January 27, 2008 at 8:12 pm · Filed under dance, TONY, competition, michel foucault, dance studies, dance culture, thoinot arbeau, dance tv, breakdancing, romeo+juliet, dance/USA
Two titans, two teams, one battle…this is DANCE WAR!
The trailer to ABC’s new gladiator spectacular tells us that “talk is cheap.” So to settle their rivalry “Dancing with the Stars” judges Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba “put their money where there mouth is” and battle two armies of dancers against each other. The casualties of this conflict are not the titans but the unfortunate dancers America decides to vote off each week.
Dance makes for good wars and wars make for good entertainment. As vulgar as all this sounds it is important that we try to develop the thinking around this little cultural treasure. We love a good battle dance. Is it not the battle between the Montagues and Capulets that becomes the centerpiece of Romeo and Juliet. See Kristin’s video on battle training here. Indeed Dance of the Knights, Prokofiev’s score for the battle scene in Act I, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, becomes the sonic theme for the whole ballet.
We have looked at the close relationship between the making a military body and making a dancer before. In our discussions of Foucault’s Discipline and Punish and Arbeau’s dance manual we have seen the science of choreography as a general problem to be employed for developing military maneuvers and dance maneuvers alike.
In politics, business and the culture at large war is arguably the eminent form or discourse. It makes sense then that contemporary dance should investigate this form a bit more deeply. Though the work is valuble I am not talking about making dances about conflict, such as David Dorfman’s Underground or William Forsythe’s Three Atmospheric Studies. Rather I am looking at dances that are themselves conflicts such as the battle format in breakdancing. If we were to look at professional wrestling as a performance practice it too would fall into this category.
Perhaps we should have performances in which two dance companies compete against each other and the audience, voting on their cell phones, determines which gets to keep the box office. I would definitely go see that show. It will be exciting to explore the dance war as a valuble performance outlet to be experimented with.
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September 21, 2007 at 5:28 pm · Filed under SLOAN, dance, iphone, so you think you can dance, dance with me, television, dance tv
A few weeks ago, I was giving my hip a break from the desk chair and decided to plop on the couch and watch a little tv. I checked out our list of DVR’d items on our cable box, and found two dance shows. (periodically Doug will go through and set it to record new things, and he must have set it to record some dance stuff for me. He’s so cute.)
One program (called Dance New York) turned out to be one of those public access-type stations (I think) and was a half hour of one camera set up in the corner of a gymnasium where a bunch of people were taking an African dance class. Over the footage of the class was text telling you about the class, the location, and the number to call to find out more. Actually kind of entertaining, since the only other way of really seeing what an African dance class is like is to bite the bullet and go to one yourself (something I’ve been interested in doing for a while now).
The second program was an actual full-on tv show, and I was pleasantly surprised. Called “Dance With Me” the show is much like the US’s “So You Think You Can Dance”, but with much less flash, and a bit more substance and artistry (imho). It is a Chinese tv show (broadcast by ImaginAsian TV) that showcases the best in amateur (although they really look like pros) dance talent in China, in a number of different dance genres. This is how their website explains it…
“So you think you can dance? But can you compete with the best dancers in China? Watch as the country’s most respected dance schools come together to compete in classic dance, ballet, modern dance, and more!
Dance With Me is becoming somewhat of an institution in spotting budding talent from all over China. The event gathers the nation’s top young amateur dancers and offers them the opportunity to showcase their talents. Looking at them, however, you would hardly think they were amateurs from all walks of life. Their passion and vigor is as strong as that of any professional dancer.
With dazzling rehearsed performances sprinkled with on-the-spot imitations, improvisation routines and audience input, this show is sure to give off some good vibrations!”
There were many aspects of the show that I thought made it far superior (in terms of showcasing pure dance talent, and staying true to each dance form) to SYTYCD. For one thing, the dancers come as they are… prepared to do a piece that they have created and rehearsed (both individuals and whole groups of dancers compete as distinct units, and only within their dance genre). Once they are done performing, the dancer (or a dancer elected out of the group of dancers by the dancers themselves) is given a trivia question, which is based on something that a dancer in their category should know. Then that dancer is given a source of inspiration (babies first steps, for instance), is given a random piece of music (which they hear a short clip of), and then has to improvise to a few minutes of that music. Very hard, but really interesting and definitely a good challenge for the dancers (who are all impeccably trained).
Each dance genre had it’s own large panel of judges, who were all introduced (very quickly), but were mainly there to give a score (like a skating competition). There was an opportunity at the end of each segment for one judge (maybe there was a main judge out of each group), to give a verbal opinion to the dancer, with some suggestions on how it could have been better. But it was somehow different. Perhaps it seemed less forced than on the American show. (Although to be fair, intonation was lost on me, as I do not speak Chinese, and had to read the translated subtitles instead.)
Another difference is the amount of time each dancer or dance group was given. Some of the pieces must have been at least 15 minutes long. There was no trying to condense every impressive step in their repertoire into a few minutes. They had the time to do exactly what they wanted, just as they would if they were giving a performance in a traditional theater (although with the addition of some flashy lights and camera angles of course).
In the end, I don’t know if the format of “Dance With Me” would be able to hold the attention of a US tv audience as well as SYTYCD has, but it’s interesting to see the approach to tv dance competition by different cultures. Perhaps this is the dance-o-mane’s version of SYTYCD? EIther way, they are both on to something.
I really think that dance on tv in general is a good thing, as long as people understand that it is an altogether different beast than the live performances you would see in a theater, a ballroom, etc. With SYTYCD, they are taking a format that the US tv audience is familar and comfortable with - American Idol - and injecting it with an art form that may be a bit less familiar to most people, and that you usually don’t see much of on tv. No, it’s not a pure representation of each dance genre that is shown (I can’t imagine that people tuning in are expecting to see that, it is a Fox television show after all), but it’s an introduction. I get excited about the fact that there could be a little girl or boy out there, who doesn’t see much pro dancing around him or her, but sees this on tv, and it creates that spark. Who knows where that spark will take them, but it is really something.
And if all this attention were also to spark dance companies to come up with new creative ways to put themselves out there and raise awareness, great! But I think they shouldn’t forget why they are doing it, and remember to stay true to their own style, aesthetic, and purpose.
You can find showtimes for Dance With Me here.
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