So speaking of guilty pleasures, one of mine is "So You Think You Can Dance", the dance version of American Idol. I don't watch any of the other reality shows, the ones that bloggers proudly lay claim to, like Project Runway or Top Chef. No, I just like watching people dance, mostly because I don't Think I Can.
What's struck me about this season is that with eight contestants left, three out of the four men were black. For the last three seasons, the show has tended to be very, very white by the time it gets down to brass tacks. This may be because the black dancers are very disproportionately hip-hop dancers, and don't have the technical skills of other contestants. Or it may be racism. Or it may just have been a fluke. But it's interesting to see this turn around, at least temporarily.
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From what I've seen, this show is far superior to the singing version, "American Idol", mostly due to the fact that the contestants at least appear to have worked much, much harder at their art, and the judges have a lot more respect for them as a result. Unfortunately, from the four or so episodes I've seen, the best dancer was the guy who was eliminated last night. Why he was eliminated I couldn't say, but I don't think the judges agreed with the viewing audience.
Well, this show is about versatility. Will is probably the best trained dancer the show has ever had. As far as the hip hop specialists remaining: Twitch, spend a year getting trained in dance, after not making it last year and Joshua has ballet training.
yes ... definitely a guilty pleasure. what i think was funny was Nigel's public service bit last night when he reminded viewers that they should vote in november -- "the most important vote they can cast".
1) from what i can see, no one in their audience (aside from family members and choreographers) is actually old enough to vote in november
2) given that their viewers choose to eliminate the clearly most talented guy (and he's black!), i'm not sure i want them voting in november, since they might do the same thing them.
My experience when watching reality shows is that the part of your brain that wants all races/greeds/genders/sexual orientation to be treated fairly compels the viewer to look for an equality of outcome. Its best to supress that impulse--there are a such a small number of finalists so its really random as to what identity each will have. Plus it feeds silly conspiracy theories, like that Top Chef wanted to have a woman win (3 of the 4 finalists were women).
I'd noticed that as well, and I believe you're right that the hip-hop background may have limited prior years' black dancers. But this year, these guys were so amazingly able to adapt and learn other routines and maybe it is because they had some training in other areas that they've done so well. I also was surprised that Will lost out last night (though I'm sure we're not the only ones who think he was great and he'll have career all set up for him). At this stage, I have a hard time deciding between Twitch and Joshua (and Will!), and as for the ladies, while I originally thought it was a tough call between Katie and Chelsea, Courtney's come right up to their level and again, I believe all three girls as well as the top four guys will have successful dancing careers. I think Comfort might've gotten a raw deal too--she extended herself well beyond her original experience.
Call me cynical, but I don't think the choices are based on race. I think we must look at who the viewers want to win, which I don't think concentrates on race.
Consider the audience. The vast majority watching are white, middle class teenage girls who are cheerleaders/gymnasts/dancers.
So this demographic naturally will want two types of people to win:
1) a girl just like them, but not too pretty or bitchy, who won't steal your boyfriend.
2) a straight good looking, nonthreatening male, preferably white, but not necessarily.
Why these types? Witness any movie or TV show or music group aimed at this audience, and this formula of girl/guy is the one overwhelmingly used.
Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that a spectacular gay male dancer wouldn't win, or that a non-white female couldn't win. But all things being equal (and I discern no large talent difference between the finalists) these should win.
And so it goes. Out of the top 3, only Twitch fit the male category nearly perfectly. He is, upon viewing, the least likely to be gay. He is also good looking and muscular, but goofy and friendly enough to be a nonsexual threat to a 15 year old girl. He's also constantly playing to the audience in constantly taking off his shirt/moving his man boobs around/showing off gymnastic moves, and in all aspects besides his smile he seems butch.
In short, Twitch ain't going anywhere, considering the other 2 either might be construed as gay or aren't attractive enough. Mark and Joshua appear to be gay, even though Joshua is trying to hide it. Even if they're not, they simply appear more effeminate than Twitch, which is all the audience sees, anyway. Joshua also has the disadvantage of being short and having braces, and looks do play a factor here, despite his incredible upper body strength.
The remaining girls are a decent mix, none overwhelming. Katee, being nonwhite, I believe won't win, although she otherwise perfectly encapsulates the image--perhaps, because she is half-white (her father), she may slip in. Courtney can't win; she's definitely the type of girl who would steal your boyfriend a day after promising to be your best friend; she's a Plastic (from Mean Girls). That leaves Chelsie; although almost too pretty, she otherwise doesn't seem too bitchy or social-climbing.
So I'm betting on Twitch and Chelsie winning.
