Last week I caught the third episode of
So You Think Can Dance 2 and couldn’t believe I missed the first two episodes as well the entire first season.
I had such a blast watching I could have sat and watched episode after episode and can’t wait for this evening’s episode when the dancers move through to the semi-finals in Las Vegas.
In case you haven’t caught it, it’s a reality show made by Idols creator Simon Fuller and it follows the same format as Idols, except it’s about dancing obviously.
The excellent thing about it is that it covers all dance styles, including hip hop, contemporary, ballroom, break dancing and ballet and gives dancers the opportunity of showcasing their speciality skills and also proving themselves across all dance forms.
The prize up for grabs is a very inspiring package of $100 000, a new car and a one-year contract to dance in Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show called “A New Day.”
The past three weeks have featured the prelim rounds across different US cities and last week’s episode covered Chicago. As always happens with such shows there were some people who were brilliant and some who were hysterically, shockingly misguided.
The three judges for the round were Nigel (who’s a Brit and also the producer of the show), Mary Murphy, who’s a chorerographer and Shane who’s a chorerogragher too. Nigel’s as tough as nails and as brutally honest as Simon Cowell, Mary has moments of being nice, irritated and toothy and Shane has moments where he can’t cope with the horror he’s seeing.
He wasn’t a judge on the first season and he’s obviously gotten himself into something he wasn't expecting. He very genuinely lost all ability to speak when one of the chickie’s did a terrible rock n’ roll dance, puked over the side of the stage and then stood waiting for her feedback.
In total there are five chorerographers who all join Nigel as judges at different times throughout the season. There are 115 semi-finalists who’ve been chosen for Vegas and tonight they’re going to learn routines and dance to stay another week.
I’m not sure how many will stay and go tonight but I know that eventually it’ll come down to a final ten who’ll be eliminated one by one with a combo of judge and audience scores.
The presenter of the show is British presenter Cat Deeley and she couldn't be more perfect for it. Her accent’s exactly the same as Ant and Dec’s and she’s fun, gorge, wears super clothes and has an attitude that’s exactly what it should be.
All in all it’s a really top class and super-entertaining show and the only thing that dampened my spirits after seeing it is that not everybody can catch it because of it being on M-Net Series.
Of course it’s not the Series channel’s fault that they’ve got such a cool show and it’s great for people who have DStv but I wish every TV watcher could see it. I just don’t understand why someone like SABC or eTV hasn’t snapped it up.
It would be the perfect opportunity for them get in on the Idols type action and it’s so current and vibey and informative too - like I had no clue what popping is and now I do. It's hopeless wishing it would be on though because time again our free broadcasters make it clear that they don’t want to get in on what's cutting-edge hot.
On one hand I thought the reason could be a money thing but with the overload of reality TV generally I don't see that the show can be too pricey. Whatever the case, it’s defs one they’ve let slip by them big time.
If you are able to catch it and haven’t yet I’d highly recommend you do. If you know someone who's got DStv, get them to tape it for you. In the upcoming weeks I’m looking very forward to seeing the dancers perform styles we never see on TV - things like contemporary.
I actually thought about this when South Africa’s Strictly Come Dancing 2 was on - they showcased all those different dance groups every week but totally ignored the existence of companies like Jazzart and Rhodes University's physical theatre troupe that does such innovative and contemporary stuff.
As for the ballet part, urgh - it’s not may fave I must say. I sometimes enjoy seeing it but generally I find it waay too pointy and rigid.
Strictly Come Dancing 2's on M-Net Series on Thursdays at 19h30.