Rumor has it that at the fall season "upfronts" (note fancy TV industry terminology) Fox TV committed to airing two seasons of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD hereafter) this year. That means one season which begins this Thursday with the audition teasers, and another to run this fall.
Pardon me while I jump up and down a little. This is my favorite dance show, and one reason is that, despite the distractions of audience voting and judges' personalities and manufactured dramas, I think SYTYCD showcases more pure talent than any other program.
It is relatively easy for a singer to adapt his or her style to different genres of music, a la "American Idol." The only genre that requires a completely different technique - a true physicality of singing - is opera, which the show doesn't touch for obvious reasons. (Come on, nobody dreams of being the next pop star while singing "Nessun Dorma" in the shower.) The same cannot be said for dancing.
Every genre of dancing requires completely different technique. The one genre that SYTYCD has not included is classical ballet, in which the lady dances en pointe. I believe they have said so in the past, but the reason for this is that the show is looking for "all-around" dancers, the kind of dancers who can realistically aspire to a lifetime of work in TV, movies, stage shows, etc. The SYTYCD contestants must summon every particle of their talent to put across a performance in a genre that may be completely unfamiliar to them.
The range of dance genres on SYTYCD has, in addition to challenging its contestants far beyond most viewers' understanding, provided an invaluable showcase of modern choreographic art. Some of the choreographers on the show have become more famous than the show's winners.
It's hard to believe, but for most of the last century, no visual records were kept of many, if not most, dance productions. There may have been photos for publicity, the occasional video during rehearsal so that the company could review, even archival films. But these have not, for the most part, been made public, and I understand that gaining access to the material that has been kept is extremely difficult. An entire art form has no "written" history. So I love SYTYCD not only as great entertainment, but as a priceless record of turn-of-the-century dance.
The only problem is that we may need to get a DVR with more memory.
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