Last Friday night Lifetime Cable television network joined the current dance on TV craze by premiering its own show called, Your Mama Don't Dance. Hosted by former Dancing With the Stars contestant Ian Ziering, it differs from the other shows by pairing young professional dancers, just beginning their careers, with their parents, in competition with other parent / child teams for a grand prize of $100,000 and a week-long stay for the whole family in Aruba. With five father / daughter and five mother / son teams, the show aims to "bring families together." Producer Bob Bain says it will "be a testament to how far parents will go for their children."
Bringing families together through dance is a sweet idea, and one that is foreign mainly only to Americans. But the show may end up having the opposite effect. Contestants are young -- most of them in their early twenties-- and very eager to get dance careers underway. Their parents, it seems so far, have little to no dance training.
As anyone who's tried it knows, partner dancing is incredibly difficult; your partner either frames and supports you (if you're the woman) or is the picture in your frame (if you're the man). You're only as good as your partner. As it looks, the show may end up being more about just how much your parent can hold you back and what effect that may have on the family.
The first week featured only the five female contestants dancing with their fathers. Next week audiences will meet the five male competitors and their mothers. Each week the couples are given a particular dance style. The first week was "contemporary," which was kind of a hodge-podge of modern, lyrical, jazzy ballet without pointe shoes, and jazzy ballroom. The judges are: amazingly, the legendary dancer Ben Vereen; singer, dancer, and actress Vitamin C, best known for her part in the movie Hairspray; and Cris Judd, a dancer who choreographs for musical artists.
Couples, Ziering announced, are to be judged in four categories: technique, artistry, showmanship, and improvement, the latter of which is based on comparing tapes of the pair rehearsing to their final, live performance. The two couples with the lowest judges' scores will be subject to public vote and that with the least votes will leave the following week.
So, the first week's dancers: first on were Noelle Croner, 19, and her father Doug, a teacher. As with all reality competition shows, the background information about the participants provides the human interest story, and is often just as interesting as the dancing, or, at the very least, informs it. As a child, Noelle remembers her father working long hours in order to support the family, leaving her very little time with him. She cried telling the audience the past few weeks together has enabled them to make up for lost time and he grew a bit teary-eyed too.
Given Britney Spears's "Toxic," they danced a kind of slow, jazzy jive. Background footage of Doug trying to learn had him exclaiming, "I love the choreography, but 10 fewer years and 10 fewer pounds and it'd be a lot easier." "He was sweating like a pig," Noelle laughed. They were cute together, though the number, as with all the routines, seemed a slight bit risqué for a father /daughter team. Vereen told them they'd "already won," just by being here and Vitamin C, who is called simply "C," remarked, "what a dad!" Judd and "C" criticized Doug for lacking technique, but for anyone who began learning dance in their fifties, that's going to be a given. As for Noelle, she's a very fun dancer, but I felt like many of her steps were too big, making the dance look a bit awkward. Jive steps are meant to be small - no wider than the space between one's shoulders - and, though this was Latin combined with jazz, and the beat was slow for jive, I still would have preferred her to concentrate more on developing her styling rather than making oversized steps. But the judges don't seem too intent on critiquing the pro dancers; they're focusing on the pair and how well the parent lived up to the challenge. Noelle and Doug hugged at the end and she patted his back saying she was proud.
Next was 19-year-old Brooke Shepherd and her stepfather, Eric. Brooke is currently struggling to make a career for herself in New York, undergoing grueling auditions and Eric is a computer engineer. Like Noelle and Doug, Brooke and Eric were distant growing up, particularly during Brooke's high school years when she embarked on a search for her biological father, later realizing by concentrating so hard on finding him, she'd been "missing out on the person who's been there the whole time." Though she was initially shocked when told Eric would be her partner, she calmed down, saying she knew he'd give 100 percent.
They danced to a slow song from the 70s, "Sarah Smile," which opened with Eric doing very good, sharp, isolated movements in character, as he portrayed an angsty businessman trying to let loose and find his inner romantic. After he threw down his briefcase and ran to Brooke, the two performed a beautiful, and difficult, routine. Brooke is a lovely dancer with nice lines, which she aptly demonstrated in battement kicks, excellent supported jumps in splits and attitude position (where the back leg is bent), as well as a few hard lifts where Eric gave her good height and she supported much of her own body weight. The routine ended with a passionate dip, Brooke in a semi-split. I was surprised that the judges were harsh on Eric, telling him his smile got a bit stiff. But they had a hard routine and he acted it well and had good rhythm. He did well for a non-dancer. They were my personal favorites.
