Here’s a CNN article that I, along with my Explore Dance editor, Robert Abrams, (among others) were interviewed for on how the dance shows on television have impacted the larger dance world, mainly ballroom.
Tag Archive for 'America’s Best Dance Crew'
Photo from fanpop.
I’m happy for her — she definitely had her moments of brilliance, and I do think overall she did the best, most original solos of the season.
The rest of the So You Think You Can Dance results were: 4th Kayla, 3rd Evan, and 2nd Brandon.
Seeing Janette dance that Doriana Sanchez disco with Brandon made me want to see her again. I do hope we see some of these dancers again, and not just on the show but out in the world. As Jonathan commented on my Pasha & Anya Burn the Floor post, it seems like season three contestants have done well on Broadway, happily. I really liked Janette and Evan, so I hope I will see the latter on Broadway as well, and perhaps the former in a travelling ballroom show?… I will try to find out what’s going on with Sabra and Cedar Lake.
I think the other star of tonight was Louis van Amstel (above image from here), with all of those routines he choreographed throughout the season — the waltz, the samba, the paso — being chosen by the judges for encore perfs. And yeah, they were all really memorable, now that I see them again. Let’s see him do a Broadway / travelling ballroom show in the near future! C’mon Louis.
I really wish they would have had other dancers / dance companies perform tonight rather than have so many encore performances. How about some Alvin Ailey, ABT or San Fran Ballet, and maybe some fun small modern dance companies like Keigwin + Company? And maybe some top ballroom dancers as well, or some more America’s Best Dance Crew winners? I loved seeing Desmond Richardson perform earlier in the season and then, bam, that was it — no more outside dance. I would think audiences would really want the chance to see what else is out there rather than see so many repeat routines, flashbacks to the dancers’ auditions and interviews, and previews of next season, right?
Photo of Evan Kasprzak taken from TV Guide.
Yes!!! I was trying not to get my hopes up but I am really so happy. This will make the finals for me next week. And with his “Lady is a Tramp” solo last night, whoa I take back everything I said about his Wednesday night solo. He really nailed it last night. I think he might have thrown in a couple of back flips at the top that he didn’t do the prior night — just to show America he doesn’t just dance with character and loads of pizzazz but can actually deliver athletically as well. He just danced with everything he had. So happy we have one more week to see him … before he goes on to have a huge Broadway career 
Anyway, funny, I was all set for Kayla (my favorite female since Janette got axed) and Brandon to go last night since they were in the bottom two last week. But instead it was Melissa (who’s hardly been in the bottom two at all), and, sadly, Ade. This show is completely unpredictable this season. I was sad to see Ade go. He was a real original and he really stood out to me Wednesday night. If I had my way, the top four would have been him, Brandon, Evan, and Kayla. But of course they need two girls.
Anyway, nice show last night. Loved that America’s Best Dance Crew’s JabbawockeeZ were on and that they’re showing the Emmy-nominated routines from seasons past. So proud of Dmitry Chaplin for his nomination for that astounding Argentine Tango he did for Chelsie and Joshua last season! Took my breath away all over again. There aren’t a lot of ballroom peeps who get nominated, so big hooray for him. And I loved re-watching Tabitha and Napoleon’s hip hop for Mark and Chelsie and Mia’s contemporary door-slammer for Katie and Twitch.
Okay, onto the finals the outcome of which I have NO predictions…
I’m loving Maria Kochetkova! (She’s the ballerina dancing for Russia). I love how polished and perfect she was — all those turns! And her technique and precision were incredible. But I also love her personality — that she said she wanted to be on the program to show people who may not have seen ballet before what it’s like. I love how fascinated she is with everyone else’s dancing — like how she remarked that it was so wonderful to see so many forms of dance from around the world. Honestly, a lot of ballet dancers turn their noses up at other forms of dance, mainly because, having spent so much time in ballet school, they lack exposure to much else. So, it’s so reassuring to see a young ballerina who is not like that at all. And who’s a brilliant dancer!
Okay, here’s my (late) list of favorites from 2008: (click on highlights to read what I wrote about each dance)
Favorite overall dance of the year:
Revelations by Alvin Ailey. Because the movement language — a unique blend of American Modern with African — is highly evocative, richly varied, and, because it’s set in a specific time and place recognizable to most if not all of us, it’s imbued with meaning and feeling accessible to everyone. And because it speaks to the human condition like no other dance I’ve ever seen. I’m still looking for something to top this and don’t know if I’ll ever find it.
(photo by Paul Kolnick)
Favorite new dances:
1) Nimrod Freed’s PeepDance in Central Park;
I hate to say it but I was bored. Again. Even for the finale.
Did they honestly waste a half an hour of my time by showing repeats of two earlier-in-the-season dances per couple? Please tell me I was just imagining it, that they really did find something more interesting on which to spend the first third of the show.
And didn’t they rip off Dirty Dancing with that footage of Brooke and Derek learning lifts in water?
And Lance & Lacey’s hip hop was fine I guess if you’re judging it from a ballroom-show perspective, but if you’ve seen America’s Best Dance Crew even once you know how hackneyed and unoriginal most of those moves were.
And how many times have I seen Proud Mary used for a jive?
And those kids’ competitions are getting really yawn-inducing too. The dancers are just so much better in America’s Ballroom Challenge.
It was just a night where I found myself thinking over and over again, how unimaginative, how overused, how boring…
The only thing I can really say I liked (and I know some people — Katrina, my mom — are going to kill me) but I really enjoyed watching Lacey in the group Samba. That girl can move. And I like that she’s not an emaciated waif. And I like that she has a strong personality. She’s been out of line a few times (ie: making references to Cloris in a retirement home), but I think she’s realized the words were distasteful as soon as they came out of her mouth. I think it’s more a case of not thinking before you speak and doing it on national TV than really being an unfeeling person.
Anyway, I hope tomorrow night is better.
Finally, for the first time last night, I liked the new Bravo show “Step It Up and Dance.” I felt like it was finally about dance. The camera actually showed me the dancers’ bodies, not just their faces as they made angry or odd expressions or ranted against someone. It’s probably the hip hop — hip hop’s just so visual, there’s so much going on, especially in a showdown / battle like that — the camera can’t just focus in on a face. (I have to admit, by the way, I knew next to nothing about hip hop before “America’s Best Dance Crew.” And now I love it. Hip hop is just so real — they’re real moves, real gestures you see on the streets, they resonate. And yet they’re stylized and clever, and at times played up for comical effect.)
Anyway, I still think this show (Step It Up) panders too much to the gossipy judgmental crowd: “oh I can’t believe he’s so gay,” “I can’t believe Miguel is such a jerk,” “I can’t believe she said that,” “I can’t believe he nominated him for elimination” etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam. You end up just judging people based on their personalities, what they say rather than how they dance, which you can’t see anyway because the camera is too busy homing in on the person’s face while they say something nasty. I know audiences vote partially based on personality on all reality shows, but at least with “Dancing With the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance,” you can see the entire performance. You see the bodies moving in time to music — which is dance. You’re not just getting a personality. Last week I began to like Tovah. I thought she made a really beautiful line at one point, but the camera was on her for all of a half a second before shifting to Nick who was busy making angry faces at Cody for dominating; I couldn’t really see Tovah in full and it annoyed me so much. I thought, this show isn’t even pretending to be about dance.
But as I said I felt that changed this week with the hip hop competition. I liked Tovah even more because I know her background is in ballet and she feels really out of her element with hip hop, and yet she really belted it out last night. To me she looked just as good as Janelle. I’m also impressed with Cody, for the same reason. He also had some really unique moves, combining some balletic movement — leaps and fouettes — with the posturing, the attitude, the awesome floor acrobatics of hip hop.
So Natalia was right in telling me I should give the show another chance!
Also, if you live in New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, it looks like you can take a class at select Crunch gyms that will focus on the dance moves on the show that week. That’s kinda cool!
Tonight is the finale of Lifetime’s “Your Mama Don’t Dance.” I’ve missed a few episodes but am going to try to tune in.
EEEEE! The underdogs make it to the top. I am very very happy. They do have to spice it up though choreography-wise for next week. Their stunts / acrobatics / crazy funny shapes are always amazing, but they need to be a little more creative with the overall choreo / theme. I have no doubt they will be up to the task though 
I can’t believe JabbaWockeeZ is in the dance-off this week. First time for them. My prediction is that they will be dancing next week with SQ.
Okay, now that I just saw their performance, I am positive they will be in the finals next week. Query though: how DOES someone do those headspins that the guy did at the end? I am always amazed by those. I just don’t get how people do them! You couldn’t do that many pirouettes in a row on your toe, so how does one spin on the crown of one’s head like that? I love that he also pulled his elbows to his knees repeatedly to make a different kind of shape. That was new with the headspins (at least to me). Wow.
KabaModern had a cute routine, and I liked the ripping off of the girls’ sweats and the ‘groupies infatuated with the rock star’ thing (and I love JC claiming he remembers what that felt like), but I still think JabbaWockeeZ is just on a different level.
I knew it!
KabaModern seems completely okay with it though. “We just want to inspire. Others have inspired us and we just want to do the same.” Aw…
I wondered what they were going to do for the rest of the show. More dancing from the two finalists of course. Well, overall, I preferred SQ’s Jack-in-the-Box to JabbaWockeeZ’s The Red Pill. I love the big guy carrying what — three, four others, on his shoulders all at once. And the clown’s falling-down pants. The whole thing was a lot of fun from the choreo to the theme to the tricks and flamboyant costumes. Very over the top. The like to wow you; they have a great sense of humor. Of course I still love the spinner guy in JabbaWockeeZ, and I love their subtlety. I love the simulated musical instrument-playing, and the isolations. How starkly different these two groups are, right.
One thing they have in common though is how well they work together. Shane Sparks said JabbaWockeeZ was like a family, but so is Status Quo. You have to work well together both to do perfectly in sync isolations and multi-person lifts. So, I guess if there’s a “lesson” here, it’s togetherness and team spirit.
I was so worried tonight was going to be the last for my favorite group on America’s Best Dance Crew. But no! And how excellent were they? I would have never thought a hip hop Hairspray could ever be done, but they were perfect — and how hilariously sublime was Jamal’s hair?! I really loved JabbaWockeeZ too. Both of these groups have such a sense of humor, a fundamental part of this dance, yet they’re so different from each other. Incomparable. I’ll be happy if either wins the whole thing… For now, I’m just very very glad I get Status Quo for another week! Okay, off to bed to get up ridiculously early for a trial tomorrow, but just wanted to say woo hoo!!!
Taking off from its popular show “America’s Best Dance Crew,” MTV, along with Metacafe, is launching a “Virtual Dance Off.” According to the press release, the contest “will allow fans to create their own user-generated dance moves. Users can choreograph their moves, try out new dances and use machinima tools to film and edit their video, before uploading them to Metacafe. The top 20 videos will be featured on a “Virtual Dance Off” micro site, and in MTV’s Virtual Worlds. The community will vote and choose the Grand Prize winner on March 31, 2008.” I haven’t participated in vtmv before. Has anyone else? It sounds cool! Go here to check it out.
Speaking of “America’s Best Dance Crew“: how happy was I that Status Quo was finally NOT in the bottom three!!! Yes! I loved all that flipping they did last night. I’m always afraid someone’s going to get hurt, but they just always make me smile, and I need that after a full week of this trial. Not to wax too cheesy about these boys from the ‘hood I find so endearing, but this disturbing trial (not to mention having spent many years as a public defender) makes me think what dance can do for people — taking them out of their circumstances, giving them opportunities, allowing them to take out aggression in a positive way… Dance is important!
Anyway, I was rather shocked that the judges knocked off Living Color last night. That was pretty risky of them since audiences have voted Fysh ‘N Chicks in the bottom two for, what, three weeks, and this was Living Color’s first time being forced into the dance-off. I was sad; I really liked them — they were a fast, fun, supercharged group and I really thought they’d be in the finals. I was annoyed by Shane Sparks’s, “that’s a female, y’all” remark regarding Fysh ‘N Chicks. Has the man ever seen a gymnastics competition? For the record, yes, Shane, women can climb fences and do flips too.
Finally, a reminder that tonight is Lifetime’s new show, “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” hosted by former “Dancing With the Stars” contestant Ian Ziering. It’s on at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Woo hoo — I love this group! Did you guys watch it? (MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” of course!) They were given as their song the extremely popular YouTube hit, Soulja Boy, which began an internet dance craze, but their particular challenge was to do some of the steps upside down, which they nailed (or murdered, as Shane Sparks would say) with those insane handstands and upside-down lifts. And did you see the guy with the injured ankle doing those continuous flips over the guy they basically made into a human jump rope? And that ending crazy jump flip thing where he ended up in the crowd pretending to be all pissed, like he didn’t mean it? This group reminds me of those kids you see in the Times Square subway, or more often, at the Central Park fountain wowing the crowd. They’re so real and their dancing has such a story to it with thrilling but humorous theatrics and such a street feel and I just love them. Maybe also because they hail from Kirven’s hometown Anyway, can America please stop putting them in the bottom??? I’m sick of this shit! They rock dammit! Stoppit!
Anyway, sorry I’m so late with my Ballroom Challenge post! This week has been insanely busy and I have tons to blog about — Movmnt magazine blogger party Monday night (which Taylor and Evan have already excellently covered), continuing legal ed seminar Tuesday (which, don’t worry, I won’t be blogging about, though it was one of the more interesting CLEs being on sex offense legislation), book party for a friend last night (which Ariel has already excellently covered, but I will blog about as well! — along with Movmnt party), and tonight an Op Ed writing seminar, for which I chose to try my hand at a gun control piece, and consequently have lovely homicide stats coming out of my nose… Anyway, I promise to write about ABC tomorrow!!! Thanks for all the comments on the last post, you guys
My write-up on the second week of MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” is now up on the Huffington Post!
In case you didn’t hear yet, on next week’s “Dance War,” the new season of “Dancing With the Stars” contestants will officially be announced. Also, next week will be that show’s finale?! It seemed to go so fast; I was kind of shocked when they announced that last night.
Anyway, this week was “Latin Week,” which I felt pretty eh about — nothing new for me with this show. At least dance-wise I felt eh. Tango hooks in the opening number were sloppy — Kelsey had to re-adjust her position with her partner to get her foot wrapped around his leg. If she was as close to him as she should have been that wouldn’t have happened. But who am I to criticize someone for not maintaining the proper Argentine Tango frame — I was NEVER able to feel comfortable that close to the guy — at least not random guys in class I didn’t know…
And is Bruno the king of hysteria-drenched, goofy similes or what? “I’ve taken more punches than Rocky!!!” he wailed with wild gesticulations, over losing twice in a row. I hate to admit it, but at some points, his nuttiness actually kind of grows on me… I’m glad he finally praised Carrie Ann’s team. He needed to do that to show he was a sport. It just really bothers me how he practically equates dance with sex. Those guys’ open-shirts in his second number — oh please! Same thing with the way he had Kelsey last week vamping it up Jessica Simpson-like in “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.” Dance can be sexy, but when it’s so overt like that it just becomes silly and crass.
I did feel like the singing was a bit better this time — particulary from Zack on the Bruno team and Chris on the Carrie Ann team. When Chris “sang for his life” I have to say I was actually quite blown away. He’s had so many microphone malfunctions, I don’t think I’ve really heard him sing, but he has a pretty nice voice.
