Dancing With the Stars Needs to Do Something Other than Add Social Dances and a Non-Ballroom Judge to Spice Up the Show

Is it just me or is this the most boring season thus far of Dancing With the Stars? I don't know why either -- Cody Linley and Julianne Hough's jitterbug Monday night was one of the best, most crazy fun dances I've seen ever on the show. And Cody really does epitomize the perfect contestant for this show: he's a gangly teen, enthusiastic if sometimes overly goofy, but he has youth -- a youthful body and a youthful spirit of invincibility -- on his side, not to mention Julianne, who showed her strength as a choreographer this week, really pushing Cody to his limit with some difficult lifts (at one point she jumped into his arms, he immediately dropped her into a rag doll, then ran across the floor still holding her wrapped around his waist and now knocking him on the head) and giving him a great businessman-who-needs-to-let-loose character role.

The show's producers seem to know enthusiasm is waning and are trying to spice things up. This week they tried adding American social dances. Next week, they're temporarily replacing Len Goodman, the judge who seems to have the strongest ballroom background, with guest judge Michael Flatley, an Irish step dancer, and an extraordinary one, but who to my knowledge, has no ballroom background.

It was interesting to see what the contestants and professional dancers could do with a different set of dances (many of the latter struggled, or pretended to anyway, with dances they weren't used to teaching), but these dances -- hustle, salsa, west coast swing, and jitterbug -- are all social; they're either danced only in the United States, in the past (hustle is disco-era and jitterbug fifties), or vary considerably by region (New York-style salsa is different from LA-style, is different from Cuban is different from Puerto Rico, etc.). The wonderful thing about International-style dances is that they are danced at competitions all over the world. You can go to Germany or Japan or Russia, and connect with people whose language you can't speak through your common knowledge of the steps, your common love of the ballroom world, of this unique form of movement and partnership. Ballroom is hugely popular in much of Europe and Asia, and participating in this kind of social sport makes the U.S. all that less insular. So, I hope the social dances were just a one-week aberration.

I'm not completely sure why this season is so lackluster but I think it's partly because there's too little dancing and too much talking. Who wants to see Cody's high school principal tell him to behave and listen to Julianne? Who cares to see contestants' family members giving encouragement? It's nice to know it's there and all, but for the most part it's boring. And most of the time that the contestants spend speaking with Samantha after their performance is wasted; nothing interesting comes out. I frequently find myself rolling my hands at the TV, saying, "c'mon, let's move this along, let's get this show on the road."

Since, unlike So You Think You Can Dance, the amateur contestants, many with full-time-plus day jobs -- can't be expected to do more than one dance per show, perhaps they could showcase more professional dancers - both ballroom and beyond. There are some excellent ballroom dancers who've never been on the show before: Slavik Kryklyvyy and Hanna Karttunen, Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko... And with their similarity to ballroom, ballet and modern dance -- particularly works by choreographers like Twyla Tharp and Jerome Robbins who created ballroom-y ballets -- would appeal to the DWTS crowd. I'm sure audiences would savor seeing some of the current greats (for example, Marcelo Gomes and Misty Copeland - the ballerina of the future) perform Tharp's Sinatra Suite (go here and here to see Baryshnikov do parts of that) or portions of Deuce Coupe or Robbins's Other Dances or Alvin Ailey's jazzy Pas de Duke (go here for a video clip). Or Mimulus, a sweet Brazilian troupe who combine social Latin with modern. Or Keigwin and Company with their uniquely witty humor. There are a ridiculous number of excellent companies and dancers and choreographers this audience would be into; the list is endless. This is a show celebrating dance, after all, not idle chatter.

Comments

[Will3020]

I agree. This season is boring. It seems like the producers are running out of ideas. I agree with their need to replace judges who have experience in various dance styles. What I find quite weird is that some of the music they play isn't cha cha music at all but rock.

[KNadine]

I think it's just that most Americans are so enthralled in the Presidential Election to really care this year. I can't even concentrate on Heroes - and I loved that show.

[fugudaddy]

Nah, its not as boring as other seasons, IMO.
I do agree with one thing though: there is far far far to much filler material and not enough dancing.
God Bless our DVR and the fast-forward so we don't have to listen to Samantha stumbling her way through another interview, or past the now tedious and useless production sections that come before every dance. Makes the show far more interesting and a lot less tedious.

[DWTSLova]

I totally agree that Cody with his boyish looks totally "became" a man on this past week's show. He did an amazing job and really owned up to the choreography and the contest.

I also think that it is a shame that Toni got booted from the show since she was doing such a wonderful job, but I am personally not upset about Cloris not getting eliminated either.

Although many people are at arms about her not being that technical of a dancer, she is still getting the votes of the American people. And that is the bottom line.

[dimelaverdad]

I wasn't a fan before, and this season I just cannot get into it. This entire show idea was taken from Spanish television and there you had normal people learning to dance, and the winner was dancing for a cause or a dream. A new house, the payment of a medical bill for family members.

I cannot get into a show about dancers and celebrities, albeit has-beens in some cases, coming on TV to dance and become even more famous.

I mean....re­ally? Will I be sad if Toni Braxton leaves the show to go back to performing at her show in Las Vegas? NO.

[Tonya Plank - Huffpost Blogger]

Really -- about the Spanish show? I know the idea for the show was also taken from "Strictly Come Dancing" in England. There's also a new British program called "Diet on the Dance Floor," about people dancing to lose weight. The Spanish TV show sounds good though. I like the idea of regular people dancing for a dream.

[CS1373]

I like Cloris Leachman, burt she needs to go if only because she thinks this is her show. And you're right, all that behind the scenes stuff is boring but it does give me some break time to do other things while watching the show. Michael Flatley????!!! Who's dumb idea was that?