From the first episode -- where I was readying on obituary for my relationship with this show -- to now, I've changed my opinion on the upcoming season nearly a full 180. The two middle episodes are spectacularly exciting, and while this last audition isn't as rich with beautiful dancing, it's still elevated by the auditioners who go beyond the over-played competition style. For instance, though I wasn't moved by the aesthetic elements of their solos, we see a couple of fantastically athletic dancers in Kelly MacCoy
(who is, considering her spotlight-loving parents, hilariously
monosyllabic) and Marissa Milele (whose solo sputters out at the end but
after those superheroics, I'm not surprised).
And yet, even if neither of them had auditioned, this audition would've been something to remember. Erik "Silky" Moore for starters kicks out a scintillating audition that is so tight that the music seems to be spun out of his body. And then there's Cristina Moya-Palacios -- nuff said.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
So You Think You Can Dance - 11x03 "Auditions #3"
Maybe I should voice my disillusionment more often because for the second week in a row, the show has attracted and/or shown a caliber of dancer that gives me cautious hope for the competition. And as far as my current hobbyhorse goes, the last two auditions seems to have complicated my belief that SYTYCD's focus on the under 20 crowd solely serves Nigel's commercial purposes rather than any higher artistic aspirations (for the sake of brevity, I'm being reductive here), since more than a handful of my favorite auditions so far have been from teenagers.
Sunday, June 08, 2014
So You Think You Can Dance - 11x02 "Auditions #2"
Previously: SYTYCD offers me nothing. This week: WOAH. The episode is especially rich with beautiful leg-lines, and as an added bonus, we saw TWO guest judges who know from dance, which, in this era of Wayne Brady and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, has taken on epic importance. (Fabrice Calmels stays well within the confines of SYTYCD judging -- critique in generalities and superlatives, overlook the dancer's shortcomings -- but he's fully engaged with what's going on; I was impressed particularly with how he handled being put on the spot when Nigel asked him if he remembered seeing the trainee during his time at Joffrey.)
Notably, though, most of the episode centers on women -- situation normal, in other words -- but what differentiates this episode from the previous is that it rambles farther across the stylistic landscape than usual: even if we remained mostly within Western balletic traditions, this episode touches down on classical ballet and modern and a few stops in between so that we got something more than a factory line of competition girls. Where I complained last week about the show defining Dance according to its very limited parameters, this week sees SYTYCD acknowledging the breadth of dance out in the real world, to magically revitalizing effect.
Notably, though, most of the episode centers on women -- situation normal, in other words -- but what differentiates this episode from the previous is that it rambles farther across the stylistic landscape than usual: even if we remained mostly within Western balletic traditions, this episode touches down on classical ballet and modern and a few stops in between so that we got something more than a factory line of competition girls. Where I complained last week about the show defining Dance according to its very limited parameters, this week sees SYTYCD acknowledging the breadth of dance out in the real world, to magically revitalizing effect.
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
So You Think You Can Dance - 11x01 "Auditions #1"
I won't beat around the bush: I don't know how motivated I am to continue blogging SYTYCD, mainly because I'm less and less interested in the way it presents Dance (note the capital D), especially if the first audition episode is any indication. I took away two related things from the premiere, neither of which gives me much hope: the show's artistic complacency, and its increasing insularity.
First, the way that it conveys emotion exclusively across surfaces to the exclusion of interiority or ambiguity (a characteristic of almost all reality programs, to be sure) leaves me wanting in a large way (and this complaint also has a lot to do with my own exploration of dance in the last year, i.e. a lot of swing (as a participant) and some ballet (as a spectator)). Reality tv is generally concerned with searching for and then depicting the mean between the prosaic and the glamorous (the combination of which is what (initially) made the genre such an explosive hit, especially in its early days). However, perhaps because of some kind of anxiety about the former part of the equation -- the banality of our lives is, after all, banal -- its producers are driven to amplify and/or push the interior lives of its subjects out into the open, which explains the tears and fights endemic to the genre as a whole. In other words, if something isn't obvious, it doesn't happen.
SYTYCD engages in some of these strategies, namely the unceasing tears (Nigel: "What is it with every dancer burst [sic] out crying when they talk to you?") (as if he doesn't know) and the bathetic stories of personal loss and tragedy. Such a theatricality of sentiment also infects the broader artistic temperament of the show, which in turn impresses on its young auditioners to follow suit: thus we have Caleb Brauner announcing the emotional tenor of both of his audition pieces.
As such, I'm beginning to wonder if my longstanding formulation of what qualifies as art -- i.e. anything that moves you emotionally -- is insufficient or at least in need of update, since most of the auditions bored me: considering the trajectory of the show in the few seasons and the forgettable clutch of auditions this last week, Nigel seems intent on positioning his show as a showcase for juvenilia -- the average age of the identified dancers is just under 20, the oldest being 25, and with fully half of them being 18 -- which as an artistic statement is puerile, but from a commercial one is probably the safest bet in terms of catering to the show's taste-defining demographics. Here is a synecdochal image of Caleb leaving after his first audition that summarizes the show's intentions:
Such a focus on all-American youth all but rules out something like with as much emotional depth as Robert Battle's "In/Side" or as physically demanding as Wayne McGregor's "Borderlands" or as technically virtuosic as Crystal Pite's "Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue" or as thematically elusive as Jiri Kylian's "Indigo Rose" or as focused as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's "Rosas danst Rosas", except -- maybe -- as special guest performances. All of which then makes Nigel's execrable proclamation last season of viewer complaints of the show being too artistic that much more perversely laughable. (We've had hints of artistic ambition before -- arguably some Wade pieces, Garry Stewart's two routines in season 6, assorted Mia numbers which aim for something higher than the middlebrow -- but they're almost all consigned to the distant past by now.)
Second, with the dad danceoff among other things, we're seeing the result of the producer/contestant give-and-take that creates and then codifies a program's culture. What began a few seasons ago as a modestly cute treat -- i.e. bringing contestant's family onstage for a fun turn in the spotlight -- has become an expected part of the show. If ever such things were spontaneous, they almost certainly aren't anymore -- that dad is clearly comfortable as the center of attention and the transition from his daughter calling him the talented one to his taking the stage seemed far too prepared, for instance.
Not that I'm upset that something on a reality program comes off as staged, but I'm taking the initial dad dance and the ensuing danceoff as a sign of how deeply the show has withdrawn into its own world, sustained almost entirely on its own idioms and exhibiting few signs that it's willing to reopen itself to different artistic challenges -- much like its retreating artistic ambitions. Maybe, because of the rickety ratings-health of the show, Nigel has adopted a bunker mentality, going with what he knows, a formalism for its own sake, such as waving three tickets for the two people onstage.
And this is all without considering any complaints about the show's treatment of hip hop.
But it's not all piss and vinegar with me. Novien Yarber brings a lot that I like to his audition: great body control, lovely movement, and an excellent sense of pace. Megan Marcano has many of the same qualities, though with the added coquettishness (as Nigel notes), and? Photogenic as hell. (Although her personal story seemed to be missing a detail or two that would've made more sense to me.) Also, this girl:
Edit: Just found out her name is Mikaella Abitbol, and her audition can be seen in full here:
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
America's Next Top Model (Cycle 20) - 20x15 "Finale Part 1: The Finalists Shoot Their Guess Campaign"
So what initially appears to be a final-three runway turns out to be another one of Tyra's cruel hoaxes (the biggest one of course being the promise of a lucrative modeling career to the winner), where one more elimination is to take place just before the final runway. And that's where the last episode ends, which is as good a time to address something critical that I've ignored too long in this space: Tyra's mom hair.
She may or may not be sleepwalking through an otherwise invigorated cycle, but the show (ostensibly) remains concerned with fashion, so you'd think she rock something a little less dowdy. But there you have it.
Anyway, to handicap the probable final two, I doubt Cory will make it, even if he's been one of my favorites for the majority of the cycle. Although he's been featured in (nearly) every episode, he's been used exclusively as a talking head, an observer pithily commenting on the other contestants and the various goings on. He has only started talking in earnest about himself and his own chances of winning the competition as of this episode, and the show didn't even start positioning him as the androgynous alternative between Marvin and Jourdan (both of whom have been allowed to talk themselves up) in an overt way until episode 14 -- yes, it's always been a subtext with him, but a reality program lives almost solely on the surface of events.