Of course, if Twitch or Chelsie do horribly next week, all best are off. My predictions are based on the assumption that everyone dances equally well (or at a level that the audience can't tell the difference) and all do equally popular types of dances. I'm just being a realist here.
P.S. they eliminated a white hip-hopper a few weeks ago, and although I judged him to be non-gay, he was short, skinny, and less attractive than Twitch, which, I think, backs up my point of the girls watching this show wanting a complete package, not just race.
I think this is the best season of contestants ever - tough to choose from what's left, though Mark should have gone home instead of Will.
All the dancers are likable and hard-working so it's not a pure popularity thing, either.
Jack M.:
Kherington too likely to steal a boyfriend? That's my take. Girls are too sick of their captive audience BFs drooling over her and had her ousted.
I dunno, I can't remember too much about Kherrington. I think the non-finals can be about separating wheat from chaff, but I think the finals are definitely all about "who fits my ideal dancer."
But Kherrington wasn't as pretty as the these 3 girls. I don't think the audience throws out the prettiest girls; they want a girl like they are/want to be friends with: pretty, but not too pretty. Kherrington is just not as cute as the other 3.
If I sound equivocating, I just think of the ideal look as of a typical cheerleading squad in a movie. Kirsten Dunst/Miley Cyrus teenage cute, not Pamela Anderson/Carmen Elektra bombshell.
Acutally, the lats 3 girls all resemble Hayden Panierette, the cheerleader from Heroes. So I think that may give you the girls' ideal female winner better.
I dunno, I can't remember too much about Kherrington. I think the non-finals can be about separating wheat from chaff, but I think the finals are definitely all about "who fits my ideal dancer."
But Kherrington wasn't as pretty as the these 3 girls. I don't think the audience throws out the prettiest girls; they want a girl like they are/want to be friends with: pretty, but not too pretty. Kherrington is just not as cute as the other 3.
If I sound equivocating, I just think of the ideal look as of a typical cheerleading squad in a movie. Kirsten Dunst/Miley Cyrus teenage cute, not Pamela Anderson/Carmen Elektra bombshell.
Acutally, the lats 3 girls all resemble Hayden Panierette, the cheerleader from Heroes. So I think that may give you the girls' ideal female winner better.
...or it may be because the producers want more African Ameriicans to watch and believe that having more people who look like them featured on and succeed on the show is one way to achieve that. The judges on those shows don't do their judging independently of the producers' desired story arc.
A quick simulation shows that there is not enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis that it's just a fluke (that over four seasons, picking 2 times 4 people randomly [4 men, 4 women], one of the men or the women will contain at least 3 blacks). I used P(black)=13%.
p-value is 6%.
Last year, two of the four finalists were black or mixed-race, and one of the four was black in the second-season finals -- though all of those were technical dancers rather than street dancers. So I'm not sure how true your original assertion is, Megan.
(Oh, and Dave, that's just blasphemy -- Danny Tidwell from last year is an IBC silver medalist and former member of the ABT. That trumps Debbie Allen's dance school all day long.)
When the reality show craze began some years ago I really thought it would be a Warholian 15 minutes of fame deal. Guess I was wrong. The shows actually seem to have staying power.
I like the show too (although I've mostly been keeping up with it on YouTube). I was surprised to see Will go instead of Mark. Katee and Joshua are my two favorites. I have posted all of their dances on my blog.
Incredible talent
Crap like this is why those of us who don't own televisions look down on those of you who do.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go read the Sanskrit translation of Proust I just picked up at the new Snobs Only bookshop that just opened up in my neighborhood.
Megan,
Try Zydeco. It is a fairly easy dance to pick up. I could show you how to do it with without even moving your feet!
When I lived in Alexandria, the local DC zydeco scene was very active but that was 15 years ago. I suspect it still is.
The people involved tended to be fairly egalitarian about skill levels. Mostly they did not care too much as long as everyone was having a good time.
Ha dance. I remember when the HS of Music and Art merged with the School of Peforming Arts, moving across from Lincoln Center back around 1984. As an M&A student, I found the dancers from PA annoying, walking about all day in leotards and arranging their class schedules to be void of any difficult classes because "the dance" was their figmentive future.
As to the title of this post, I theorize that it's not that white men cannot dance, any more than blacks cannot play golf. There are side issues: I think that white men don't really want to dance, and to the extent they don't focus their energy there, they might flounder.
That said, I've found dance the most narcissistic and least communicative of all the arts and therefore my reality eyeballs end up in the Big Brother house, or Amazing Race.
The funny thing to me is that it's taken this long for our entertainment execs to remember that people like to watch dancing. Take away all the gimmicks (celebrities, reality elimination) and that's all it is.
