’ll do my best to get the answer for you!

Image Courtesy of Newscom

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So You Thought You Could Dance?

Like me, the TV Grapevine had a personal connection to someone who auditioned for the show. Like me, that person didn’t make it past the preliminary stages – but in their case, she was able to stay the extra day to see the “individual round.”

Yes, that’s right. That “individual round” is not the first time the judges see the dancers. Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, and whoever is with them saw all of them in a group cattle call audition the day before . They specifically invite back the dancers they want to see in the individual shows.

Think about that. All the dancers that you see that are so awful, that the judges berate for wasting their time – they were specifically invited back. Why? Not because, as they thought, they had a chance. No, it’s for entertainment value, for ratings, and that’s kind of a shabby way to treat people who want to dance.

Legally Blonde: the Search for Elle

Tonight at 10 MTV debuts a reality show (produced by the same people that brought you The Biggest Loser) to find the new lead for Legally Blonde: The Musical. This did not fill me with much anticipation, after the way they did Grease: You’re the One. However, Loser was pretty well thought out, and there seems to be a couple of other glimmers of hope.

The judges have some serious cred: musical auteur Heather Hach, casting director Bernard Telsey, Paul Canaan (veteran of the Broadway Musical and choreographer Jerry Mitchell. Of course, Grease also seemed to have good judges and…well, you saw how that went.

But there are apparently a lot of musical numbers with members of the actual Broadway cast, a “boot camp” to whip the contestants into shape, Haylie Duff provides some mentorship and guidance, and besides, it’s already been done – all eight episodes have been shot and the new Elle will be joining the cast on Broadway in October.

So let’s see if MTV can do it better than NBC. I’ll give it a grudging chance.

image courtesy of Newscom

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Her theory is that unlike Dancing with the Stars, which doesn’t really have an audition process, SYTYCD has a very limited amount of time for dancers to get their chance, and therefore should not be as tolerant of the people who are not serious, such as Sex.

Besides that, the judges – Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, and usually a respected choreographer like Mandy Moore or Hairspray’s Adam Shankman – have real credentials in dance and choreography. So it is, in effect, a waste of their time to watch someone who is a self-confessed “bull in a china shop.”

That begs the question, though, if dancers like Brett Branford, who admitted he had very little dance training and no expectations of going on to Vegas, should be admitted just to prove a point (in this case, that “disabled” people can move too). If the show is about dancing, then dancers should be on it – not martial artists, not comedians, not even practical jokers like Drew Lachey was on Dancewar when he donned a wig and baseball cap and took over the stage for a time.

I guess what it comes down to is the question of whether the show is about dance or entertainment. In the end, it’s there to make the sponsors money, so the final decision will have to be left to them.

image courtesy of Newscom

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One of the more interesting things I found in it was Cat’s comments about the true purpose of the show. “…this isn’t just a dance competition. It’s to find America’s favorite dancer…” That explains a lot to people who complained last year that so many technically proficient dancers were being given the boot while those who engaged more with the audience stayed in the competition. Thankfully, the winner was both sweet and talented, and everyone went home happy. Especially Sabra.

Remember that if, like me, you were unable to see the show tonight, it will be posted online soon at the Fox website. And tomorrow’s a two hour episode, and since it’s the beginning of the season, there may actually be two hours worth of content to see!

Or, you could always hit youtube:

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Those Who Can, Teach

One of the performers there is Arielle, a teacher at the Madison Multicultural Dance Center with Mona N’wal and others. Though very young, Arielle’s been dancing since she was fourteen, and that leads to quite a bit of experience as well as talent.

That evening she did a three-part set, starting with two traditional songs and then a blended hip-hop/bellydance routine of her own choreography. The ability of her body to isolate and move independently of attached parts was incredible, and though I found out later that most of the moves were “improvisography” she never seemed to miss a beat.

When I learned that she’d also competed in the local So You Think You Can Dance competition, I cornered her after the set for an interview. What I learned was that for an Emmy-award winning show, it’s a pretty down-to-earth process.

How did you hear about the competition?

Word of mouth, actually. Through the local dance community. And only the day before the auditions, actually. The prize was a trip for two to Vegas.

Who would you have taken to Vegas with you?

(small smile) Bill. Definitely Bill. (referring to a young man who’d also been at the dinner).

Tell me about the auditions.

They happened on Wednesday, and you got one minute. One minute, that’s all, which is kind of hard to do when you’re used to 15 minute sets. I decided to do a piece to “Belladi Ya Wad”, which is what we affectionately call our “wiggly songs.”

Were you nervous?

Not after the auditions. (she shook her head and made a face). There were…well, let’s just say I wasn’t worried after I saw the other dancers. They brought it down to twelve dancers, of various styles – lyrical jazz, ballet, hip hop…

What criteria were they judging on?

I’ve no idea. (she laughs) but they sure weren’t familiar with belly dance!

Actually, they did say, they were looking ofr musicality, technique, crowd reaction…

How was that?

Honestly, not that good. It was a mixed crowed of older and younger people, but it was your typical Wisconsin kind of crowd…

Who were the judges?

There were two, one the owner of a local dance studio, and the other one (she grins) was Hok, from the show!

How do you think you did?

(shrug) Well…I don’t think I won. But I did get a really good contact with the best hip hop dancer there, so it was worthwhile. And I’m not surprised – the general American populace doesn’t really get belly dancing. Next time, I’ll put in more hip hop.

So there’ll be a next time?

Definitely! But first I have to get ready for the Midwest Bellydance Challenge…

Thanks for your time!

Always a pleasure…

Arielle actually came in second in the competition – losing to the hip hop dancer she mentioned. So she didn’t get to go on to Vegas and get a chance to continue in the process to get in the show – not this year, anyway. She took it as a learning experience, though, and plans on competing more every chance she gets.

Image used by permission from Arielle

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