Superstars of Dance: A Show With Good Intentions That Went Awry

The TV show, Superstars of Dance, hosted by superstar Irish step dancer Michael Flatley and co-produced by So You Think You Can Dance's Nigel Lythgoe and American Idol's Simon Fuller, just wrapped up its first four week-long season with last night's finale.

I think the show had very good intentions - attempting to bring renowned dancers from around the world performing a variety of international styles to television audiences. But somehow those good intentions went awry and the show just fell flat and turned dance from art into spectacle.

The show's biggest problem for me was the competition format. I know they chose it because competition is the name of the game these days on reality TV, but it was particularly inept with so many dance forms so wholly different from one another. Last night's three solo finalists were a classical ballerina, a classical Indian dancer, and a popper. How can you possibly compare those three styles and choose a winner? You might have been able to if you were very up front on what you were judging on - expressiveness, clarity of line, clarity of intention, technique (although that will vary with each dance), ability to dramatize or act (if that is part of that particular dance), athletic ability, flexibility, partnering, strength (with the lifts especially), originality of interpretation, originality of steps, etc. But for the most part, with the exception of South African judge Harold Van Buuren toward the end of the show, the judges were never clear on what they were judging on. And, it seems to me it would be hard to do that if you didn't have an expert from each style guiding the judges. Of course it would also have been nice if those experts could have clued the audience in on what we were seeing as well. The show missed a great educational opportunity.

Another thing that bothered me about the show was the camera work. Oftentimes, the camera would home in on a dancer's face - for example, the classical Indian soloist last night - causing us to miss out on what I assume were her beautiful hand and foot gestures. You don't dance with your face, so I'm not sure why the camera operator did that. And, I don't think I was ever so mad at a TV show as I was last week when, during the South African soloist's Africanized ballet, the camera kept focusing on the aghast faces of people in the audience. I'm only assuming her dance was a combination of African and ballet because of the music - the mellifluous Western classical combined with the rhythmic African drums. Because of the intriguing music, I can imagine her dancing must have been boundary-pushing in its combination of different dance forms -- which is what art is all about - but the studio audience didn't seem to get it, and neither did we, since most of what we saw was their confused expressions. That camera work was unfair to us and to the artist.

Last week and this week, I felt that the show's producers were doing everything they could to boost ratings: namely, having the Argentine soloist last week do nothing but shake her chest and her butt every which way (before commercial breaks, the announcer encouraged audiences to return, promising that what followed would be racy), then, this week having a bikini-clad woman basically walk out on stage playing a flute to Yankee Doodle Dandy before Flatley's step-dancing performance began. What was that about? Was this a boxing match or a dance show?

We did see some brilliant dancing - namely by the Russian ballerina whose lines were beautiful, her dancing perfectly clean, and who performed those astoundingly hard whipping fouette turns with multiple pirouettes thrown in and at one point, I think (the camera was panning around so I can't be sure) changed feet and direction; the South African duo with their original and very difficult lifts requiring an incredible amount of strength, focus and balance; and the Argentine couple who performed those wicked fast hooks and danced with great precision and a passion that just melted you. I hope audiences understood how hard the fouette turns and the lifts were. The judges didn't really have any time to make any remarks last night.

If the show has another season, I hope that it will be less about flaunting nearly naked bodies and creating spectacle and more about exposing hungry audiences to the art of dance.

Comments

[ReneeRothman]

I also felt that the show fell far short of its promise. The producers--who have been very successful with their other programs--neglected to really think about how an international competition might require different formats or criterion for judging. By using the invited judges, they had hoped to avoid a voter prejudice toward Western dance forms. They were naive in thinking that a panel of experts in specific genres would be any better at judging dances outside their area of specialty. Indeed, in the end, the US and Australia placed gold and silver respectively.
I commented more extensively on my own dance blog dancedocsthinktank.blogspot.com
In the meantime, I strongly recommend you take a look at America's Best Dance Crew on Thursday nights.

[ReneeRothman]

As a rank amateur at blogging, I didn't properly post the address to my blog. Let me try again. I hope you will visit. www.dancedocsthinktank.blogspot.com

[dajuice7]

I agree with all the points made in the article. The camera work on this show, and dance shows in general, is atrocious. Producers are too wedded to the MTV style of direction - cuts every half second, etc. In addition to the points made above, I would also suggest that the judges seemed to find it very difficult to give higher scores to hip-hop dancers and contemporary dancers than ballroom dancers and ballerinas. I detected a hint of "elitism" that made the competition unfair and uninteresting. Almost without fail I picked the finishing order of the finalists in each discipline based solely on the style of dance they performed. A set list of judging standards would go a long way in this all-styles-welcome format.

[BuckeyeLou]

I love watching all the various Dance shows on TV and was looking forward to this one.
But, I agree with everyone, the format was terrible, too much time was spent tallying scores, and
with the different styles of Dance, it was like trying to compare Apples to Oranges. Some of the groups and individuals were fantastic to watch(I enjoyed the Sholin Monks), but the overall show was a bore.

[VicksieDo]

I had high hopes for this show, but the format was terrible. I don't think it's viable for another season.

[murphysgirl]

Hopefully next season they will change their format some, and allow the judges more time to explain their scores. Even though I didn't agree with all of the critiques from the South African judge, I did appreciate that he gave explanations for his scores....

[LeftRight]

I don't know, I thought it was one of the better dancing shows. I don't normally watch them, but the wife is big on them, and I can't STAND most of them. This one I actually enjoyed watching. You ARE right about one thing, though: I couldn't STAND the camera work. Just park in front of the stage and film, you don't have to focus on ten million different things that the audience might not want to focus on!

[christonabike]

I never watch competition shows either but the premise seemed interesting, so my husband and I watched and the camera work left him screaming too. Or perhaps it was the editing because how could any director shoot dancers without a full shot of the dancer in space to cut with those goofy moving shots?? The camera work doesn't need to jazz it up for gawd's sake.

I also think the competition aspect was forced and actually worked against the show. For example, when they sent that dazzling Australian dancer home, even the South African judge seemed stunned by what he had done, commenting on it as he announced his score for the following dancer. I also think it limited the variety of dances presented. I loved the Groovaloos but is hip-hop and popping and locking the only dance form from the US? What a missed opportunity.

Despite my complaints I hope they do it again but better.