Following them were Heather Phillips, 22, who's danced in Cats and High School Musical, and her father Stephen, a car salesman in Philadelphia. Because Heather's mother owned a dance studio, she was a "mama's girl" growing up but became a good support for her father when he fell into a deep depression. Stephen said he wouldn't be here without Heather. Practice tapes showed Stephen getting frustrated easily, but Heather said she knew he was "giving it his all" and struggled to get him to relax and just have fun. They danced to 80s hit "Tainted Love."
Heather's a cute dancer with good jazzy moves and great contractions. But the choreographer, who noted she was worried about Stephen dancing in front of an audience, gave him very little movement - apart from one fun air-guitar-playing moment, his "dancing" consisted mostly of finger snapping, which I think worked against him, being too easy. He looked very uncomfortable, very self-conscious, but he also looked like he was trying very hard both to do the footwork properly and to shake off his nerves for his daughter's sake. They received the lowest score: 73 out of 100.
The next couple was Celia Merendi, 23, probably the dancer with the most prestigious training - The Royal Ballet School in London, the Joffrey in Chicago, and the American Ballet School -- and her father Silvano, who works for a telephone company in Miami. Theirs is an interesting story. Celia's mother was diagnosed a manic-depressive when Celia was very young, forcing her parents to split. Her father took over, becoming both parents to her, encouraging her love of dance. He "gave me my dance life," she said. Silvano later realized he was gay. At first Celia couldn't talk openly about it, but by the end of high school, had grown to accept him fully. He'd been diagnosed with cancer not long ago, but has been in remission for two years.
Background clips of her dancing ballet on pointe were breathtaking. I only wish we could have seen that onstage. Their routine, to "No One," was a rather odd combination of funk and lyrical that didn't make a lot of sense and came nowhere near showcasing Celia's seemingly enormous talent. The choreography was bogged down by bouncing, almost hip-hop-like motions, which were awkward when combined with the more balletic lyrical movement, decreasing the latter's beautiful effect. She ended in a lovely, lyrical supported arabesque though. Silvano seemed very nervous, which I hadn't expected watching the way they interacted with each other in the background clips. It goes to show what being before an audience and performing under such high stakes can do for nerves. They received the second lowest score.
The final couple to dance was very high-spirited Nicole Niestemski and her father, Michael, an IBM project manager. Nicole, 24, is a former L.A. Clippers "Spirit Girl" and was in the movie Bring It On. Close throughout Nicole's life, they really enjoy each other's company and it shows. Nicole called herself "daddy's little girl." One short-lived problem in their relationship was when Michael, very athletic, had wanted Nicole to pursue a softball career, and was disappointed when she chose dance instead. But he eventually accepted her choice, even making her costumes and taking her to rehearsals, becoming a "dance mom."
They did a jazzy, swing-y routine to "Right Now," complete with a flashy, assisted back somersault in the air and a couple of cute rag doll dips. She was flirty and adorable and he hilarious. They had great fun dancing together, and Michael, though obviously not a skilled dancer, did a lot of hip shaking and booty wiggling, and just really let it all hang out. Only drawback to the choreography was that some of the tricks - like the lifts where she jumped into his arms and he held her in a seated position, and those ragdolls - repeated; the routine could have had a bit more variety. But as far as the basic dancing, couples like this are the most fun to watch at professional/ amateur competitions -- where the amateur far overcomes whatever he may be lacking in technique with boundless enthusiasm, energy and just plain spirit. Judges called this their favorite of the night, and they received the highest score, a 90.7.
At the end, scores were "revealed," which I place in quotes because we had been given the scores after each performance and already knew who had the lowest average. So, the drum roll theatrics at the end were a bit silly.
Though the female dancers in this round were obviously better than their male partners, leading your eye to the lady, it's not hard to focus your attention on the woman anyway. She's the "picture" after all. Next week's competition with the guys and their non-pro mothers will be very interesting.
One other small gripe: according to the show's producers, the dancers didn't know that they'd be dancing with their parents until they'd already been selected to compete. This seemed disingenuous. Tapes were shown of each dancer being told at auditions by Mr. Ziering that they'd made the cut, then being asked to turn around to see the dancer who'd been selected as their partner. Only Brooke seemed genuinely shocked; the others seemed to feign surprise. Nicole even flashed a playful grin before turning around to see her dad. All of them almost immediately ran toward their fathers, embracing and kissing excitedly. Is this the way you'd react if you'd just been told you'd be showcased on an eight-week-long TV show, dancing before millions, competing for money and, more importantly, fame, only to turn around and see your non-dancing parent has been selected as your partner?
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