A real contender then has to present him or herself as a contender (or by proxy, through other contestants remarking on how s/he is a threat to win), which was underscored for me when Jourdan said that she wants to show that she's more than just a pretty face during the Guess shoot. ANTM supposedly being a modeling competition, a pretty face is fairly crucial to the being a model (notwithstanding the show's increasingly tenuous hold with the industry), but the "more than a pretty face" line goes along with the reality tv narrative impetus to (shallowly) psychologize its protagonists. This psychology then gives the contestants a sense of depth that goes beyond the simple parameters that the show is supposedly measuring. That is, it's not enough that a contestant is technically good at the program's challenges; the exigencies of the reality genre require that they also elicit sympathy from viewers to become someone for whom we can root. This requirement explains why we've been barraged all season by Jourdan talking about her abusive marriage and Marvin being a janitor's son, both reminders of which have only intensified as the competition has narrowed down on the two of them. (You see this tension between the demands of the genre and the demands of the industry/medium most clearly on vote-in shows such as SYTYCD, but it's showed up on ANTM as well, and long before Tyra incorporated the social media element to her show.)
In contrast, Cory mentions his difficulties growing up as a biracial kid in the first episode, and subsequently... a lot of pithiness about Marnee and stuff, which deflects attention away from him (well, it may call attention to him, but as a wit, less so as a model). And it's not as if he lacks a storyline -- the producers could've fashioned a classic plot for him where he struggles against and eventually overcomes Rob's obvioushomophobia distaste for him. No, the editing of the cycle telegraphs the improbability of his becoming America's Next Top Model, while keeping him around as America's Next Top Sassy Gay Sidekick.
She may or may not be sleepwalking through an otherwise invigorated cycle, but the show (ostensibly) remains concerned with fashion, so you'd think she rock something a little less dowdy. But there you have it.
Anyway, to handicap the probable final two, I doubt Cory will make it, even if he's been one of my favorites for the majority of the cycle. Although he's been featured in (nearly) every episode, he's been used exclusively as a talking head, an observer pithily commenting on the other contestants and the various goings on. He has only started talking in earnest about himself and his own chances of winning the competition as of this episode, and the show didn't even start positioning him as the androgynous alternative between Marvin and Jourdan (both of whom have been allowed to talk themselves up) in an overt way until episode 14 -- yes, it's always been a subtext with him, but a reality program lives almost solely on the surface of events.
A real contender then has to present him or herself as a contender (or by proxy, through other contestants remarking on how s/he is a threat to win), which was underscored for me when Jourdan said that she wants to show that she's more than just a pretty face during the Guess shoot. ANTM supposedly being a modeling competition, a pretty face is fairly crucial to the being a model (notwithstanding the show's increasingly tenuous hold with the industry), but the "more than a pretty face" line goes along with the reality tv narrative impetus to (shallowly) psychologize its protagonists. This psychology then gives the contestants a sense of depth that goes beyond the simple parameters that the show is supposedly measuring. That is, it's not enough that a contestant is technically good at the program's challenges; the exigencies of the reality genre require that they also elicit sympathy from viewers to become someone for whom we can root. This requirement explains why we've been barraged all season by Jourdan talking about her abusive marriage and Marvin being a janitor's son, both reminders of which have only intensified as the competition has narrowed down on the two of them. (You see this tension between the demands of the genre and the demands of the industry/medium most clearly on vote-in shows such as SYTYCD, but it's showed up on ANTM as well, and long before Tyra incorporated the social media element to her show.)
In contrast, Cory mentions his difficulties growing up as a biracial kid in the first episode, and subsequently... a lot of pithiness about Marnee and stuff, which deflects attention away from him (well, it may call attention to him, but as a wit, less so as a model). And it's not as if he lacks a storyline -- the producers could've fashioned a classic plot for him where he struggles against and eventually overcomes Rob's obvious
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
America's Next Top Model (Cycle 20) - 20x12 "The Guy Who Has a Panic Attack"
True heart, no hurdle, set out by man or nature, will keep me from seeking out thy lovely smizes or the newfangled "booch," not that I swing like that, but hey, it's a novel thing and I'll try anything you suggest once.
In the early parts of the season, I marveled at how much the new format seemed to revitalize the franchise, and the guys have continued to carry the cycle to the overseas portion of the show. Not to say that the girls haven't been pulling their weight -- Nina has finally become the social media beast I expected all along (although I thought she'd be hoovering up all the votes from the start, considering her resemblance to Allison), Jourdan, as boring a reality tv personality as she is, is unparalleled in photos, and Renee has been at the forefront of both the modeling competition and the reality drama (make of that what you will) -- but the guys have provided an unremitting stream of fascinating behavior.
Phil, whose ADHD antics are cast in a negative light on the main show (but which take on a freewheeling and goofy aspect in the recap episode, a portrayal that would complicate the master narrative but which is one of those gems unveiled in recaps), may be old news now, but Cory remains utterly delightful while the lingering figures of Marvin and Chris still captivate because of how they express their masculinities. With the exception of Jeremy, none of the remaining guys are laconic ciphers, and all are in fact so openly expressive that they ably fulfill ANTM's quota of crying. Similarly, Marvin's avowal of camaraderie from a few episodes prior, where he tells his closest friends in the competition in plain (and teary!) terms how he'd be unable to bear any of them going home. Perhaps because of the conventions of the genre as a whole -- not just ANTM, but including series like The Jersey Shore, as well as the wider bro-phenomenon throughout pop culture -- naked expressions of fraternal affection no longer threaten masculinity in a way that used to be automatically coded as gay. What's more, almost none of the guys are too cool for school and are often willing to engage with the show's dumber aspects (at this late stage in the game, I think they're going to miss out on the joys of Tyra's butt-padded tooching teaches, but otherwise, they've played Tyra's games with enthusiasm).
(Meanwhile, over on Project Runway, we've seen the unhinged and violence-threatening male archetype, though of course with a gay spin, with Sandro and Ken. As a further aside, both of them have rather clear rage issues, and I don't mean to make light of them other than to note that traditional modes of maleness are becoming complicated.)
And I'm tickled pink (as it were) that Cory is firmly established as the cycle's den mother, trying to stamp out the pointless blowups that invariably feature on ANTM (my advice to him: Don't! You do realize that's whywe I watch this show, yes?). It's preternatural how mature and even-headed he's been in terms of interpersonal dynamics, which would serve him well in his inevitable (I hope!) casting on RuPaul's Drag Race, which would free him from the obvious contempt that Rob Evans has for him.
And finally...
In the early parts of the season, I marveled at how much the new format seemed to revitalize the franchise, and the guys have continued to carry the cycle to the overseas portion of the show. Not to say that the girls haven't been pulling their weight -- Nina has finally become the social media beast I expected all along (although I thought she'd be hoovering up all the votes from the start, considering her resemblance to Allison), Jourdan, as boring a reality tv personality as she is, is unparalleled in photos, and Renee has been at the forefront of both the modeling competition and the reality drama (make of that what you will) -- but the guys have provided an unremitting stream of fascinating behavior.
Phil, whose ADHD antics are cast in a negative light on the main show (but which take on a freewheeling and goofy aspect in the recap episode, a portrayal that would complicate the master narrative but which is one of those gems unveiled in recaps), may be old news now, but Cory remains utterly delightful while the lingering figures of Marvin and Chris still captivate because of how they express their masculinities. With the exception of Jeremy, none of the remaining guys are laconic ciphers, and all are in fact so openly expressive that they ably fulfill ANTM's quota of crying. Similarly, Marvin's avowal of camaraderie from a few episodes prior, where he tells his closest friends in the competition in plain (and teary!) terms how he'd be unable to bear any of them going home. Perhaps because of the conventions of the genre as a whole -- not just ANTM, but including series like The Jersey Shore, as well as the wider bro-phenomenon throughout pop culture -- naked expressions of fraternal affection no longer threaten masculinity in a way that used to be automatically coded as gay. What's more, almost none of the guys are too cool for school and are often willing to engage with the show's dumber aspects (at this late stage in the game, I think they're going to miss out on the joys of Tyra's butt-padded tooching teaches, but otherwise, they've played Tyra's games with enthusiasm).
