Well, I can definitely dance better than Elaine! But certainly not as well as the the very talented young dancers on "So You Think You Can Dance." Check out this story on the show that aired today on Morning Edition.
I've been a fan of this show since the beginning, when I watched it with my 16 year old host daughter from Mexico in the summer of 2005. Aiddy reminds me of one of this years dancers Sara. She is a "B-girl," a girl that dances hip-hop that includes breaking, locking and popping. Locking and popping? What in the world is that? Well, watch and find out!
The idea of the show is to take dancers from diverse backgrounds and specialities, pair them up, throw just about every kind of dance style at them and see what happens! You learn a lot about dance from watching the program. Firstly, it's hard work. Secondly, dance choreographers are a little like Bach and Handel. They simply don't care what they do do your body (or in the case of Bach and Handel your vocal cords), they care about their vision of the dance (or in the case of Bach and Handel about their vision of the music). You are but an instrument in their orchestra of movement.
Mia Michaels seems to expect the dancers to throw themselves on the stage, across the stage and at each other with wild abandon and no concern whatsoever for their physical well being. Exciting stuff but when it beats up 20 somethings you know it's difficult.
I like this choreographer, Jean Marc Genereux and not just because he's French!
He choreographed a great swing/jive/jitterbug routine with the entire cast and anyone who does that automatically wins points in my book. That was and is a great style of dance. What did we do in high school? Well, remember Billy Crystal in "When Harry Met Sally" talking about the "white man's overbite?" That was pretty much it. BORING.
This young man, Ricky, was one of the first dancers voted out and I almost quit watching because of it. He was an amazing dancer with a presence that was so unique and interesting. What a shame. They kept a break dancer on instead of him and that dancer, Cedric, was eventually eliminated. I still think that Ricky would have been in at least the top five.
On the other hand, here is a beautiful dancer who has had trouble connecting with the audience until just recently.
And here is a picture of me dancing "Swan Lake:......NOT! I'm afraid, my dear Northwest Public Radio listeners that you are simply not strong enough to bear the site. However, I do have a picture of the Pastor at my church dancing in a memorable performance of "Swine Lake." Hmmmm......Perhaps I can persuade him to send me a photo?
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