Summertime is here and so is our favorite TV show, So You Think You Can Dance! While I look forward to the show every season, I can’t help but to be skeptical of the integrity for this next season. What I am referring to is keeping dance and talent at the for-front for the show opposed to personality and popularity or looks. Last season Nigel told one of the girls she is amazing but doesn’t have enough personality and to come back next season with more of one. Once he said that I immediately became discouraged by the judges and the “want” to watch the show.
According to the title of the show and the audition process, the show is about dancing, not personality. Yes, a great personality helps, but shouldn’t be the deciding factor for a dancer. In all reality, professional dancers aren’t up on stage talking and telling jokes, they dance and then disappear. Celine Dion’s Vegas show set a perfect example of what I mean. Do you think Benji would be on stage talking to the audience after Celine sang “My Heart Will Go On”? Um, no, he would be a back up dancer and just dance, not needing his personality one bit. So if this is the case, why do the dancers/auditioners need to have bubbly, in-your-face, attention grasping personalities? Isn’t their amazing dancing enough for SYTYCD?
I do see the proof is in the pudding when it comes to the dancers who have won the show, they have all been amazing personalities. However, that doesn’t give any right to the judges or producers to use that as a measuring stick. Their job is dance expertise, and should keep it to that and let us make the decision with the incredible dancers they accept. Reality shows already get heat for “fixing” or scripting shows and so forth, so why bring even more scepticism to a show. Viewers want to feel good about watching a show, not feel guilty because the judging has been fixed or is implementing new guidelines out of nowhere and their own personal opinions. Depending on the future judging of the show, I think more and more of the audience is going to be discouraged to watch. The people in charge should put the most amazing and versatile dancers on the show and let the viewers weed them out if they don’t like their personalities. If the judging is going to regularly be looking at their personalities, they may want to consider changing the name of the show to “So You Think You Can Schmooze and Dance.





