(Meanwhile, over on Project Runway, we've seen the unhinged and violence-threatening male archetype, though of course with a gay spin, with Sandro and Ken. As a further aside, both of them have rather clear rage issues, and I don't mean to make light of them other than to note that traditional modes of maleness are becoming complicated.)
And I'm tickled pink (as it were) that Cory is firmly established as the cycle's den mother, trying to stamp out the pointless blowups that invariably feature on ANTM (my advice to him: Don't! You do realize that's why
And finally...
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Monday, September 09, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x17 "Top Four Perform"
My gut reaction for this week was surprise that we'd finally gotten a performance finale that lived up to the idea that these four are the best (favorite, if you prefer) dancers of the season. In most seasons, by this time the remaining dancers have been so overworked and fatigue-bedraggled that the last week of performances rarely yields much worth remembering. (Off the top of my head, I can only think of Wade's fox piece for Lacey and Sabra, which might be my favorite Wade duet, in terms of choreography and execution.) But the evening in question starts off so forcefully that the entire night has been propped up in my imagination by two great numbers, with some mediocre routines that still manage to offer some pleasing luster, and then the chaff that gets consigned into oblivion.
Aaron and Amy - Jazz (chor. Ray Leeper)
Ray Leeper likes to for sassy/sultry/slutty (choose one) (or more, if you're the polysemous type), which is not a mood that Amy is able to project. That said, the beginning sets a high athletic bar for her, and she's one of the most physically gifted women this season.
Fik-Shun and Jasmine - Contemporary (chor. Travis Wall)
I'm not entirely sure if the improvement in Fik-Shun's technique meets the judges' praise -- the handful of parts where he has an opportunity, yes, he does point his feet, but he doesn't quite manage full extension with his legs, and his shoulders wander upwards at least once (however, the first two are matters of flexibility and to expect rapid improvement over 10 weeks is a fanciful thought) -- but this is still a beautiful piece, with the choreography living up to Travis' hype this time (and not holding back or being cute with his music geek bonafides and going full in with Arvo Pärt's Post-Minimalist realness), and Jasmine and Fik-Shun both executing it so gracefully, and where the grace stumbles, the performance never falters.
Mary tells Fik-Shun, "When I heard that the two of you were paired together, I honestly thought this would just not work out. Boy was I wrong." I'm tempted to ask when she's ever right about these things.
Aaron and Melinda - Tap (chor. Anthony Morigerato)
I dare say that this is the anti-Curtis routine, all soulful and deeply felt. I still wouldn't say that I get tap -- the complex rhythms continue to elude me in a way that's not the case with clogging, for instance, and Aaron's later solo still doesn't resonate for me -- but the performance of it carries me away. I don't get it at all, but I feel it.
Jasmine and All-Star Comfort - Hip Hop (chor. NappyTabs)
And Jasmine proves me wrong about her problems projecting and serves nearly everything. She's doesn't quite match Comfort, but Comfort's just the best female hip-hop dancer this show has had and will ever have, so Jazz Harp is just going to have to content herself being in videos for some Ciara chick, and it's not like Ciara videos are reservoirs of great dancing or anything.
What's more, NappyTabs have been on a winning streak lately, foregoing the tepid, gooey Kenny G hip hop that nearly derailed the style for a few seasons, and offering some uncompromising teeth-baring, soul-shattering hardness that even outdoes Luther Brown's offering the same night. It all comes down to the personnel (NappyTabs did present "Lovecats" just last season, after all), and with two fierce divas, D'umos give them the chance to both sexy and strong, and not a caricature of female sexual objecthood that gets hauled out too often. (In fact, NappyTabs describe the routine during the rehearsal package as strong, hot, empowering, and feminine, which is something we hear about often but seldom see.)
Twitch gets the lion's share of adulation, and well-earned as it is -- and believe me, he has hustled hard for that love -- I'd say that Comfort has been burnishing her star since her All-Star run began.
Monday, September 02, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x16 "Top 6 Perform"
One of the concepts that I've developed and carried with me for a while is that reality programs -- especially but not limited to the competitive types -- are inherently moralistic, and that their morality is built on what viewers believe the people on the shows deserve or don't deserve. Just recently, though, two other shows (Breaking Pointe and RuPaul's Drag Race, if you're keeping track -- and for lack of time, I won't be able to delve into them deeply) have foregrounded one of the commonest and most important elements to this morality: humility. Ironically, I haven't noticed the importance of humility on SYTYCD because it's everywhere, which has the paradoxical effect of camouflaging it, at least not as such.
I tend to think that Nigel practically mandates that the dancers at least put up a humble front. First, think of the ever-present sob stories of contestants who come from humble beginnings (pun intended), and consider those rare moments when privilege gets flaunted: Nathan saying that when he gets stressed he likes to unwind by jet-skiing and consequently getting a verbal beatdown from Nigel. Of course, Nigel as executive producer had to have known that Nathan was going to mention jet-skiing -- somebody had to have the footage ready of the kid on the waves -- he may have been using Nathan to warn other dancers against flaunting privilege; conversely, if dancers come from a stable, nuclear background (which reads as privileged for the sake of this argument), they have to mention how fortunate they are to have such a loving and supportive family.
That's when they get to speak -- usually, the contestants' chances to speak are carefully managed by the show. The prompts during rehearsal packages corral the dancers so they stay on anodyne territory, and the ones who are hep to the game use the opportunity to press our moral buttons (e.g. inspirational relatives, deceased friends and family, etc.), and the rest of the rehearsal packages are edited so that the dancers only speak about the choreography (about which I'll revisit). They seldom speak during their critiques, and almost never to argue with the judges, who are almost always right, besides.
I tend to think that Nigel practically mandates that the dancers at least put up a humble front. First, think of the ever-present sob stories of contestants who come from humble beginnings (pun intended), and consider those rare moments when privilege gets flaunted: Nathan saying that when he gets stressed he likes to unwind by jet-skiing and consequently getting a verbal beatdown from Nigel. Of course, Nigel as executive producer had to have known that Nathan was going to mention jet-skiing -- somebody had to have the footage ready of the kid on the waves -- he may have been using Nathan to warn other dancers against flaunting privilege; conversely, if dancers come from a stable, nuclear background (which reads as privileged for the sake of this argument), they have to mention how fortunate they are to have such a loving and supportive family.
That's when they get to speak -- usually, the contestants' chances to speak are carefully managed by the show. The prompts during rehearsal packages corral the dancers so they stay on anodyne territory, and the ones who are hep to the game use the opportunity to press our moral buttons (e.g. inspirational relatives, deceased friends and family, etc.), and the rest of the rehearsal packages are edited so that the dancers only speak about the choreography (about which I'll revisit). They seldom speak during their critiques, and almost never to argue with the judges, who are almost always right, besides.
Monday, August 26, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x15 "Top Eight Perform"
Ever since their stint as VEAGS choreographers, I've been yearning for Comfort and/or Twitch to get their chance to put routines together, but not even in my wildest dreams did I expect the benefit of their choreography and seeing dance in their routines as well. This is the best idea that SYTYCD has had since the introduction of the All Stars themselves.
Not that every routine is a success; the night starts off with a Jive from Aaron and Chelsie, where the awkwardness builds and builds -- through the belabored transitions (which I'm surprised Aaron has trouble with), or the embarrassing air-guitar styling (which Chelsie should be ashamed of) -- until the routine collapses under its own weight. Mary says Chelsie throws in some West Coast Swing, but I believe that the section she's referring to -- a sugar push to a swing-out to a Texas Tommy -- is as much Lindy Hop (sez the wannabe Lindy Hopper). (And if you're curious, it doesn't look good because Aaron doesn't look like he's leading any of the moves.)
(Considering the difficulty he has in the Jive, and the fact that he's not in the opening group number, you have to wonder if Aaron isn't at full health, and if not, then why no mention of injury was made on the show.)
