As I’m sure you may all suspect, the life of a B5Media entertainment blogger is filled with fast cars, loose women, and free high-class sushi at the finest restaurants in Vegas.
OK, now that you’re done chuckling, I have to say that that last part is actually true, and it’s part of why I like working here: the people are great. But then occasionally an email comes to my inbox with a more unusual sponsorship tie-in to a show that I cover.
Like, So You Think You Can Dance. Which, of course, leads the mind naturally to…fabric softener.
Snuggle Up to Your Happy Dance
I don’t know about you, but I think this guy can dance.
He’s the winner from the first week of the “Happy Dance” sweepstakes, which is sponsored by Snuggle Fabric Softener. You, too, can videotape and upload your own Happy Dance to the SYTYCD website.
Why would you want to do that? Besides becoming world-famous as your happy dance is featured on entertainment blogs (sic) you can also get into the running for an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles for the finale of the show. But more than that, you have a chance to share in the enjoyment of competition, and even have your video featured on a sponsored segment during the So You Think You Can Dance season.
That’s right. Have your dance shown to millions of tv viewers. How could you pass it up?
Poor Chelsea Traille, put to the bottom three in the last episode and then ousted by the judges. You can see her solo below; I can see why the judges might not have liked her - in my opinion, while her technique and energy are great, there’s not a real coherence to the solo - instead of having a definable theme or beginning, middle, and end, she just sort of strung a bunch of fairly standard dance forms - flawlessly executed, mind you, but still standard - into a solo. And for the judges in the third season, that’s just not enough.
You can read some of her thoughts over at RealityWorld, where she sounds a lot like a professional athlete, thanking those who helped her get this far and vowing to continue the journey. That’s not to make light of what she says; in fact, more dancers need to hear what the show’s producer said when she called her time on the show a “humbling experience”: “he said, ‘No, it’s an experience. You didn’t really need to be humbled. It was just an experience and you’ll keep going on.’”
But I really thought she showed some insight into her rebuttal to Mary Murphy’s criticism of America’s Best Dance Crew. She very astutely points out that the two shows are totally different in design and aim; ABDC would never have ballroom dance on it, and, as she puts it, SYTYCD “doesn’t really get to explore our own creativity until we’re in the bottom.”
This just in: Tango is useful to help people battle depression.
Apparently researchers in Australia’s University of New England are exploring whether tango can “boost people’s emotions.”
“While you’re doing tango you can only be in the present you really have to focus, concentrate, and it doesn’t allow your thoughts to drive into your mind,” says Rosa Pinniger, who is heading up the research. “If people can have a break from their negative thoughts for three minutes, which is the time of the tango, they can realize that… this is what it is, nothing else. So all their problems and their thoughts, they cannot be, they are not invited in the tango.”
Sounds a lot like zen, and she admits that it is a lot like meditation. Also, it may not be for everyone, since it is a social endeavour and depressed people are not known for going out and socializing. Still, if you’ve ever been to a milonga, it does not matter what you look like - everyone moves, everyone dances with everyone else. It’s a group meditation, I guess.
So the question is: would watching a tango on So You Think You Can Dance or Dancing with the Stars be about as effective as watching someone meditate? See for yourself (and let me know if you feel better after). Alex da Silva choreographs for Mark & Chelsie:
Milia comments: Im 18 turning 19 and I feel so behind in dancing. I do know Im not up to date in movements nor technique. But you will see me again - from today on I will practice, practice, and practice.
I feel that - it warms my heart, actually. At age 18 I started on what I thought was going to be a career in musical theatre, but got a bit sidetracked, and didn’t end up getting my degree in dance until the venerable age of 29. Ten years later, I have taught ballet to three year olds and the rumba to 70 year olds, worked with world-class dancers like Heidi Latsky, presented before World Dance Symposiums, and danced on stage to “Let’s Get Physical” with Foxy Veronica’s Peach Pies at a goth club.
Because in the end it’s not about the movements or the technique, Milia. It’s about your movement, your technique, and your body moving. You want to dance? Dance, then. If you make the movement authentic, it will be good.
Pina Bausch and Tanztheatre Wuppertal
I’m having trouble finding the documented evidence, so this is anecdotal, but when I was at one point doubting my ability to dance when compared with the 18 and 19 year olds I was training with, my mentor Douglas Rosenberg told me about Pina Bausch. Aside from being a fantastic dancer and choreographer herself, he told me that at certain points in her career she’d refused to have any dancers younger than…oh, 35 or 40, I don’t remember which…in her company. They hadn’t lived enough life to put the meaning that she wanted into the movements.
Now, this may be an unfair comparison - many young dancers are exquisitely expressive, and age is no virtue - but it has served as inspiration to me as my movements change with age. The legs do not lift me as high, but the intention behind the leap has more depth now than it did before. And in the end, there is always a new Spring in my step.
One of the most challenging parts of working in ensemble dance is the challenge of getting everyone together. Whether it be the difficulties of rehearsing (such as So Real, who don’t have their own studio and use reflective windows) or Supreme Soul’s trouble just keeping their dance together (Shane Sparks told them to “clean it up”) any time that you end up with that many dancers doing that many intricate moves, you’re going to have some trouble.
The Weakest Link
With this kind of ensemble, there is no room for someone to have a “bad day” or be even slightly off. The problem isn’t necessarily that it looks bad when someone is off - it’s that when they are on, when everyone is together, then it sends chills up your spine as you watch them moving as one entity. That phenomenon is so powerful that when it’s not there it is simply unacceptable.
As we watch the people competing, watch for what J.C. calls “that magic, that je ne sais quoi…”
And of course, you will be watching tonight, right, at 10pm ET on MTV? Here’s a couple of reasons why you should…preview pics from tonight’s show.
As I’m sure you may all suspect, the life of a B5Media entertainment blogger is filled with fast cars, loose women, and free high-class sushi at the finest restaurants in Vegas.
