So, did anyone watch the first episode of “Step It Up and Dance,” on Bravo? My first thoughts, honestly: it made “Dance War” look like a work of genius. I think this is the worst of all the dance shows I’ve seen. What was that horrid “choreography” in the group competition numbers? Who were those people sitting in the judges’ chairs, telling the one guy to act more like a “man” and the two women (doing hip hop after all) not to be so butch. “I need you two to be careful not to dance like angry men.” Well, I need intelligence and sophistication. This was an insult. And, they almost eliminated the only decent dancer, the Italian guy. Well, the Movin’ Out guy was the second best, and they liked him, surprisingly. I feel like I just have a completely different concept of dance than the show’s producers, to put it mildly…
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Really? I liked it. But I think I was looking at very different things than you were.
Though I generally like Bravo’s “absurd challenge” format – basically the dance equivalent of, “here make a gourmet dinner out of a vending machine!” The judges comments were par for the course for Bravo judges, so I can’t say I payed much attention – none of them were close to as entertaining as Michael Kors and Nina Garcia, anyway.
Mostly, I was so gratified to see how much emphasis they put on improvisation, which I have found seriously missing in other dance shows. I liked how much rehearsal time they showed, and how they avoided the sobbing backstories of, “I dance because my mother died of a rare tropical disease, and her last dying wish was that I win a TV competition show”
I’m currently watching it since I’m on the west coast so I’ll let you know what I think
The only thing I didn’t particularly was when Tovah said Hip hop isn’t my strong point and Mel B said, “you’re black”. I”m sorry but so what if she’s black? Just because I’m white doesn’t mean I’m thin and a uptight wealthy prude. That was a really bad comment on Mel B’s part.
oh and one more thing… I really hope this isn’t going to be all hip hop styles because I want to see less focus on that and more focus on other dances.
Katrina: I doubt it, because that’s not Bravo’s style in these competition shows. They always give each challenge a theme, and since Mel B was judging, they danced to Spice Girls music, and the dance style was “flashy pop backup dancers” 🙂 Next week, it will be something completely different. Though it won’t settle down into more serious challenges until about half way through the season.
Also, I was also shocked by Mel B’s weird “You’re black” comment. She sounded like an idiot.
See, when I read about this show, it sounded like something where they would take (for example) an unknown ballet dancer, teach them hip hop and then make them go audition for hip hop music videos.
This does not sound so good now…
Oh so you guys mean it’s going to be something different each week; like there will be totally different choreographers on next week for a different dance style? Oh, I was expecting each week now to be how well they can dance like a backup dancer in a video. I guess I’ll give it another try. I’ve never watched a Bravo show before.
Oh, I figured since you mentioned Project Runway in your post, that you were familiar with Bravo’s MO. 🙂
Each week is a different “challenge” they range from the insanely absurd (make an evening gown out of stuff from the grocery, we will assign you each an aisle – btw, this resulted in a breathtakingly beautiful dress made of coffee filters) to things that make more sense, like designing a red carpet dress for a celebrity. The early challenges are generally much more ridiculous, to weed out the people who can’t function outside of their comfort zone. Once they whittle the field down, then they start giving them the more “serious” challenges.
Uh-oh! I DVRd this but haven’t had time to watch yet. Yikes.
The competition seems amazing!!! But I didn’t watch it yet
I also like dancing and I am now learning ballet in Hong Kong.
How can I watch the competition?
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I so agree Tonya! Dione called me right after it aired and we both were like “Blah, that was such a bore.” The whole thing just seemed so tepid!
Agree. Insipid. None of the dancers made me sit up and take notice, the choreography was a snoozer, and the comments were dumb. Butch THIS, baby!
omg – cody (the movin’ out guy), his sister is in my med school class. he came and performed at our med school talent show a few years ago, and as he was doing his routine, everyone was like, “is he a med student??” our jaws dropped to the floor, he was really good. glad to see that at least there’s one good dancer on the show.
ugh, i can’t stand the commercials for this show, esp the girl in pointe – her feet aren’t very good. the judging sounds bad too. this show just represents what bugs me most about reality tv dance shows; mediocre dancers, and horrible judging. i can’t believe that one judge made a comment about race.