Where Chelsie's routine has a decent amount of Latin partnering (perhaps to its detriment), Dmitry's routine with Hayley is performed well but in my eyes mostly belongs to that amorphous style of jazz that's the default used for contestants who are dancing out of style. I counted about 6 measures' worth of rumba, near the beginning, and then some swivels later, but after the halfway point (which to me happens when her role gets relegated to the ground), she doesn't have much dancing to do, Latin or otherwise. Even when she's back on her feet, the rest of the routine asks her only to do some moody running to and away from Dmitry, which doesn't exactly give her the chance to show off any Cuban motion (which I didn't see -- but the tails of the men's shirt she's wearing could definitely have masked it). (To be fair, one of my favorite rumbas from is Janette's (with Evan) which has marginally more rumba in it.)
The night also bulges in the middle with the contemporary and jazz routines -- and I do mean routine.
Fortunately, none of these are as hobbled as the Jive or as fulsomely angsty or sentimental as my least favorite examples of contemporary and jazz. Shortney's number threatens to go in the latter direction when she says that her piece is inspired by Romeo and Juliet (I have a sneaking suspicion it's actually Romeo + Juliet that she has in mind), but thankfully, it's not weighed down by convulsive backstory (or regurgitated emotion) (or giant props) and the movement can become the focus. I particularly like the moments where she and Tucker are dancing solo but in sync, which, as I've mentioned previously, is an incredibly pretty vision. Still, a part of me wonders if having so much side-by-side synchronization is sign of choreographic unsophistication (like I haven't thought about what you should do right now, so just mirror what I'm doing = half the choreographic work).
(But what's up with SYTYCD alums and apparently being crushed beneath the heel of Fate lately?)
Allison's number with Fik-Shun also occupies an inoffensive middle ground with Shortney's. Despite her rehearsal explanation that she would be tackling Prejudice, the ensuing result is amiably modest, and is a chance for Fik-Shun to show again that he can do gentle, lyrical vulnerability in addition to the earnestness he brings regularly. On the choreography front, Allison seems to get unmoored from the music from time to time, like during the slower passages in the song, she and Fik-Shun are still doing busy moves.
Something ancillary to the dance but which is tangentially brought up during the rehearsal and Nigel's critiques is the way the show tiptoes around examples of human ugliness (though Nigel exempts himself when the subject lies near hiscrotch heart). Usually it's the love that dare not speak its name (Tucker, for example, saying that his tough-guy sports-loving dad inspires him because he's fully supportive of his dancing son -- which is a roundabout way of saying his dad isn't ashamed of a gay son) (i.e. when has any contestant on the US show plainly said that he or she is gay?), but this time it sounds like Allison has been getting some paleolithic contempt for her engagement to Twitch. Another example is during the rehearsals of "Gravity," in which Kupono explains the potency of the routine on him because one of his friends battled addiction to "drugs" -- it's a context-less ambiguity that seems striking in how it tries to sanitize the ugly. I think that's what's motivating Nigel here: a paternalistic desire to shield viewers from our worst impulses, I think largely because this image sums up just who it is that he's protecting (and I don't mean Cat):
Anyway, all that brings me to my long hoped-for Twitch routine, which seems to have underwhelmed the blogosphere but which I enjoyed. I can understand the lack of enthusiasm for the skit-like nature of routine, which results in some dead-air and forces Jasmine to act and thus rely on her biggest deficiency as a performer, which is her inability to project much farther than the edge of the stage. Follow her eyes -- they usually don't seek the outer edges of the audience (certainly not in this number), and consequently I'm surprised that she's made it this deep into the competition with so little trouble. That said, Jasmine is an accomplished hip-hop dancer (NSFW lyrics), so when Twitch is challenging her with dance (he throws in some bone-breaking for her!), she excels with the kind dense, gravity-loving groove that hip hop often requires.
And to the undisputed champs of the week. I've never been much of a fan of Mark Kanemura, but the awesomeness of his jazz with Jenna is unmistakable. What really makes this number rise is that Mark drags up the routine to the gills with all the voguing in here. And Jenna is sharp and in full diva mode, and she takes turns with Mark at out-fiercing one another as the HBIC of the routine. How crazy is that?
Not that every routine is a success; the night starts off with a Jive from Aaron and Chelsie, where the awkwardness builds and builds -- through the belabored transitions (which I'm surprised Aaron has trouble with), or the embarrassing air-guitar styling (which Chelsie should be ashamed of) -- until the routine collapses under its own weight. Mary says Chelsie throws in some West Coast Swing, but I believe that the section she's referring to -- a sugar push to a swing-out to a Texas Tommy -- is as much Lindy Hop (sez the wannabe Lindy Hopper). (And if you're curious, it doesn't look good because Aaron doesn't look like he's leading any of the moves.)
(Considering the difficulty he has in the Jive, and the fact that he's not in the opening group number, you have to wonder if Aaron isn't at full health, and if not, then why no mention of injury was made on the show.)
Where Chelsie's routine has a decent amount of Latin partnering (perhaps to its detriment), Dmitry's routine with Hayley is performed well but in my eyes mostly belongs to that amorphous style of jazz that's the default used for contestants who are dancing out of style. I counted about 6 measures' worth of rumba, near the beginning, and then some swivels later, but after the halfway point (which to me happens when her role gets relegated to the ground), she doesn't have much dancing to do, Latin or otherwise. Even when she's back on her feet, the rest of the routine asks her only to do some moody running to and away from Dmitry, which doesn't exactly give her the chance to show off any Cuban motion (which I didn't see -- but the tails of the men's shirt she's wearing could definitely have masked it). (To be fair, one of my favorite rumbas from is Janette's (with Evan) which has marginally more rumba in it.)
The night also bulges in the middle with the contemporary and jazz routines -- and I do mean routine.
Fortunately, none of these are as hobbled as the Jive or as fulsomely angsty or sentimental as my least favorite examples of contemporary and jazz. Shortney's number threatens to go in the latter direction when she says that her piece is inspired by Romeo and Juliet (I have a sneaking suspicion it's actually Romeo + Juliet that she has in mind), but thankfully, it's not weighed down by convulsive backstory (or regurgitated emotion) (or giant props) and the movement can become the focus. I particularly like the moments where she and Tucker are dancing solo but in sync, which, as I've mentioned previously, is an incredibly pretty vision. Still, a part of me wonders if having so much side-by-side synchronization is sign of choreographic unsophistication (like I haven't thought about what you should do right now, so just mirror what I'm doing = half the choreographic work).
(But what's up with SYTYCD alums and apparently being crushed beneath the heel of Fate lately?)
Allison's number with Fik-Shun also occupies an inoffensive middle ground with Shortney's. Despite her rehearsal explanation that she would be tackling Prejudice, the ensuing result is amiably modest, and is a chance for Fik-Shun to show again that he can do gentle, lyrical vulnerability in addition to the earnestness he brings regularly. On the choreography front, Allison seems to get unmoored from the music from time to time, like during the slower passages in the song, she and Fik-Shun are still doing busy moves.
Something ancillary to the dance but which is tangentially brought up during the rehearsal and Nigel's critiques is the way the show tiptoes around examples of human ugliness (though Nigel exempts himself when the subject lies near his
Anyway, all that brings me to my long hoped-for Twitch routine, which seems to have underwhelmed the blogosphere but which I enjoyed. I can understand the lack of enthusiasm for the skit-like nature of routine, which results in some dead-air and forces Jasmine to act and thus rely on her biggest deficiency as a performer, which is her inability to project much farther than the edge of the stage. Follow her eyes -- they usually don't seek the outer edges of the audience (certainly not in this number), and consequently I'm surprised that she's made it this deep into the competition with so little trouble. That said, Jasmine is an accomplished hip-hop dancer (NSFW lyrics), so when Twitch is challenging her with dance (he throws in some bone-breaking for her!), she excels with the kind dense, gravity-loving groove that hip hop often requires.
And to the undisputed champs of the week. I've never been much of a fan of Mark Kanemura, but the awesomeness of his jazz with Jenna is unmistakable. What really makes this number rise is that Mark drags up the routine to the gills with all the voguing in here. And Jenna is sharp and in full diva mode, and she takes turns with Mark at out-fiercing one another as the HBIC of the routine. How crazy is that?
