Aug 06 2008
So You Think You Can Dance - Setting the Bar
Nigel called it right tonight when he said that Joshua Allen has set the standard for untrained dancers on So You Think You Can Dance. If an untrained dancer comes on the show, they will now say “Joshua didn’t get training, and look how brilliant he was.” Not only did Joshua set the bar for future dancers, I think they all did this season.
There have been other untrained dancers on the show in the past, and they always did well, but never did they last until final four. They would always do great in their solos and some dances here and here, but eventually they’d be exposed, as you just can’t be expected to perform well in every single one of these dances, choreographed by some of the best in the business, in all these different styles, with less than a week of practice, until now.
What Joshua did this season, and Twitch as well, is set an all new standard. They were both great in nearly every single dance they did. They were still amazing in their solos, but they didn’t suffer doing the Viennese Waltz or the Fox Trot. They told great stories with their dancing and were great fun to watch. But it’s now expected.
It’s like working at a job that someone really good did before you. Now you’re measured against them. Say you worked on a production line. If it was always expected that producing 75 items a day was top of the line, then a personcomes up and produces 100 items a day and does it without error and without incident, setting a new bar. They were an anomaly to get that many products out. But after them, it then becomes expected to do 100. It’s no longer good to just do 75.
We’re going to be watching these B boys doing the most awesome flips and spins and body contortions, and we’ll be saying, “Yeah, that’s great and all, but when Joshua and Twitch were here, they did stuff like that all the time, plus they pulled off ballroom, Latin, and Broadway like a pro.
All dancers after this season are going to fall to the same fate. The overall talent level this season has been amazing. Instead of just a few dancers that are really good, we had a final 20 that were all really good. They were eliminated not on big major screw-ups, but by not being perfect. If Will Wingfield could be eliminated, it wasn’t because he wasn’t good enough. He was amazing to watch. But he just didn’t have the same excitement level as the other guys. He did it after years of training with Debbie Allen. Joshua and Twitch are doing it with no training.
It has to be enough to scare and excite future dancers. While at some point they’re probably saying, “Gee, I don’t know,” they have to also be saying, “I can’t wait to do that too.” After Thursday night, we’ll have a new champion, but instead of talking for months on how great that person is, we’ll be counting down the months until next summer. If the talent doesn’t come next season the way it did this season, it’s going to be an extreme disappointment. But I for one am willing to take that risk.
Photos Courtesy of fox.com/dance
For more information on So You Think You Can Dance, see SirLinksalot: So You Think You Can Dance.
2 Responses to “So You Think You Can Dance - Setting the Bar”
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I hate the strict gender stereotypes in this show. What took them so long to do a same-sex partners episode? Twitch and Joshua together were probably the most amazing thing this season, and I really hope they continue this sort of thing next season.
F.Y.I. Ever since the very beginning in the very first season, they have always done same sex during the finale. They have always had the remaining two guys do a routine as well as the remaining two girls.