I think what annoys me most about this show is its general air of unreality. It was sweet when Phillip’s mom showed up to watch her son, but do the show’s producers really expect us to believe she couldn’t afford to travel from Virginina to California but lo and behold thanks to her church she was finally able to see her son fulfill his dream? Thanks to the show’s producers is more like it, if the whole thing wasn’t phony to begin with. And it was nice that team Bruno did some outreach at the Community Center for people with Downs Syndrome, but if they really were invited because Zack’s brother has Downs, it would’ve been nice if they showed some footage of the two of them together. And even team Bruno’s ultimately winning this time around … if they didn’t win would anyone really tune in next week; what fun is a shoe-in finale? And when Carrie Ann started crying when she lost — and the tears were really there; her face was all wet– I wondered which acting method she studied. There was so much fakery, when that Orville Redenbocher commercial came on — the one about the guy and his wife whose marriage was in serious trouble because she liked natural snacks and he didn’t, and he collapsed on the kitchen floor and started throwing food about madly — did you guys see it? I seriously thought it was a trailer for a new reality show.
Which brings me to MTV’s new show, “America’s Best Dance Crew.” I wrote about it for Huffington and will link as soon as it’s posted, but for now I just want to say, I really kinda like it. It has more authenticity: the competitors seem like real people; they’re kids you like and want to root for, and the judges take them seriously, and seem more interested in imparting constructive criticism than hogging the spotlight and playing “characters” themselves. It’s pretty good. MTV Thursday nights at 10 p.m.
Finally, don’t forget to watch PBS tomorrow night, Wednesday, for “America’s Ballroom Challenge.” It’s Standard, where lovely ladies in beautiful, flowing, bejeweled ballgowns are swept around the floor by their dapper tux ‘n tailed gents. I initially fell in love with ballroom through this dance style, although I’m afraid it looks very different on TV than live and some of the magic is taken away. Anyway, I will be very excited to see US National champ and second in the world, Katusha Demidova, with her new partner, Arunas Bizokas. Also, in the exhibitions, watch for the pro/am couple Max Kozhevnikov and his student Yuk Chun (for people who follow ballroom, Max is the former partner of popular Latin dancer, Yulia Zagorouychenko), and in the junior division Austin Joson and Elizabeth Lakovitsky. These kids train at my old studio and I’ve written about them previously here and here. Austin in particular is a little cutie, and he ROCKS! Okay PBS at 8 pm EST!
Yipee, my Huffington Post blog is up! My first piece is a general rumination on the current dance craze on TV — kind of similar to my Explore Dance article, but more personal, from my own experiences as a ballroom dancer and balletomane, and more focused on the popularity in general than critiquing the individual shows. I’ll post there, soon hopefully, about the new dance show on MTV, “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Photo, meh, but at least no moustache, right
(photo by Paul Kolnick)
So last night was the premiere of the newest ballet by Christopher Wheeldon at New York City Ballet, the last he’ll choreograph for the company in his role as resident choreographer. Named ROCOCO VARIATIONS, because it was choreographed to Tchiakovsky’s music of the same name, it was relatively short and minimal, involving a total of four dancers — two male / female couples. Overall, my first impressions are that it was sweet and pretty, but nothing that really blew me away. The curtain opened to a bare stage, no sets. First one couple emerged, then another, the two women dressed in really lovely bronze-colored strapless dresses, the flowing skirts A-level and knee-length. They resembled a cross between ballgowns and a long tulle ballet tutu, and at first I thought it was going to be reminiscent of a Balanchine ballroom ballet, but I was wrong; it was pretty much straight ballet pas de deux. The men wore brown tights and white billowing tops covered by 19th Century-esque beige vests. The music was absolutely beautiful, it goes without saying, and Wheeldon’s very musical; the steps “looked like” the music.