Monday, August 19, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x14 "Top 10 Perform"
I missed a bit of SYTYCD, didn't I?
Routines of note have been fairly sparse, too, with this week only offering two performances: Comfort's virtual solo, and Travis's routine for Tucker and Robert Roldan.
First, Comfort is a starving lion eating up that routine -- her hair even looks like a mane -- and NappyTabs serve up something that well avoids their twee-romantic impulses (although they do indulge in their tendency to over-literalize parts of the lyrics) and opts to channel aggressiveness through animal pantomime. (I have no idea how Nico fares, and I'm not terribly bothered to find out.) Oh, and? "Get Ur Freak On", which needs little explanation.
As for Tucker and Robert, their routine marks the second time he's choreographed a male duet on the show, and the second time the results have been stunning and beautiful -- all the more so because the dancers involved have resided or continue to reside beneath the shade of my disdain. However, something about seeing guys performing balletic moves in unison cuts through a lot of the problems I have with the personalities of the dancers, though I should note that Tucker and Robert fall out of sync during a couple different runs (which may have been intentional, I unno). Moreover, for once, the judges add something constructive to the routine by expanding on the fact that the routine is based in part on Travis's relationship with Danny -- for some reason, during the rehearsal package, I heard "brother" but didn't make the connection, and was more focused on Robert, whose accident was total news to me.
Routines of note have been fairly sparse, too, with this week only offering two performances: Comfort's virtual solo, and Travis's routine for Tucker and Robert Roldan.
First, Comfort is a starving lion eating up that routine -- her hair even looks like a mane -- and NappyTabs serve up something that well avoids their twee-romantic impulses (although they do indulge in their tendency to over-literalize parts of the lyrics) and opts to channel aggressiveness through animal pantomime. (I have no idea how Nico fares, and I'm not terribly bothered to find out.) Oh, and? "Get Ur Freak On", which needs little explanation.
As for Tucker and Robert, their routine marks the second time he's choreographed a male duet on the show, and the second time the results have been stunning and beautiful -- all the more so because the dancers involved have resided or continue to reside beneath the shade of my disdain. However, something about seeing guys performing balletic moves in unison cuts through a lot of the problems I have with the personalities of the dancers, though I should note that Tucker and Robert fall out of sync during a couple different runs (which may have been intentional, I unno). Moreover, for once, the judges add something constructive to the routine by expanding on the fact that the routine is based in part on Travis's relationship with Danny -- for some reason, during the rehearsal package, I heard "brother" but didn't make the connection, and was more focused on Robert, whose accident was total news to me.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
America's Next Top Model (Cycle 20) - 20x03 "The Girl Who Gets Married Again"
The last several seasons of ANTM have seen my favorite show of all time staggering with age and insularity, and when I'd heard that Tyra was letting boys on her show, I feared that ANTM was ready to stumble directly into the shark's mouth on account of being on its last legs -- 20 cycles and 10 years, after all -- which explains why I took almost a full week to watch the first episode(s).
And of course, it was worth the wait, allowing for, you know, the remainder of the season. I'm going to say provisionally that the inclusion of men has revitalized the cast, if only for the novelty of Rob Evans explaining how best to show off one's cuts (in my case, purely hypothetical) and/or the more obvious sexual tension among the contestants. But another new development that has me hopeful is the sudden drag queen subtext, which may not be all that sudden -- this is ANTM, and Tyra, after all -- but I'm noticing it more now that I've immersed myself in RuPaul's Drag Race.
And of course, it was worth the wait, allowing for, you know, the remainder of the season. I'm going to say provisionally that the inclusion of men has revitalized the cast, if only for the novelty of Rob Evans explaining how best to show off one's cuts (in my case, purely hypothetical) and/or the more obvious sexual tension among the contestants. But another new development that has me hopeful is the sudden drag queen subtext, which may not be all that sudden -- this is ANTM, and Tyra, after all -- but I'm noticing it more now that I've immersed myself in RuPaul's Drag Race.
Sunday, July 07, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x09 "Top 18 Perform"
Well, yes, the top 20 in fact perform, but only 18 of them count, which is in my eyes an outrageous arrangement. I've seen a few arguable justifications for eliminating dancers at the top of the program: by limiting the number of routines that the judges base the elimination on, the audience will be less confused when Janaya or Amber are cut despite having the strongest performances of the night in order to save their pets (Witney, and Eliana). In other words, the elimination scheme in season 9 exposed the judges' agenda (not that they were ever demure about their preferences before). If the judges were invested in saving Witney no matter the night's proceeding, Janaya's heroic Broadway performance is going to be an inconvenient monument to their long-term, mad-scientist machinations.
But the real source of my outrage is, of course, the angst that it puts the dancers through. Notwithstanding the old "show must go on" saw, I don't see how moving the eliminations serves the interests of the dancers -- the judges get a fig leaf behind which to hide their agendas, and the show gets to squeeze more drama (or FEELS for those of you fluent in Tumblr) out of its departing contestants, but what do you get if you're the dancer getting cut. You're on this show, getting jerked around like pieces of agile meat.
So goodbye to our resident necktie-adjuster extraordinaire, and the other ballroom girl!
But the real source of my outrage is, of course, the angst that it puts the dancers through. Notwithstanding the old "show must go on" saw, I don't see how moving the eliminations serves the interests of the dancers -- the judges get a fig leaf behind which to hide their agendas, and the show gets to squeeze more drama (or FEELS for those of you fluent in Tumblr) out of its departing contestants, but what do you get if you're the dancer getting cut. You're on this show, getting jerked around like pieces of agile meat.
So goodbye to our resident necktie-adjuster extraordinaire, and the other ballroom girl!
Monday, July 01, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x08 "Top 20 Perform"
First, the intro group number? Wow! Certainly the most ambitious staging they've ever done (at least on the US stage -- the Australian show did stuff like this a lot, I think, but involving something like a hundred dancers, too). Cameos from choreographers and judges (Old Man Nigel doing respectable popping! Who'd'a thunk?) where, once you register their presences, they slide offscreen to give our focus back on the dancers. The choreography is some fun, upbeat jazz that we've come to expect from NappyTabs, but the intricacy of the blocking, with all the props, all done in one take, deserves ALL OF THE PLAUDITS for its audacity. Furthermore, to reinforce its liveness -- anything can go wrong! -- the number uses live sound; not only do you
hear the dancers' footfalls, but in the background you can also hear whoops and hollers from off-camera, which makes the performance that much
more vivid and immediate for us. Of course, the routine achieves its wonder partly through camera techniques and tricks, and though the duets that follow are a typically mixed bag, but for these three minutes, it's a rapturous celebration of dance.
Monday, June 24, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x07 "Meet the Top 20"
I have a feeling that this unveiling of the top 20 may have been the least surprising in 10 seasons. By my count, almost anyone whose auditions are shown and who are still in the running at at the Green Mile ends up making the top 20. (Although we lost quite a few auditioners, any who remained seemed to have had their spot secured.) To put the matter in other words, nearly all of the Green Mile cuts are people who at best get minimal (if any) screentime from the auditions to the VEAGS callbacks, save for Gene Bersten (because the show saves him for some brotherly drama). Conversely, of our top 20, only Mariah, Brittany, and Alan Bersten are montaged during auditions, while everyone else has their audition shown.
Some interesting demographic trivia:
Some interesting demographic trivia:
- You're going to tell me that this season has a grand total of zero Ashleys/Ashlees/Ashleighs/Ashlés/Aislings/Auxlays but two Jasmines? Worst season ever.
- Only three blondes this year! I don't think that's a record for the show in and of itself, though what's especially notable is that two of the blondes are hip hoppers. Worst season ever!
- The most crazypants demographic item I've read this past week is that we haven't had a hip-hop woman on the show since Comfort (during which interim ABDC was on the air) (trainspotters will point out that Karla Garcia in season 5 is/was a member of the Boogie Bots, but SYTYCD prefers to de-emphasize hip hop with women especially if they're white and/or have contemporary in their repertoire). Moreover, Mariah is the first hip-hop woman who's white, meaning that every one of her predecessors (not that many to begin with!) is a woman of color. Like I've argued before, SYTYCD codes hip hop as male and black, and situates contemporary as the most appropriate form of dance for women.
