So you think you can dance?

A while back, I was watching this reality tv programme “So you think you can dance?” which took dancers from all over America and whittled them down one by one until there was only one ultimate dancer.

I’m no dancer and I confess to having 2 left feet. So watching these dancers twist and twirl their way on stage was breathtaking, to say the least. They did everything from hip-hop and jazz to foxtrots and waltzes. There was absolutely no genre they didn’t cover and it was the first time I’d heard of a genre called “Lyrical” which is contemporary dance interpreting music, I guess. Whatever “lyrical” was, it was terribly abstract and obscure to me. But the dancers’ moves were amazing and bordering on acrobatical. To my untrained eye, they were all great dancers despite the sometimes disparaging comments from the judges.

The other thing was the costumes. The women’s costumes left practically nothing to the imagination. Not in an erotic sense, but more like ice-skaters. You know when you watch a skater doing her thing in the rink, all you see are her moves and how well executed they are, not her dress… or lack of. At least, that’s what I see Anyway, yes, figure-hugging second skin barely-there dresses, short little shorts to show off those long legs, and little skirts that would flip up at the appropriate moments to show off a move. That was the order of the day.

So, its with great interest that I see that Malaysia now too has their own version of “So You Think You Can Dance?” by 8tv. I’ve been seeing the ads on tv calling for auditions, and today, I saw banners up along the road near Masjid Jamek LRT station as well about these auditions. Probably because the auditions are on today.

I wonder how our dancers would fare. As the show originated in America, they naturally use western traditional ballroom dances as the basis of technique - waltz, foxtrot, salsa, quickstep. These are all traditional western dances rich in technique.

Will our basis for comparison be the zapin and joget? The barathanatyam? Um… in the spirit of muhibbah, what’s a traditional chinese dance? Fan dance? Not lion dance that’s for sure!

Will we see dancers in track bottoms and long sleeved tops in practice?

Will we see the female dancers wrapped up in long cumbersome dresses and tons of pins in their hair while they do the “tarian lilin”?

Will we not see any performances by male-female pairs? They don’t advocate males and females standing thatclose to each other do they? Even if its just to dance?

Who will our judges be?

This would be an interesting show to watch, if only for me to see if my questions above will be answered. I hope they don’t make it as embarrassingly bad as Malaysian Idol was.

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