I too absolutely love SYTYCD and I normally hate AI type shows. It has a lot to do with the judges and the format coming across like they realise most viewers are not dance nerds. The judges narrow down the competitors until you get to the point like this week where we're left with 8, all of whom would not be unworthy of winning. Competing for the title of "America's Favorite Dancer" seems so darn honest, too.
I miss Will, but I might have been upset if Joshua or Twitch were gone instead. It's really hard for even me, with years of different styles of dance under my belt, to tell which of the dancers are better, but I can tell who my favorites are!
I disagree with Jack's hypothesis mostly because I think the SYTYCD audience is different than American Idol's - it's smaller and more affected by niche voters, the serious dancers and affectionados.
The funny thing to me is that it's taken this long for our entertainment execs to remember that people like to watch dancing. Take away all the gimmicks (celebrities, reality elimination) and that's all it is.
Hey Megs,
I agree that the audience is smaller than American Idol, but that's why I think the audience is dominated by that teenage middle class white female cheerleader crowd.
American Idol, being a bigger hit, draws in parents, grandparents, and more males, which skews the voting. In has hundreds of niche followers, so the winner tends to be less skewed towards what one group wants, which is how you get compromise winners that are rather bland and innocuous.
However, this show's largest audience by far is the teenage girl crowd---related to the fact that the girls have time on their hands to become obsessed with the show.
Dance aficionados and serious dancers are drawn in, but they're more likely to watch ballroom shows on PBS. The kids on this show aren't the polished professionals that a more mature dance audience would be most likely to watch; these are we-just-wanna-make-it types looking for their first big break, which draws in the younger females.
P.S. Meg:
Twitch will never go. The moment they eliminated the little white hip-hopper (who I believe was the last straight male eliminated), the last faint glimmer of competition for Twitch was gone (not like he was much of a threat, Twitch has vastly more teenage girl sex appeal).
Poor Joshua. He's the best dancer left, and is really trying, but the combination of setting off gaydar + shortness + braces are going to knock him off.
OT and OMG!: our host is quoted in an NYT article:
“Women get dismissed in ways that men don’t,” said Megan McArdle, an associate editor at The Atlantic Monthly who writes a blog about economic issues. She added that women are taught not to be aggressive and analytical in the way that the political blogosphere demands, and are more likely to receive blog comments on how they look, rather than what they say.
Actually, the reason Jane Galt gets dismissed (at least by me) is that she's frequently commented on issues she obviously knows nothing about, such as immigration. Other factors include taking JasonRiley and loons from Cato seriously. Hopefully she'll post about this so others can chime in.
TLB - just read it myself. Hopefully our gracious hostess will blog on her NYT cameo.
TLB - just read it myself. Hopefully our gracious hostess will blog on her NYT cameo.
Since the topic and the word comes up a lot, can we please define "racism". And not to put too fine a point on it, but they way
"racism" is bandied about here is purely prep school, upper middle class nonsense
"White men can't dance"
Gee, I guess Nureyev and Baryshnikov never got that memo.
Favorites are/were Twitch and Will.
It's worth remembering that last year's winner, Sabra, was black. And the guy finishing second, Danny, was also black.
And Jack M.- not to call you out, but Kherrington was hot as...
As a straight man who loves this show (and therefore gets a never ending amount of crap from my friends) she was a huge help in convincing my other guy friends that it was worth a look- although Chelsie's legs don't hurt either.
Megan
You make two conclusions: That white men can't dance and that you can't dance. The evidence you cite for your conclusions - a realty TV show.
I have danced with hundreds of women and I don't see any difference in ability between races and ethnic groups. What I have noticed is that different groups are drawn to different dances.
The strongest reason I have for disputing your conclusions is not my personal experience. It is that dancing is universal trait done by all cultures in some form.
The DC area has a wealth of dance options for you to test your conclusion that you can't dance. I suggest a club with salsa and merengue as an excellent choice for a single woman.
"It all depends", said Winnie-the-Pooh, "on how badly the dance partners of klutzy men object to having their toes stepped on"
Jwl:
Eh, tastes differ. As a straight man, I don't think Kherrington was as hot as Chelsie or Courtney or Katee or even the ridiculously named Comfort. Something in the face, mainly the nose. Pretty girl, but not to my particular tastes.
But in any event, I think she basically doesn't fit the cheerleader type, which is more cutesy and little girlish. Her face was more mature, and, if I remember correctly, she was extremely tall with long legs---not really the pep rally look. And the audience, as I said, is looking for a type like them, which means cheerleader type. The Hayden Panierette look thus far does dominate, I think proving my point.