- My initial assumption that women of color are disproportionately early boots is, on the whole, not quite accurate, but three of the last four seasons (6, 7, and 9) are trending in this direction, which is a worrisome development.
- All the girls -- and really, they deserve the appellation this season because read on -- are all 18 or 19 years old. Is Nigel giving up all pretenses about maturity? Considering some of his comments during the showcase, not entirely, but with this lineup, he's not making it easy for the tween voters to decide who to root for. Or, is this a last gasp à la ABDC with Iconic Boyz/8 Flavahz? Or, is Nigel, in tipping his hand so egregiously, in complete malfunction?
Monday, June 17, 2013
From the Vault: SYTYCD Season 8 Post-Mortem
Ed. note: Way, way back in the day -- 2011! -- I crunched some numbers for contestant ages after season 8. I thought I posted it, but I guess not! I have no idea if I had anything more to say and thus didn't post it, or if I posted it and accidentally reverted it to a draft, or what. So consider this a blast from the past.
As promised, if belated. (Ed.: lol. That's from the original post.)
Earlier this season, a reader (I think Sara -- can't find the specific comment now) speculated that the Australian show has a higher level of dance possibly because it casts older contestants. I compiled the numbers, and unfortunately, I can't draw any firm conclusions from them because three seasons is fairly useless, statistically speaking.
But then a similar discussion bubbled up here, and I wanted to get in on the action, and looking specifically at the US show in isolation is more useful. (I'll put the Oz data below the jump, and some lightweight analysis with it to explain why the data is of little use.)
US
First, I need to mention that the stats compiled by the TWOP posters (and I have to get a dig in at the site again -- I usually loathe its forums for being the pettiness and sanctimony of its posters, but that thread and the philosophy thread have a uniquely positive signal-to-noise ratio) focus only on the top 10 of each season, which is fine for looking at elimination patterns, but I think that in order to suss out any age biases, we ought to look at all the contestants who reach the competition because the casting decisions act as bottlenecks for the top 10.
No surprise, the show skews very young:
(click for higher resolution)
The 23-and-under crowd represents fully three-quarters of the dancers on the show. Almost half can't legally drink.
Now, here are individual charts, season-by-season, with the medians highlighted:
Obviously, all the charts tilt to the left, so trend-wise, the youth of the contestants isn't a recent phenomenon. (The first and fourth seasons come closest to being somewhat balanced, though.) Season 8 is crazy -- we all knew how imbalanced it was across all sorts of categories, but seeing just how heavy it was in 19-year-olds is good for a laugh.
Perhaps more interesting would be to compile the ages of dancers in the bottom for each week, but that'd be a fairly large undertaking.
As promised, if belated. (Ed.: lol. That's from the original post.)
Earlier this season, a reader (I think Sara -- can't find the specific comment now) speculated that the Australian show has a higher level of dance possibly because it casts older contestants. I compiled the numbers, and unfortunately, I can't draw any firm conclusions from them because three seasons is fairly useless, statistically speaking.
But then a similar discussion bubbled up here, and I wanted to get in on the action, and looking specifically at the US show in isolation is more useful. (I'll put the Oz data below the jump, and some lightweight analysis with it to explain why the data is of little use.)
US
Season Median Mean SD 1 22.00 22.88 3.30 2 20.00 21.05 2.86 3 21.00 21.35 2.66 4 22.00 21.65 3.18 5 21.00 22.10 2.86 6 20.00 21.35 3.56 7 21.00 21.55 2.25 8 20.00 21.40 3.68 Total 21.00 21.64 3.09
First, I need to mention that the stats compiled by the TWOP posters (and I have to get a dig in at the site again -- I usually loathe its forums for being the pettiness and sanctimony of its posters, but that thread and the philosophy thread have a uniquely positive signal-to-noise ratio) focus only on the top 10 of each season, which is fine for looking at elimination patterns, but I think that in order to suss out any age biases, we ought to look at all the contestants who reach the competition because the casting decisions act as bottlenecks for the top 10.
No surprise, the show skews very young:
The 23-and-under crowd represents fully three-quarters of the dancers on the show. Almost half can't legally drink.
Now, here are individual charts, season-by-season, with the medians highlighted:
Obviously, all the charts tilt to the left, so trend-wise, the youth of the contestants isn't a recent phenomenon. (The first and fourth seasons come closest to being somewhat balanced, though.) Season 8 is crazy -- we all knew how imbalanced it was across all sorts of categories, but seeing just how heavy it was in 19-year-olds is good for a laugh.
Perhaps more interesting would be to compile the ages of dancers in the bottom for each week, but that'd be a fairly large undertaking.
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x06 "Vegas Callbacks"
First, a cheap lol.
Coed bathrooms? I thought the callbacks are held in VEAGS, not a Berkeley dormitory.
Moving on!
Lest anyone forget, SYTYCD is a reality tv program.
A time-honored strategy for shows that sequester their contestants is to limit the amount of food they have access to while maximizing their alcohol consumption in the name of drama. Of course, SYTYCD is only exceeded by Kid Nation for the number of under-21 contestants, which means booze is obviously out of the question. (And the number of Mormon contestants it attracts!) (And yes, Kid Nation isn't/wasn't the only show that starred children -- Brat Camp, that one about high school kids competing for scholarships (which Google reveals was called The Scholar and part of which I actually watched).) So, the next best thing to booze is sleep deprivation (also a reliable standby for grown-up shows), which I've complained about for a while. I'm heartened to see that other viewers are also questioning the wisdom in burning up these kids so soon.
I don't complain about sleep deprivation solely because of a disdain for reality drama. The show doesn't need manufactured tension sown among its dancers -- conflict will naturally arise among perennially underpaid people competing for a finite number of roles that will raise their profiles above and beyond what they normally achieve within their own professions. (Besides, the only time the claws come out on SYTYCD is during the callbacks -- the competition portion is always scrubbed to an inoffensive PG-rated shininess.) More fundamentally, I'm worried about the health of the dancers, most pointedly illustrated when Armen Way drops Malece Miller on her head, and this incident has repercussions not simply for the immediate challenge of the VEAGS choreography rounds, but throughout the competition. After all, the show's injury history (Alex Wong, Ashley Galvan, Jessica King, Billy Bell, Natalie Fotopoulos, etc.) fairly damns the way SYTYCD pushes its dancers, even considering the physically demanding nature of dance itself. (Here, I may be way off-base, and experienced dancers can attest to the rigors or not.)
A more philosophical approach would be to critique how cynically the show exploits the talents of its contestants who are giving up so much of their labor to what you might call the owners of the means of production -- i.e. the Marxist critique -- but what I tend to find more exciting ("exciting") is the ethical aspects of the show. That is to say, SYTYCD has developed a stringent sense of how people should behave on it (with the added bonus of tacitly showing the viewers at home how to behave, too, or at the least what values they should hold dear).
Armen Way, who IMO should've freestyled in Russian when asked to explain what he brings that the other semifinalists don't, figures into the moral arena as well. After getting chewed out by the judges for his role in Malece's injury, he says that the show has changed him as a person, implying that he's learned humility, or something; cut to his elimination, after which he says that the judges are going to regret letting him go. I figure that Nigel means to set him up as an object lesson in false growth. Anyone who watches the show realize that the judges want to hear, "Oh, thank you for putting me on blast, judges, now I know to turn myself into a better person," and yet, it's another thing entirely to actually become a better person, requiring inner humility instead of mere words and bowed heads. "Kids," Nigel's implying, "this is how not to be."
That's the SYTYCD fairytale, because, as I rarely tire of saying, I'm skeptical about this or any reality program serving as a suitable vehicle for the kind of personal growth that makes a sustained difference in life. What Nigel is really implying goes more like, "Kids, you can't be humble just on the outside, you have to be humble on the inside too, but if you can't manage that, at least be humble on the outside for your entire duration on the show." In this regard, Armen is not a cautionary tale but in fact overtly embodies the spirit of superficial self-improvement. Change and growth in the space of 13 weeks -- that's a fiction we tell ourselves to varying degrees, never more so than on this program.