I appreciated a few moments of original partnering and movement: at one point, when all four are onstage, the women stand next to each other and extend their arms toward each other, and the men walk around them and underneath their arms, on the way through grabbing each other and doing a short, jaunty little male -on- male dance. Cute! There was also a nice, evocative shape made by one couple — Sterling Hyltin and Giovanni Villalobos — when Giovanni lunged deeply toward her and she leaned toward him on one toe, her back leg in an arabesque. Where normally the ballerina would keep her head up to maintain her balance and smile brightly at her partner’s face, here she covered his hands with hers and let her head fall all the way underneath their locked hands. It looked like she was really deferring to him, really trusting him, and it was original. Near the end, Adrian Danchig-Waring, the other man, bent down, and his ballerina Sara Mearns, lay on his back, her body straight, almost like a log, and he carried her off that way, bent-backed, as if now bearing a weight.
I was really mesmerized by Mearns and Danchig-Waring. Adrian’s arms were so fluid, they were like water. And both were very expressive with their upper bodies; they had beautiful port de bras (arm movements) culminating with intricate, delicate shaping of the wrists.
I’ll see the ballet again, but, on first sighting, I found the choreography pretty and lyrical, with points of originality, but nothing tremendously profound. My thoughts are that Wheeldon is petering out a bit, wanting to focus now on his own company, Morphoses.
The rest of the evening consisted of Balanchine’s sweetly Romantic “Divertimento from ‘Le Baiser de la Fee’” — which translates to “The Fairy’s Kiss” and is based on a Hans Christian Anderson tale; Peter Martins’s short tribute to China, “The Chairman Dances,” likely in honor of the Chinese New Year (Happy Chinese New Year everyone!); and Balanchine’s fun, raucous “Stars and Stripes,” a patriotic tribute to his adopted country, choreographed in honor of NYC mayor, Fiorella LaGuardia, to iconic Philip Sousa marching music.
I then came home and watched Randy Jackson’s “America’s Best Dance Crew,” on MTV, which I’d taped. I thought it was a lot of fun — very different from the other dance TV shows. For people who didn’t see it, it’s all dancing — no singing, unlike “Dance War” and the groups have been working together for some time, so they’re familiar with each other and know what they’re doing. It appears that the judges give the groups a different song to choreograph to and they have to come up with something original in a short period of time. The crews with the two lowest scores have a dance-off in the end. But the dancing is really only hip hop with some breaking thrown in, so there isn’t a variety of styles, unlike SYTYCD. My favorite crew overall thus far is “Live in Color,” though I’m not in love with the name — too much like “Living Colour,” whose lead singer the lead dancer actually kind of resembles, with the mohawk (though the dancer’s hair is shorter than the singer’s was). I loved how that guy threw in those fouettes at the end (which one of the judges called “art spins” ) Anyway, I’m expecting to write more about the show on my Huffington Post blog column, when it’s up (I’m thinking it got a bit delayed by Super Tuesday). If it’s not up soon, I’ll write more about the shows here.
Just a reminder, tonight Randy Jackson’s new reality TV dance show, “America’s Best Dance Crew,” premieres on MTV, 10 p.m. ET (although it looks like it’ll be rebroadcast a bunch of times). Mario Lopez from “Dancing With the Stars” co-hosts and Shane Sparks from “So You Think You Can Dance” is one of the three judges. In this show, whose orientation is mainly toward hip hop, the competition is among several dance teams. But these teams are already formed and have been working together for some time, so it’s not another “Dance War.” For more info go here.
Tonight’s also the premiere of — don’t laugh, I’m honestly kinda excited to see it — “Lipstick Jungle,” starring Brooke Shields and based on Candace Bushnell’s book of the same name. That’s on NBC also at 10 p.m. ET.
And finally, if you’re in New York, tonight is the premiere of the last ballet Christopher Wheeldon will choreograph for the New York City Ballet in his job as resident choreographer of that company. After this season he will leave his post (possibly to be replaced by the Bolshoi’s Alexei Ratmansky), to concentrate on his own company, Morphoses. That’s at the State Theater at 8 p.m.
Happy night!
Oh, and also, speaking of ballet, look at these gorgeous pictures by Patricio Melo of Ballet de Santiago’s “Swan Lake”! Wow!
