In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t blogged at all about this season’s So You Think You Can Dance. At first I was feeling bad that I was letting my readers down, but this is my blog, not yours, and let it be known that I am taking a break from TV right now. It’s not so much an intentional thing, but a time issue. I am in either rehearsal or class pretty much every night and weekend day. When I’m not dancing, I’m spending time with the real life human beings that I care about– my husband, my family, my friends. Real life rocks and I’m enjoying every minute of it. Given the choice, I’d rather be dancing (or at least participating in the dance of life) than watching it on a little screen.
Philosophizing aside, maybe the excitement of these shows has worn off for me. After so many years where dance was not the thing to do on TV, it was so thrilling to have shows like SYTYCD that brought dance back to the awareness of the public. Now we have almost reached a saturation point where there is a dance show on pretty much every network and channel, of varying quality and target demographic. I think it is great. There used to be just one or two nights where I could watch the one show on TV where people danced. That’s why it was so sacred to me not to miss it. In some ways, it also inspired me to want to dance more and dance better. It also in some measure inspired me to seek out real life dance watching opportunities, to delve into the distinctions and overlaps between art and entertainment.
We are now in the fourth year of this era of dance on TV. The public is now more educated about dance, and hopefully that will translate into inspiration to dance and see dance in real life as well. Judging from the number of blogs and blog posts that have exploded on this topic in the last year, the dialogue is alive and well.
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June 25, 2008 at 11:33 am
Nichelle
I hope that these shows inspire viewers to seek out live dance performance as they did for you. It’s difficult for people to make the jump, I think. One, because the tv shows are showcasing a type of dance as entertainment that you’ll rarely see on concert stages, and Two, because there’s a “why pay for it when I can get it for free” mentality that exists. General audiences don’t seem to value getting out to live performances as much as much as we should or could. Like the outdoors, we’re too tethered to our tvs and computers to make the effort. Do you think your participation in the art form was more of an influence in seeing live dance than your interest in the tv shows? Not trying to argue, just genuinely curious. Just thinking that the line from seeing televised dance to seeing more live shows is less often a direct line, perhaps going through being inspired to participate in dance first. Just a thought.
Anyway, I agree that we may be hitting a saturation point with dance shows on television, not to mention “talent search” shows in general. I’m over it really, and I’ve decided not to post about the tv stuff on my blog mostly because A) I don’t have time to watch most of the time and B) there are plenty of other blogs out there who’ve got it covered. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject!
June 25, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Maria
Do you think your participation in the art form was more of an influence in seeing live dance than your interest in the tv shows? Not trying to argue, just genuinely curious. Just thinking that the line from seeing televised dance to seeing more live shows is less often a direct line, perhaps going through being inspired to participate in dance first.
Thanks for weighing in and furthering this discussion, Nichelle. In my case it’s definitely not a direct line. I came to love dance first and foremost through doing it. I had not seen a lot of dance performed outside of the occasional musical or salsa congress. I would say it (TV) was more of a tangential motivator, in the sense that it made me think that if I really wanted to learn about dance and appreciate the art form more, I should go see what artists in my community were up to, and to expose myself to as many experiences as possible. What I saw on TV was entertaining but it wasn’t feeding my soul, or my creativity. Entertainment has its value too, because it can get you pumped up. When something is so much fun to watch, you want to seek more of it out, either doing it or seeing it in real life.
There are definitely plenty of blogs that have the coverage covered. I don’t want to feel that during the season of a show that my readers are expecting to hear my opinions on the latest installment. Others definitely have that covered. And to their credit, they have also been responsible becoming a gateway to the finer arts of dance. For example, BloggingSYTYCD often posts links to sites like The Winger, Swan Lake Samba Girl, and also to mine, and not always when the posts are about SYTYCD.
June 28, 2008 at 9:23 pm
A. Farber
I’ve been watching, and I have to say I like this season more than I have the past two seasons. But nothing can live up to season one in my mind. And while I enjoy watching this season, I don’t get excited about it, per se. It wouldn’t bother me if I missed a week or two. And I almost never watch the Thursday-night “result” shows. There’s not nearly as much dancing. I just turn on the regular show Wednesday night and ignore the TV (or even mute it) until the actual dance numbers come on.
And on a totally different note, I haven’t been online much lately … or, when I have been online, I’ve just had time to read (and not comment). But I wanted to let you know that I’m almost definitely moving to DC in mid-August! In my mind, it won’t be 100% certain until I have an apartment. But the plan seems to be coming along well. And then I’ll start looking for dance events to attend! My best friend (and future roommate) is into dance as well, so we can explore the DC-dance scene together.
July 7, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Maria
That’s fabulous, A! Good luck with your move, and let me know when you’re in town.
July 9, 2008 at 5:32 pm
tonya
That’s an interesting question Nichelle poses. I’m like you, I’m a dancer myself, so I can’t really answer it either — for me, dancing myself came first, then I began to see more live performances because of my own dancing, then came the TV shows. So it’s impossible for me to put myself in the shoes of someone who was exposed to dance for the very first time by the TV shows. I do know from friends who work in the ballroom dancing industry, though, that the shows have led to an increase in students. So, perhaps in a roundabout way, that will lead to people wanting to seek out more live dance, after they dance themselves.
Also, the TV shows are more popular than live dance, obviously, because they reach so many more people. Not many of my readers who found my blog through my TV show posts live anywhere near NYC or any other large town (which is partly why they’re so into the TV shows; it’s all they have), so there is very little chance of my convincing them to buy a plane ticket and fly out here for an ABT or NYCB performance. And they don’t have much in their hometowns.
Also, tomorrow night on SYTYCD Alvin Ailey is performing. The press release that they sent me says they are the first concert dance company to perform on this show. I think this is what has the best chance of drawing fans of the shows to live performances: showing them what’s out there by having concert dance companies actually appear on the show. And, Alvin Ailey is a touring company, that, unlike many of the other touring companies, actually visits more out-of-the-way towns.