So You Think You Can Second-Guess the Judges?

Cross-posted at SYTYCD 5 Social.
Well the auditions are over, the Vegas bootcamp has whittled the dancers down from 178 to the Top 20, and next week, So You Think You Can Dance, Season 5, starts showing us the dancing.

These audition rounds serve a purpose: they get us to invest ourselves emotionally in the show, even when those dancers that thrill us have been cut or have had to leave too early. We have been suckered into rooting for people with talent and charisma who then leave in tears or anger, but there are also "stealth contestants" who have suddenly appeared in the top 20 even though we have hardly seen them at all. Mark Kanemura, one of my all-time favorites, was kept up the producers' sleeve until the competition began. Sabra was invisible in the auditions, but went on to win. So I enjoyed the glimpses of the dancer's life, but the hard reality is that most dancers audition and get cut, even the great ones. If you are not what they want for the show, the company, the piece, you will not be cast, no matter how nice you are, or even how talented you are. SYTYCD is a great way for us to fantasize about dance, but it also has a lot of lessons to teach about the dance world: it's harsh; it's not always fair; your body betrays you; your desire may be bigger than your talent; your talent may not be enough without charisma; your life timing may interfere with your opportunities; it's a gypsy life that makes having a family next to impossible; you have to be at once convinced you can do it and humble enough to learn.

In twitterville and bloglandia there is already controversy over the elimination of Natalie, the Meanness! of the MEAN judges! and about poor Alex Wong not getting to be on the show this time even though he is clearly such a brilliant dancer. Oh, and let's not forget about the brothers! Ryan or Evan? so heartbreaking! Why only one?

So what do I think of the top 20? I think we'll see what they're like starting next week. It's too soon to call a favorite or predict who is going to win, especially since we hardly saw half the dancers before last night. But that doesn't stop the fans from working themselves up into a lather over all kinds of things, all of which translate into good TV, good ratings, and lots of publicity for the show. Settle back and make some popcorn.
Here's STEALTH CONTESTANT Ade Obayomi:


I tend to assume that the judges know dance better than I do, that they know what will work on the show better than I do, and that there is a lot of footage that got left on the floor after editing the show. The show is cast with dance talent, but it is also cast for characters, story-line, narrative arc, and maximum fan investment "so we will pick up the phone." If the pure dance fans had there way, there'd be none of this "personality crap" but if the show just gave us performance, the folks who "don't know much about dance but know what they like" would have tuned in to Obama's Day in the White House, part II.

Some reflections after this week's episode from this contrarian cultural critic: Natalie was cut. Big deal. Why is she so special? Because we knew her name and she had a backstory going in. Yes, she was very good, and Sonyah loved her. But how do we know if she was better than all the other dancers we never even got to see? Just because she was Katee's roommate and they staged a drama with the two of them last last year, does that mean she would be a better contestant than any number of other dancers that remained anonymous? I thought that in her performance of Sonyah's dance, she did not bring it the way she had in rehearsal. We didn't see her in the ballroom round or the hip-hop round. We did get to see another charismatic contestant, Gabi Rojas, do an insanely good audition, but then flub two of the choreo tests, and then show us her amazing talent again in a "dance for your life!" moment. And guess what? She got cut, too. Should Natalie have been given another chance to dance on TV? Maybe, but she still would have been cut. Should we have seen which rounds she flubbed? The fact is that we didn't; we got to see some other dancers instead. This was not the Natalie show. But many viewers decided that she was unfairly treated. It's called editing, people. You are being told a story, and you are playing your role perfectly. You are supposed to get riled up at the judges. Go ahead, if that makes you happy.

Same with the Brandon Bryant story. He almost made it last year, so he came in (like Natalie) with a backstory. And his audition was riveting, although I hated the music he chose and thought the sequence of moves he did was designed to showcase his technique rather than convey feelings or a story; to me it was incoherent. Tony Bellisimo is the exact opposite; he was all about the story, entertaining, communicating with the audience and the judges; he made people laugh, and he has enough dance skills to get a shot, although his audition did not showcase them. Technique-wise, Brandon has it all over Tony, but as an entertainer, Tony has it all over Brandon. Let's face it, folks, ef SYTYCD was only a dance talent show, Danny Tidwell would have won. So was Mia being mean and unfair when she said she doesn't like what he brings into the room? I suppose so, but Mia is what she is with no apologies. And apparently the dancers who work with her find her inspiring and generous, not cruel, in her classes and workshops. This is what separates TV land from the real world of dance. Your teacher/coach/choreographer/artistic director is not there to make you feel good, but to push you harder and harder and harder so you can break through your limitations, or hit the wall. Brandon is a brilliant dancer, but she was not talking about his technical abilities; she was talking about a quality that I think she'd call emotional honesty or connection. Is a dancer sitting in his or her head and watching himself? or is he or she completely in the dance? From my own limited experience as a dancer, I know the difference between those two states. My inexperience and lack of talent meant that often I was inhibited, holding back, not confident, and I sabotaged my movement, or communicated my inhibition. When Nigel spoke to Ryan (the older, balder brother) about how he was putting his self-image in the way of his dancing, he was putting his finger on Ryan's own self-doubt. Ryan said he'd talk off his hat now. He will have grown as a dancer because of that. (by the way, Nigel's tweet this morning points out that if Ryan choreographs for the show this season, as a lot of viewers have requested, then he becomes a Fox employee and cannot compete later).
When I social dance, I don't feel the need to perform because I'm focused on connecting with my partner, and as a result my dancing is freer, more grounded, more communicative, and I then also look so much better. Brandon may not be inhibited, but he may be keeping an emotional distance, and Mia is calling him on it. Do you like the way she did it? No. But in the dance world, this quality of emotional commitment may be what separates a technically competent dancer from a dancer who moves you, and the "best" dancers may be the hardest to get to open up. I thought Brandon's Carmina Burana audition music was pompous and distracting. Yes, he is spectacular, but will he open himself up to work with other kinds of emotions, other kinds of movement? or will he resist?

With Alex Wong, oh, my, we had the combination of technical brilliance and absolute hunger. He not only showed us his control and his freedom, he communicated with the judges and with us, immediately and powerfully. But Alex got caught in a dilemma of his own making. We don't have the details, but he is under contract to a company that has its season planned, its performances booked, its publicity materials out, its brochures printed, its season tickets sold: how could he imagine that the enormous investment the company has made in him could be simply thrown away? He's finding his position limiting, he wishes he could be free to go to "dance camp" for this wonderful opportunity, but he is a professional with obligations. He will have to do what so many other dancers have had to do, and come back when he is able to compete. Hok didn't have his visa. Chbeeb had pneumonia. Benji Schwimmer almost didn't make the top 20. Twitch had to come back another year. Alex Wong will have to get out of his contract and come back, and he will be a grand competitor. It's not the show's fault he can't compete this time. He got a hard lesson in the work world. I hope he takes Nigel's advice, gets the most out of his wonderful opportunity with Miami, and then comes back when he is done with his contract.

If season 5 is like all the other seasons, we will be surprised, thrilled, and ride the emotional rollercoaster with our discoveries of these dancers. Let's give them a chance to show us what they can do, without dragging in grudges over who isn't there.
Here's one of the sleeper contestants, Jonathan Platero, who was a finalist with his partner Sophia Luna in the World Salsa Championships in 2007: