Get Your Dancin' Shoes On!

Get your dancin' shoes on, friends, and start warming up, because.....
So You Think You Can Dance premieres Thursday, May 21st!!

This is my favorite summer TV show. There's rarely anything good on TV in the summer or early Fall months. Usually a couple of celebrity cooking/weight loss/makeover/wife swap/TV movie type shows. Boooooooring. SYTYCD (as I shall now refer to it- I am a lazy typer) adds some spice to the summer TV line-up. It's the only show I watch in the summer because I am usually too busy slathering my kids with insect repellent and trying not to eat all the chocolate popsicles in the freezer.

If you aren't familiar with the program, think Dancing with the Stars, only with really good dancers. It follows a format sort of like American Idol...dancers from around the country meet up to audition in several large cities. Most of the dancers are trained, but some just have "street smarts." This is usually the one or two token street dancers, who usually make the cut and then get voted off later when they can't master the intricacies of the choreography. The dancers who make the first audition cuts get to fly to Vegas for the final rounds, where they endure *dramatic* trials and tribulations. They end the Vegas (baby!) auditions with the Top 10 Boys and the Top 10 Girls. In L.A. (where they rehearse in the same studio as Dancing with the Stars, I noticed), each dancer is paired with a partner of the opposite sex. Each week the couples dance a new routine (and sometimes an extra dance, plus a group dance). They are judged by a panel of now-famous choreographers, and viewers vote for their favorite pairs. Eventually only 5 couples are left, and I think after that they switch partners each week.

What I love about this show is that while it has its cheesy elements, it opens up the world of the arts to young viewers who would probably never care to go to a dance performance. SYTYCD is hip, edgy, and fun. It encompasses a wide variety of dance styles; it's not just ballroom, which can get boring after awhile. They showcase lyrical, contemporary, Broadway, hip-hop, latin, ballroom, jazz, disco, and more. They even had some Bollywood last season! The professional choreographers who create pieces for the shows stars do an excellent job of choreographing dances that are innovative, interesting, and sometimes shocking. The episodes can hold my attention, unlike Dancing with the Stars, which can be a bit of a drag after four Viennese waltzes. It's for this reason that SYTYCD is the number one summer TV show in its time slot. Several of the choreographers even won Emmys for their work.

Until the show premieres, I'll post a new video each week to hopefully catch your interest. You don't have to understand the "meaning" behind the movements and music, but hopefully you'll be inspired by the beauty and creativity you see.

Today's video is titled "Calling You," and was choreographed by Mia Michaels. She does some really crazy stuff, but I think she's brilliant. I love how she showcased unrequited love in dance form! (unfortunately the video isn't the same that was on TV, so you miss a lot of the good shots, but get the idea!) Enjoy!