Why do some people have to go to the choreography round while others get a ticket to Vegas right away?
People who do the choreography round generally fall into one of two categories: (1) untrained "street" dancers who are really good at their own thing but who may not be able to handle actual choreography taught to them by someone else, and (2) ballroom dancers. Why ballroom dancers fall into this category, I’m not sure, except that for some reason even very highly trained ballroom people seem often not to be able to handle hip hop or contemporary (the latter of which is another word for what I grew up knowing as “modern dance”). People who do lyrical/jazz/contemporary dance well have usually gotten the kind of training that gives the judges the confidence that they can handle choreography, so those people usually go right to Vegas.
If the judges are worried that someone may only be able to dance in one style, then how did Philly Tap Guy get to skip the choreography?
I was a little surprised about Philly Tap Guy, except that the judges seemed to take him at his word that he’d been trained in all these other areas. And I also suspect that they really want him on the show – the good looking blue collar guy from Philadelphia who happens to be an amazing tap dancer* is NOT something they see a lot on this show.
(Incidentally, it's not uncommon for the judges to be previously familiar with the work of some of the auditioners. Not just people who auditioned in prior seasons, like red-haired Natalie and the guy who got beaten out by Gev last season, but dancers who are already making a name for themselves in the dance world. Which, I gather, is a small world.)
* addendum from a friend of Marsha's who knows from tap, when asked what made Philly Tap Guy so good: "Most of the 'ooh/aaahh' steps were actually pretty easy, just fast -- but the definition in his sound was great. And he ended the routine with a bunch of single wings (which are advanced on their own), but then he did this brush-toe thing that was pretty awe-inspiring and he capped it off with some 'over-the-tops,' which were really smart to choreograph where he did." (Just in case you were wondering.)
When do they start explaining why I should or should not like what I'm seeing?
There are dribs and drabs of it mixed into the audition rounds (for example, when Sonya was talking about how one of the dancers had extended her arms starting in the center of her back and they showed a little clip of that moment), but it gets much more extensive once the final twenty are in place and the real competition starts. Even then, though, it will be a mix of comments on technique and comments about the individual types of dance. The classic example here is a dance called the paso doble -- anyone who has been watching this show (or Dancing with the Stars, for that matter) knows that it's a bullfighting dance where the guy is the matador and the woman is the cape, but I for one had never heard of it before SYTYCD explained it to me.
Who is Mary Murphy and what's with the screaming?
Mary Murphy is the show's resident ballroom dancing expert. She seems kind of nuts, and is kind of nuts – the screaming is her shtick, but she knows a lot about ballroom. Every once in a while she stops giggling and delivers an extended explication of some specific ballroom thing, and then we remember why she's there. It used to be that Nigel was the only permanent judge, and the others all rotated through (like Tabitha/Napoleon and Sonya last night), but a couple seasons ago she became a permanent judge with Nigel. Just get used to the screaming – remember that the dancers themselves all know about the screaming and they want the scream. Screams are good. Except that they're loud and tough on the ears. Keep your remote control handy.
Can I assume that anyone who gets some sort of intro where they’ve filmed friends and family and/or gone to their home is headed to Vegas?
At least for this first episode, they really played down the “terrible auditioners” thing in favor of a more up with people approach. Usually there will be clip packages for some terrible and delusional people as well as a few for people who are pretty good but don’t get through. But yes, a clip package often means “yay, we like this person, pay attention.”
What were your thoughts on the same-sex ballroom dancers?
For all matters relating to the depiction of gender roles on reality television programming, I turn the keyboard over to our resident ranter on the subject, Mr. Isaac Spaceman:
I really enjoy SYTYCD, let me make that clear. But they couldn't even wait one episode before prominently featuring the show's biggest problem, its relationship with sexuality. On the one hand, the show prominently features a ton of gay people -- for example, the only choreographers who I'm sure are straight are the male hip-hoppers (and Tabitha) and the rapey one. On the other hand, Nigel Lythgoe's favorite compliment is "masculine," and until last night, I don't think the show ever used the word "gay" (even going so far, at one point, to use "loves dancing" as an overt euphemism for "gay"). And then there was last night's rant. Nigel, a man who found it necessary to give detailed technical criticism concerning extension and movement to a woman missing 57% of her vertebrae, was unable to evaluate the artistry of a couple of guys who fell ass over teakettle because he was so distracted by the fact that two men were dancing together. It was nice, at least, how candid he was: "I think you've just turned off a sizable portion of our audience." But come on. Sonya and Mary's critiques -- which focused on the fact that ballroom depends upon two partners playing different roles, and the failure to maintain a consistent separation between those roles is distracting -- at least made sense. (Although didn't somebody, maybe Twitchington, do a two-matador paso doble that was praised for subverting gender roles?) Nigel's point just seemed to be "ick," which seems like as weird a sentiment in the world of dance as it is in the world of beauty pageants.
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And now, a request: while I am a tenured professor at the American Institute of So You Think You Can Dance, I am far, far from a dance expert. Among the ThingThrowers, I suspect, are people who actually know things about dance. Please email us at throwingthingsblog (a) hotmail.com if you would be willing to help out with explaining the actual technical stuff.
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