That Armen knows about the moralistic kabuki indicates the pervasiveness of epiphanic redemption narratives on SYTYCD (or more likely, all reality tv shows ever), which in turn is, I think, a sign of how reality programs mature over time. The moralistic impulse is always present from the start, though at that stage, they're probably more concerned with getting the season finished without contestants dying, and then getting renewed. However, the moralism subtly influences the direction of the eliminations, which the editors retroactively reinforce in the way they put together the show (which has somewhat less of an impact on SYTYCD, though). Future contestants pick up on the hints of these moral guidelines and internalize for later seasons, repeating and reinforcing the process until it becomes a de facto law of the competition.
And further on the subject of unfortunate reality conventions, Nigel persistently prodding Jasmine Harper for Cryus-related gossip is beyond the pale -- obvious to anyone with the faintest shred of moral decency -- but, regrettably, it's another unavoidable part byproduct of the show's reality genre roots. SYTYCD can put on all the airs it likes about being a public service for the arts, but it will always remain bound to its reality conventions. ("Always"? Perhaps a better way to put it is "for this and the next season or two that it has left on the air.") Still, this line of questioning, stretching back to Jasmine's audition, reaches a new low of intrusiveness in an already long history of heavy-handed editorial manipulation.
A last bugaboo of mine is the sight of young white women, many of whom I assume come from privileged backgrounds, saying that they "deserve" to be on the show -- such a sense of entitlement is the very reflection of Not A Good Look. Or maybe they have it right after all, considering the feminine ideal that the show pushes. Subject for another time, perhaps.
Coed bathrooms? I thought the callbacks are held in VEAGS, not a Berkeley dormitory.
Moving on!
Lest anyone forget, SYTYCD is a reality tv program.
A time-honored strategy for shows that sequester their contestants is to limit the amount of food they have access to while maximizing their alcohol consumption in the name of drama. Of course, SYTYCD is only exceeded by Kid Nation for the number of under-21 contestants, which means booze is obviously out of the question. (And the number of Mormon contestants it attracts!) (And yes, Kid Nation isn't/wasn't the only show that starred children -- Brat Camp, that one about high school kids competing for scholarships (which Google reveals was called The Scholar and part of which I actually watched).) So, the next best thing to booze is sleep deprivation (also a reliable standby for grown-up shows), which I've complained about for a while. I'm heartened to see that other viewers are also questioning the wisdom in burning up these kids so soon.
I don't complain about sleep deprivation solely because of a disdain for reality drama. The show doesn't need manufactured tension sown among its dancers -- conflict will naturally arise among perennially underpaid people competing for a finite number of roles that will raise their profiles above and beyond what they normally achieve within their own professions. (Besides, the only time the claws come out on SYTYCD is during the callbacks -- the competition portion is always scrubbed to an inoffensive PG-rated shininess.) More fundamentally, I'm worried about the health of the dancers, most pointedly illustrated when Armen Way drops Malece Miller on her head, and this incident has repercussions not simply for the immediate challenge of the VEAGS choreography rounds, but throughout the competition. After all, the show's injury history (Alex Wong, Ashley Galvan, Jessica King, Billy Bell, Natalie Fotopoulos, etc.) fairly damns the way SYTYCD pushes its dancers, even considering the physically demanding nature of dance itself. (Here, I may be way off-base, and experienced dancers can attest to the rigors or not.)
A more philosophical approach would be to critique how cynically the show exploits the talents of its contestants who are giving up so much of their labor to what you might call the owners of the means of production -- i.e. the Marxist critique -- but what I tend to find more exciting ("exciting") is the ethical aspects of the show. That is to say, SYTYCD has developed a stringent sense of how people should behave on it (with the added bonus of tacitly showing the viewers at home how to behave, too, or at the least what values they should hold dear).
Armen Way, who IMO should've freestyled in Russian when asked to explain what he brings that the other semifinalists don't, figures into the moral arena as well. After getting chewed out by the judges for his role in Malece's injury, he says that the show has changed him as a person, implying that he's learned humility, or something; cut to his elimination, after which he says that the judges are going to regret letting him go. I figure that Nigel means to set him up as an object lesson in false growth. Anyone who watches the show realize that the judges want to hear, "Oh, thank you for putting me on blast, judges, now I know to turn myself into a better person," and yet, it's another thing entirely to actually become a better person, requiring inner humility instead of mere words and bowed heads. "Kids," Nigel's implying, "this is how not to be."
That's the SYTYCD fairytale, because, as I rarely tire of saying, I'm skeptical about this or any reality program serving as a suitable vehicle for the kind of personal growth that makes a sustained difference in life. What Nigel is really implying goes more like, "Kids, you can't be humble just on the outside, you have to be humble on the inside too, but if you can't manage that, at least be humble on the outside for your entire duration on the show." In this regard, Armen is not a cautionary tale but in fact overtly embodies the spirit of superficial self-improvement. Change and growth in the space of 13 weeks -- that's a fiction we tell ourselves to varying degrees, never more so than on this program.
That Armen knows about the moralistic kabuki indicates the pervasiveness of epiphanic redemption narratives on SYTYCD (or more likely, all reality tv shows ever), which in turn is, I think, a sign of how reality programs mature over time. The moralistic impulse is always present from the start, though at that stage, they're probably more concerned with getting the season finished without contestants dying, and then getting renewed. However, the moralism subtly influences the direction of the eliminations, which the editors retroactively reinforce in the way they put together the show (which has somewhat less of an impact on SYTYCD, though). Future contestants pick up on the hints of these moral guidelines and internalize for later seasons, repeating and reinforcing the process until it becomes a de facto law of the competition.
And further on the subject of unfortunate reality conventions, Nigel persistently prodding Jasmine Harper for Cryus-related gossip is beyond the pale -- obvious to anyone with the faintest shred of moral decency -- but, regrettably, it's another unavoidable part byproduct of the show's reality genre roots. SYTYCD can put on all the airs it likes about being a public service for the arts, but it will always remain bound to its reality conventions. ("Always"? Perhaps a better way to put it is "for this and the next season or two that it has left on the air.") Still, this line of questioning, stretching back to Jasmine's audition, reaches a new low of intrusiveness in an already long history of heavy-handed editorial manipulation.
A last bugaboo of mine is the sight of young white women, many of whom I assume come from privileged backgrounds, saying that they "deserve" to be on the show -- such a sense of entitlement is the very reflection of Not A Good Look. Or maybe they have it right after all, considering the feminine ideal that the show pushes. Subject for another time, perhaps.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
So You Think You Can dance - 10x05 "Auditions #5"
Note: Yes, I know the VEAGS episode already aired, but I got far enough with this post that I don't want to consign it to the cobwebs, so on the policy of better-late-than-never:
Strange thing that's happened: over the course of this audition tour, I've begun to develop an appreciation for the contemporary dancers, both male and female. I'm personally rather astonished, as I've been vocal about the overabundance of contemporary on the show, but for a specific type of dancer, I'm not dismissing them out of hand. (I think my recent exploration of ballet has sharpened or inoculated my taste here.)
The prime example in this episode is Nico Greetham, AKA Billy Bell redux. Why? Because of his attention to the music, which itself is from a genre that's not typical for this show's version of contemporary. (Of course, the song -- Ólafur Arnalds' "Brotsjór" -- has been used on SYTYCD before). In addition to his musicality, he broadens the idiom of SYTYCD-style contemporary (just like Billy) to include more than the by now rote competition moves, and even throws in some baffling non sequiturs (just like Billy) with that come-hither "HELLO SAILOR" wave (I'm thinking of Billy's, uh, dice rolling gesture, which happens way back here.)
(The worst part of his audition, however, comes afterwards, when Mary, hearing his mom call him "papi," seems to render the term of endearment as "puppy" with an unidentifiable, Pacino-in-Scarface accent. I guess she and her schtick have reached a point where she can say anything, no matter how culturally insensitive, and we just shrug at her like the racist grandparent we tolerate because what hope or point is there in trying to rehabilitate them?)
Strange thing that's happened: over the course of this audition tour, I've begun to develop an appreciation for the contemporary dancers, both male and female. I'm personally rather astonished, as I've been vocal about the overabundance of contemporary on the show, but for a specific type of dancer, I'm not dismissing them out of hand. (I think my recent exploration of ballet has sharpened or inoculated my taste here.)
