Reality check

Matthew Neff | Jan 02, 2008 | 0

Every dancer dreams of becoming a star. We all want to make a name for ourselves. What dancer doesn't want to become immortalized? It sounds selfish and egotistical, but it's the plain truth. We all want to be recognized for our talent. Where do we go now to be that star? Some of us do Broadway, tours, backup dancing, films, videos and now we have REALITY SHOWS.

Coming to a TV near you are the newest spawn of reality shows. Dance is going to be everywhere. DANCE WARS, STEP IT UP, DANCING WITH THE STARS, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, and a few other shows are going to flood our TiVos. Well your TiVo, I still use a VCR to record shows. How sad,right?
I am probably one of the only dancers out there that cannot stand SYTYCD. The title alone is awful. The judges never know what they are judging. Why is a hip- hop choreographer giving a critique on ballroom? It's not really appropriate and they usually just restate what someone else said. I am not bad-mouthing hip-hop. The ballroom, jazz, theater, and contemporary judges for the most part have no clue about hip-hop. They just say, "Hit it harder". It's the easiest comment to make and it sounds like you know what's going on. Also, I have a real problem with how the dancers are represented. It wasnâ€^TMt fair to offer a prize that included a slot in Celine's show in Vegas. How were the hip-hop kids going to get the prize? It's totally fake and rigged. Why isn't there a better prize? There should be a commercial deal with Burger King at least. They are dancing their asses off for what? We all know that the producers of SYTYCD are the same producers of AMERICAN IDOL. We all know that the AMERICAN IDOL contestants are given the worst contract in respect to their worth. It's so bad that they aren't allowed to say how much they are being paid for the tour when the producers are grossing millions. What is the difference with SYTYCD? The dancers can't put out an album after the show. They can't get their product out there as easily. So what is a network to do? Compete for ratings.

Dance is everywhere these days. At least that's what people are saying. Ipod commercials have become more and more about the artist singing and less about the dancer. Gap commercials and Old Navy commercials with dancing have all disappeared.  Even the big dance number I did in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE was cut to trim time off the movie. It was amazing too. Picture it: Desmond Richardson doing a solo to â€oeCome Together” with a bunch of us dancers joining in slowly and ending with us all jumping to our backs into giant puddles on a street. It was so good. Pick up the DVD. It should be on there. Art suffers for commercialism.

So with all that being said, I can now talk to you about what these shows really do for us dancers. They put your face on TV. These shows put your face on TV for a short time until you aren't needed anymore on the show. It's great that names like Danny Tidwell, Mia Michaels, and Jamile McGee get into homes around the country. Can you name the top 6 dancers from the second season of SYTYCD?  I can't unless I google it. Those kids poured sweat into those rehearsals and performances. The most fame they have now to speak of is the illegal YouTube clips. Sure, some of them go on the convention circuit and start teaching. My problem with most of these "teachers" is their level of experience.  Ranking on SYTYCD dance has nothing to do with talent level or technique level, but can you really make a career out of finishing 9th? I don't think so.
I have heard from some fellow peers that they think the exposure on TV is great in general for the industry. So now we all know who Danny Tidwell is, but would you know where he is performing? Would you go find his MySpace account and try to find his performance schedule? Or would you just get distracted and go to YouTube to watch his clips from the show? I think for most of us, as struggling artists, we would just wait until clips found their way on YouTube.

The commercials for DANCE WAR: CARRIE ANN VS BRUNO have been airing a lot on ABC lately. I know they had numerous auditions looking for dancers. They kept calling auditions in Los Angeles. Why would they call so many auditions when that city is flooded with dancers? It is not because the dancers out there aren't good.  I know a few extremely talented dancers out there in Los Angeles that said they just would not go in for that show. I couldn't disagree with their reasoning. No one with an established career would want to be part of a show that is just being thrown together to be a companion show to the D-list show that is DANCING WITH THE STARS. The worst part of their show- singing and dancing- was revealed during the commercials. Why did they add in the singing? Ugh. It's bad enough that this Disney-friendly show is going to be doing choreography from the 90's (and trying to say it's hip and original), but now the audience is going to be subjected to some poorly staged song and dance numbers. Marie Osmond just fainted again.

Bravo is currently shooting STEP IT UP for a projected springtime airdate. I won't critique Bravo too much because they do have a string of hit shows that are original, gripping, and have artistic value. However, they did produce TOP DESIGN, SHEER GENIUS, and that dumb rich bitch housewife show. So with STEP IT UP, we will just have to see how that pans out. Disclaimer: I was in a few rounds of callbacks for STEP IT UP, but I might not have been a big enough bitch for them. Can you imagine that? HAHAHAHA.

Remember when dancers were that glamorous illusion that danced across stages and screens? With every new dance show added by a network, that illusion is fading. Showing dancers in rehearsals and backstage ruins the fourth wall.  The audience becomes an educated consumer. They won't just take dance for face value anymore. These shows are just going create a problem down the road. The record industry has been suffering since downloads and AMERICAN IDOL came along. What is the dance world going to do when an art created to be experienced in person becomes another slave to the digital world?

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Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Tap, Modern, Broadway, Ballroom, Teacher, Enthusiast, Parent, Retailer, Studio, Competitions & Conventions, Performance, Summer Study, Class, Reality Shows, TV, choreography (all tags)