Weather | Traffic | Surf | Maps | Webcam

 »Next Story»
 Local News
 Currents Health
 The Last Week
 Weekly Sections
Subscribe to the UT

The San Diego Union-Tribune

Mind if we step in: Fox's dance show aims for younger audience


July 19, 2005

Nobody ever went broke tweaking a hit reality TV format to make it a little meaner and a little splashier.

The recently concluded "Dancing With the Stars" on ABC was an undeniably sweet and watchable contest in which nobody was grossed out or injured.

The mere sight of professional dancers moving their bodies in proximity to mere mortals was spellbinding enough. To see dancers attempt to train nondancers - celebrities, no less - and ease them around a floor, was almost too entertaining to be true.

Who knew ballroom dancing could have the appeal of an Olympic sport? Heaven, I'm in heaven.

And perfect posture, whether upside down or backward? My heart beats so that I can hardly speak. I seem to find the happiness I seek, when John O'Hurley's with Charlotte dancing cheek to cheek.


"So You Think You Can Dance"
Fox's version of a summer dance competition; 8 p.m. tomorrow, XETV/Channel 6

Now it is Fox's turn to tinker with the formula, making it more relevant to the Fox audience. The one drawback ABC found in "Dancing With the Stars" was the average median age of 51 was "too old" in advertising terms. Fox's goal is to lower the median age. Less strictly ballroom, more sidewalk krump.

"So You Think You Can Dance," debuting tomorrow with a two-hour premiere, will bring hip-hop, krumping and general attitude into the game. Fox's trot hopes to kick the ABC series in the keister.

Krumping, or clown dancing, sort of an update of break dancing, originated in South Central Los Angeles. It involves elaborate face-painting, and that aspect has moved various cultural anthropologists to draw connections to African tribal war paint. If you thought O'Hurley was the height of dancing cool, you may not be ready to be krumped.

For the Fox show, producers auditioned dancers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles and, as befits a reality game from the producers of "American Idol," they rounded up the best and the worst to give viewers an idea how hard this contest really is.

The fun lies in visually sorting the bodies that feel the music naturally and move to it in some sort of spiritually uplifted way, versus the bodies that move through time and space under the influence of gravity.

No Fox reality competition is complete without the humiliation round in which the geekiest misfires are trotted out for our enjoyment. In "So You Think You Can Dance," the really rhythmless are banished from the floor in the early going.

A winning 50 who make it through the initial round are invited to Hollywood to work with five top choreographers, who will later judge them.

The dance divas:

Alex Da Silva, who specializes in salsa, mambo, tango and swing dancing.

Brian Friedman, who has choreographed Britney Spears, Hilary Duff and Beyoncé.

Dan Karaty, who debuted on Broadway in "Footloose," and who has danced with Spears and choreographed her videos and tours.

Mia Michaels, choreographer for Celine Dion's show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, has worked with Madonna, Ricky Martin and Prince.

Mary Murphy, national dance judge, is technical dance teacher and founder of the Champion Ballroom Academy.

If you liked the tame version on ABC - and nearly 15 million viewers did, making it the most watched show of the summer - you won't want to sidestep the Fox follow-up.

 »Next Story»

© Copyright 2005 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.