Post by ericcantona203 on May 18, 2008 20:00:32 GMT 1
Dancers find their moves in new season of reality show
By Jacqueline Cutler - ZAP2IT
Updated: 05/18/08 7:28 AM
“So You Think You Can Dance,” starting a new season at 8 p. m. Thursday on Fox.
They feel the rhythm before they hear the lyrics, and their bodies move with the music as naturally as they breathe. Asking them, “So you think you can dance?” is like asking “American Idol” hopefuls if they think they can carry a tune.
The dancers’ unanimous answer is “yes,” as Fox launches the fourth season of “So You Think You Can Dance” on Thursday. Some 15,000 dancers auditioned in seven cities, and a month before the show was scheduled to air, 250 of them were off to Las Vegas where the judges would winnow the group to 20, says Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer and judge.
“More people think they can sing,” than dance, says Lythgoe, also an executive producer of “Idol.” “If you are tone-deaf, you don’t know you are tone-deaf, which is a good thing. You can sing in the shower; you can’t really dance in the shower. A lot of people know they can’t dance. It is amazing how many people think they can sing.”
During auditions, the judges see people ranging from those who perhaps once did the macarena successfully to those who could take their place in a Broadway chorus line tomorrow. Some have spent thousands of hours in dance studios, stretching, learning and perfecting technique.
That, however, can work against you, says Mia Michaels, a choreographer and judge on the show.
“Sometimes training gets in the way, if you are so well trained you don’t have your own voice,” she says. “Nigel will look over and say, ‘Remember, we are casting a television show.’ And he keeps reminding me: No matter how brilliant they are, if they are a dud, America is not going to connect to them. Are they interesting looking, or are they horrifying?”
While some may have a hard time rejecting all but 20 of the 250 dancers, Michaels was primed.
“I knock everyone out, and I love it because I am so picky,” Michaels says the day before leaving for Vegas. “It’s a yes or a no. Two yeses and you are in. I was always no. I must have said yes to maybe 25 people out of 100.”
Michaels, who has always danced — her father had a studio in Miami — knows precisely what she seeks in dancers.
“I love uniqueness,” she says. “I like to see that somebody has their own vocabulary and their own voice as an artist. Dance, to me and growing up in it, it can be pretty cheesy and pretty corny if it’s not done in a way that you cannot see the person behind the movement. It becomes very [much like] cheer-leading or old Broadway.”
While Michaels and Lythgoe (who began as a dancer then segued into choreography the first chance he had) look at dancers as almost abstract works of art, host Cat Deeley is very much in the contestants’ corner. She unabashedly adores this gig and apparently is not putting on an act; she is having that much fun on the show.
“I have to start hiding it,” she says. “Otherwise they are going to say, ‘You are having such a nice time, we are not going to pay you for this.’ Otherwise, I have to make it look like coal mining.”
Deeley, who says she dances “badly, but with enthusiasm, which is how I do most things,” has years of experience in live television in her native England. Unlike some hosts who meet contestants when the audience first sees them, Deeley makes it her business to get to know the dancers.
“I said to Nigel, ‘I love the show, but I really, really like to be part of the audition process,’ ” Deeley says. “If the kids are standing out in the cold at 5 in the morning and it’s raining, so am I. From the start, I am an integral part of their journey.”
Deeley did not want the dancers to get as far as the Hollywood studio then say, “Who is this English bird?” she says. “I wanted to develop a very natural, organic relationship with them. I am their biggest cheerleader.”
The favorite dancer wins $250,000, but there is no contract as there is with “Idol” because it’s not as if the reality show can provide a venue for the dancer, Lythgoe says.
One need not have a wardrobe of leotards and the ability to sit in a split to enjoy this show.
“You can not be into dance at all, and the reason those people watch is because they identify with the human element of the show,” Deeley says. “The successes and failures — anybody who is a human being can relate to that. You don’t have to be a dancer at all. The dancing, which is incredible and they are so talented, it’s the narrative. With ‘Idol,’ it’s singing. But in actual fact, that could be replaced with anything else.”
By Jacqueline Cutler - ZAP2IT
Updated: 05/18/08 7:28 AM
“So You Think You Can Dance,” starting a new season at 8 p. m. Thursday on Fox.
They feel the rhythm before they hear the lyrics, and their bodies move with the music as naturally as they breathe. Asking them, “So you think you can dance?” is like asking “American Idol” hopefuls if they think they can carry a tune.
The dancers’ unanimous answer is “yes,” as Fox launches the fourth season of “So You Think You Can Dance” on Thursday. Some 15,000 dancers auditioned in seven cities, and a month before the show was scheduled to air, 250 of them were off to Las Vegas where the judges would winnow the group to 20, says Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer and judge.
“More people think they can sing,” than dance, says Lythgoe, also an executive producer of “Idol.” “If you are tone-deaf, you don’t know you are tone-deaf, which is a good thing. You can sing in the shower; you can’t really dance in the shower. A lot of people know they can’t dance. It is amazing how many people think they can sing.”
During auditions, the judges see people ranging from those who perhaps once did the macarena successfully to those who could take their place in a Broadway chorus line tomorrow. Some have spent thousands of hours in dance studios, stretching, learning and perfecting technique.
That, however, can work against you, says Mia Michaels, a choreographer and judge on the show.
“Sometimes training gets in the way, if you are so well trained you don’t have your own voice,” she says. “Nigel will look over and say, ‘Remember, we are casting a television show.’ And he keeps reminding me: No matter how brilliant they are, if they are a dud, America is not going to connect to them. Are they interesting looking, or are they horrifying?”
While some may have a hard time rejecting all but 20 of the 250 dancers, Michaels was primed.
“I knock everyone out, and I love it because I am so picky,” Michaels says the day before leaving for Vegas. “It’s a yes or a no. Two yeses and you are in. I was always no. I must have said yes to maybe 25 people out of 100.”
Michaels, who has always danced — her father had a studio in Miami — knows precisely what she seeks in dancers.
“I love uniqueness,” she says. “I like to see that somebody has their own vocabulary and their own voice as an artist. Dance, to me and growing up in it, it can be pretty cheesy and pretty corny if it’s not done in a way that you cannot see the person behind the movement. It becomes very [much like] cheer-leading or old Broadway.”
While Michaels and Lythgoe (who began as a dancer then segued into choreography the first chance he had) look at dancers as almost abstract works of art, host Cat Deeley is very much in the contestants’ corner. She unabashedly adores this gig and apparently is not putting on an act; she is having that much fun on the show.
“I have to start hiding it,” she says. “Otherwise they are going to say, ‘You are having such a nice time, we are not going to pay you for this.’ Otherwise, I have to make it look like coal mining.”
Deeley, who says she dances “badly, but with enthusiasm, which is how I do most things,” has years of experience in live television in her native England. Unlike some hosts who meet contestants when the audience first sees them, Deeley makes it her business to get to know the dancers.
“I said to Nigel, ‘I love the show, but I really, really like to be part of the audition process,’ ” Deeley says. “If the kids are standing out in the cold at 5 in the morning and it’s raining, so am I. From the start, I am an integral part of their journey.”
Deeley did not want the dancers to get as far as the Hollywood studio then say, “Who is this English bird?” she says. “I wanted to develop a very natural, organic relationship with them. I am their biggest cheerleader.”
The favorite dancer wins $250,000, but there is no contract as there is with “Idol” because it’s not as if the reality show can provide a venue for the dancer, Lythgoe says.
One need not have a wardrobe of leotards and the ability to sit in a split to enjoy this show.
“You can not be into dance at all, and the reason those people watch is because they identify with the human element of the show,” Deeley says. “The successes and failures — anybody who is a human being can relate to that. You don’t have to be a dancer at all. The dancing, which is incredible and they are so talented, it’s the narrative. With ‘Idol,’ it’s singing. But in actual fact, that could be replaced with anything else.”