The prime example in this episode is Nico Greetham, AKA Billy Bell redux. Why? Because of his attention to the music, which itself is from a genre that's not typical for this show's version of contemporary. (Of course, the song -- Ólafur Arnalds' "Brotsjór" -- has been used on SYTYCD before). In addition to his musicality, he broadens the idiom of SYTYCD-style contemporary (just like Billy) to include more than the by now rote competition moves, and even throws in some baffling non sequiturs (just like Billy) with that come-hither "HELLO SAILOR" wave (I'm thinking of Billy's, uh, dice rolling gesture, which happens way back here.)
(The worst part of his audition, however, comes afterwards, when Mary, hearing his mom call him "papi," seems to render the term of endearment as "puppy" with an unidentifiable, Pacino-in-Scarface accent. I guess she and her schtick have reached a point where she can say anything, no matter how culturally insensitive, and we just shrug at her like the racist grandparent we tolerate because what hope or point is there in trying to rehabilitate them?)
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x04 "Auditions #4"
Before I say anything, I just want to point out that I know and have in fact danced with one of the people in this shot:
So.
My overall impression of the Boston auditions is a puzzle, because it seems to add up to less than the sum of its parts. I can't say why for certain, but I wonder if it has to do with how people described it as having scads of ballroom, which is true enough, but most of these auditions are cha-chas which, as I've mentioned many times before, tend to leave me disengaged. That said, the hidden gems (@anniebarrett) are actually the two-and-a-half ballet auditions that we get to see, which shouldn't come as a surprise as I'm trying to burnish my credentials as a balletomane.
The first is Jennie Begley (whose name I so misheard that I rendered it in my notes "danni vegli," though in the cold light of day, that's not so far off). Her solo combines classical idioms and modern interpretation in a thoroughly arresting way that is, in a word, mature. The show lists her as 24, and the six years that separates her and the clutches of round-cheeked girl contemporarists is a chasm of artistry, separating substantive expression from simple juvenilia.
The second is Anthony Savoy, who has a physique that's seemingly born for ballet. His build, with those long legs and arms, has such natural extension that his lines are simply beautiful, and more than makes up for the the song he dances to (and about I remain ambivalent). Just gorgeous. (And in case you were wondering about the company he had been keeping his audition a secret from, it's Dance Theatre of Harlem.)
Finally, the half is Jennifer Jones, the striking Jennifer Beals lookalike, whose jazz solo, in all of its ethereal airiness, would've fooled me into thinking it a ballet performance. Go Beantown.
As underwhelmed as I am at all of the cha-chas were, I'm relieved that at least they're taking the place of more contemporary. I do believe that the greater New England area has a fairly robust competitive ballroom scene, especially at the collegiate level, which might explain the younger couples auditioning. The most glaring example is Ashley Goldman and Phillip Kudryavstev, whose youth and relative inexperience strike me quite clearly -- their connections are fumbly, and the styling, especially Phillip's, could be crisper -- belie their ticket to VEAGS. And although I found my attention wandering during their audition, Gene and Elena Bersten offer a stark contrast, with much steadier connection and control during their routine. Also, I'm puzzled that the judges go nuts for Phillip, whose slight build is a far cry from the diesel of past male ballroomers -- not just Pasha or Ryan Di Lello, but even early-season eliminees like Jamie Bayard and Jonathan Platero were a lot more packed. But maybe that's the point -- a muscular build isn't a guarantor of ballroom success, and maybe Nigel is willing to try a more adolescent-looking kid in a bid to appeal to the tweens.
One more note on the partnered styles with Katlyn Rodriguez, salsa on two. I have to say something looks awkward with her, and I have a strong feeling it's related to the bikini she wears. Salsa is no more demure than any of the Latin styles, but her costume is excessively skimpy and I wonder if any of it translated into stiffer, more cramped movement.
Moving on from ballroom: Jason Kidd. Clever choreography, but as animators go, we've seen better in the prior auditions.
Beneath the annoying mall-punk, "Shizzy Shake" exterior, Shannon Tarantino has got real skills, with athletic yet graceful power.
I'm still not a tap fan, but Alexis Juliano gives me the chance to quote from Einstein on the Beach: "If you know like gong like like a gong gong gong gong gong gong / Hey Mr Bojangles."
Tommy Tibball is, I hope, more than an Italian-American Kent Boyd.
I still remember E-Knock not only from his season 3 audition, but from his participation in ABDC season 1 and season 5.
So.
My overall impression of the Boston auditions is a puzzle, because it seems to add up to less than the sum of its parts. I can't say why for certain, but I wonder if it has to do with how people described it as having scads of ballroom, which is true enough, but most of these auditions are cha-chas which, as I've mentioned many times before, tend to leave me disengaged. That said, the hidden gems (@anniebarrett) are actually the two-and-a-half ballet auditions that we get to see, which shouldn't come as a surprise as I'm trying to burnish my credentials as a balletomane.
The first is Jennie Begley (whose name I so misheard that I rendered it in my notes "danni vegli," though in the cold light of day, that's not so far off). Her solo combines classical idioms and modern interpretation in a thoroughly arresting way that is, in a word, mature. The show lists her as 24, and the six years that separates her and the clutches of round-cheeked girl contemporarists is a chasm of artistry, separating substantive expression from simple juvenilia.
The second is Anthony Savoy, who has a physique that's seemingly born for ballet. His build, with those long legs and arms, has such natural extension that his lines are simply beautiful, and more than makes up for the the song he dances to (and about I remain ambivalent). Just gorgeous. (And in case you were wondering about the company he had been keeping his audition a secret from, it's Dance Theatre of Harlem.)
Finally, the half is Jennifer Jones, the striking Jennifer Beals lookalike, whose jazz solo, in all of its ethereal airiness, would've fooled me into thinking it a ballet performance. Go Beantown.
As underwhelmed as I am at all of the cha-chas were, I'm relieved that at least they're taking the place of more contemporary. I do believe that the greater New England area has a fairly robust competitive ballroom scene, especially at the collegiate level, which might explain the younger couples auditioning. The most glaring example is Ashley Goldman and Phillip Kudryavstev, whose youth and relative inexperience strike me quite clearly -- their connections are fumbly, and the styling, especially Phillip's, could be crisper -- belie their ticket to VEAGS. And although I found my attention wandering during their audition, Gene and Elena Bersten offer a stark contrast, with much steadier connection and control during their routine. Also, I'm puzzled that the judges go nuts for Phillip, whose slight build is a far cry from the diesel of past male ballroomers -- not just Pasha or Ryan Di Lello, but even early-season eliminees like Jamie Bayard and Jonathan Platero were a lot more packed. But maybe that's the point -- a muscular build isn't a guarantor of ballroom success, and maybe Nigel is willing to try a more adolescent-looking kid in a bid to appeal to the tweens.
One more note on the partnered styles with Katlyn Rodriguez, salsa on two. I have to say something looks awkward with her, and I have a strong feeling it's related to the bikini she wears. Salsa is no more demure than any of the Latin styles, but her costume is excessively skimpy and I wonder if any of it translated into stiffer, more cramped movement.
Moving on from ballroom: Jason Kidd. Clever choreography, but as animators go, we've seen better in the prior auditions.
Beneath the annoying mall-punk, "Shizzy Shake" exterior, Shannon Tarantino has got real skills, with athletic yet graceful power.
I'm still not a tap fan, but Alexis Juliano gives me the chance to quote from Einstein on the Beach: "If you know like gong like like a gong gong gong gong gong gong / Hey Mr Bojangles."
Tommy Tibball is, I hope, more than an Italian-American Kent Boyd.
I still remember E-Knock not only from his season 3 audition, but from his participation in ABDC season 1 and season 5.
Monday, May 27, 2013
So You Think You Can Dance - 10x03 "Auditions #3"
Actually that's LA, which is of course a topsy-turvy world where people where hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people and chickens terrify cats.
After a mere 10 seasons, I've finally developed the ability to tell what style a dancer is going to perform simply by how they're dressed. For example, booty shorts? Especially with a midriff-baring top and bare feet?
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