OK, so the really important summer television is over. The finale of So You Think You Can Dance? is finished and I’ll admit to being a little surprised at the results. I had assumed the winner would be Lacey or Neil, so imagine my surprise. A damn happy surprise, seeing Danny and Sabra as the final two finalists. The finale competitive show (not the final final show) also brought out a whole lot of stuff I’ve been writing about for the past two months. Namely, anxiety about masculinity and the strange place of dance in mass cultural consumption.
For me, the highlight of the final show (if not the season) was Danny’s aside, just as he and Neil were practicing the “macho” routine Mia Michaels had designed, that Nigel “loves masculine dancing.” It was a hilarious and appropriate crack. Danny and Neil are tall, fabulously, strong and acrobatic dancers, yet they’ve been told over and over – sometimes explicitly, sometimes implicitly – that they need to be more manly. I mean, seriously, how many times do we have to hear Neil being reminded his partner is sexy? They’ve been told this because their strength and athleticism have that softness and tenderness one expects from dance, but that isn’t quite digestible as a “proper” masculinity. Dance is a strange field in which to have anxiety about 
sexuality. Let’s be real here. I appreciated all my theorizing coming together in one joke facing the camera. Thanks, Danny!
I wish Danny had won. For all the talk about whether or not he was too reserved, too icy, or whatever, there was always this thing that couldn’t go away: he’s just beautiful in his body. I’ve always been stunned at Adam Shankman’s aggression toward Danny, that moment when Danny was told (critically) that he “dances like he’s already won” and that he was too “arrogant.” Part of the structure of the show is that Danny couldn’t respond, except by dancing with exceptional grace and skill – something that, sadly, only confirmed Adam’s remark to someone like Adam. Until the final show, that is, where Danny made the really revealing remark. Remember? Cat Deeley asked him about Adam’s criticism and Danny said he felt “misunderstood.” I liked that. “Misunderstood” is a really moving word, a word of genuine pain. In fact, at the time I wondered if it would win the competition for Danny, as it showed just how hurtful such words can be and how different “you’re arrogant” sounds than, say, “the more of you that shines through your dance, the more beautiful your dance…so let’s see more.”
Danny got to say his piece. And it said so much. Misunderstood. That is a terrible thing to be, for sure. We all know how that feels and can imagine just how terrible it would be to be misunderstood on such a huge stage. I wish Danny had won. Not just because he was my favorite (by far), but also because I like stories of redemption. I’ll have to settle for that insanely GREAT moment when he spun, then lifted his hands straight out to the side with head back in his final solo. We are the champions, indeed…take a moment to watch this video. The solo is so worth it, as is the interview.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArNbdbdGe1o]
Sabra is a lovely winner, though, so I’m not disappointed in the least. One of the things I like about her victory, especially given how much it is deserved, is that it restores some mysticism to the arts. We have this really powerful rhetoric in the U.S. about “if you work really hard…” That rhetoric is instructive, very true, and even inspirational. It says a lot about how, for example, I went from whatever I used to be to who I am now, a path that has meant a lot of hard work and dedication. (Seriously, a dissertation? A book? All those classes? You have to be insane…)
But the arts shouldn’t be reduced to hard work. There is all of that, without a doubt, for the arts. You have to learn technique and skill and all of that stuff. Practice. Etc. I get that. At the same time, there is the miracle of expression. Plato’s old stories about how the poet is mad, possessed by gods, unable to understand even how he’s come to bring beauty to words – there is something important in all that. The sense that, in the arts, we bear witness to something no one can do except this person here. That there is a specialness in the world unique to this person here, and that we’re all receiving a gift to have it before us. The old word for this is “genius.” I know it is a word that’s been contested, deconstructed, critiqued, and whatever, but I think it still means something.
Sabra is a hint at all of that. I mean, seriously, she’s been dancing for four years? And is able to be that kind of dancer, have that kind of control and grace, and just be beautiful in so many ways. I know that’s she’s worked really, really hard. That goes without saying. But you can’t just say that’s the whole story. Hard work only explains a little bit. There has to be specialness to a person, and I don’t think anyone who watched the show honestly could contest the claim that she’s special, the exception, very unlike the rest of us.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zepYzeuBtyg]
I was also perplexed by the judges’ perplexity at Wade Robson’s “kind of abstract” dance, with the foxes – mother and daughter. Again, as with Mia Michaels’ routine with the goggles, there was so much anxiety about the abstractness of the dance, a lot of groaning about “I REALLY didn’t get that,” and the like. Tiresome. Why so much anxiety? I think the judges are smart enough to get it. I don’t buy their perplexity. I worry that it is yet another version of underestimating viewers, the public. It’s as if they imagine the public unable to watch and consider abstract movement. As if the public wants only straightforward stories.
They couldn’t be more wrong, if you want my guess. I actually think folks want something to discuss, to interpret, to speculate about. That’s what is so important about art. There is real expertise. Some people know more than others. At the same, though, the arts invite all of us in to think together, to interpret and appreciate without the kind of reserve one would have in, say, the natural sciences. I like that about art. I think everyone likes that about art. In terms of just television even, I’m thinking about how Lost was such a smash hit, a show that’s pretty boring if you aren’t into solving puzzles. Why wouldn’t we expect the same from a show about the arts? Well, maybe that’s just it. Maybe the judges worry that dance can only be entertainment, never art, if the show is to survive. I find that a sad and patronizing assessment of all of us.
I liked the foxes theme. It was interesting and unexpected.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I passed over how problematic the critical eye was on this particular dance, especially in terms of gender issues. I’ve talked a lot about masculinity. I think it was the singular obsession of the first two-thirds of the show. Then there was this dance about a mother and daughter, which got so much criticism – is it accidental that an extremely flawed (surely in terms of performance, maybe even in choreography) dance about a father and daughter received only praise? Sure, Mia Michaels was describing a real loss and we can imagine or even feel all sorts of reasons why it stands outside public criticism, at that moment. That said, I’m convinced that a mother-daughter story gets more scrutiny because, well, let’s just be plain: mothers got a whole different standard-thing going on. Just as the show comes to a close, maybe women started to get just a bit of the gender anxiety stuff…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERpUBeI72Rc]
I’ll end as a fan. I’ll miss this show a lot. To my mind, it makes American Idol look over-produced and a bit too much, what with all the marketing and hype. I wouldn’t be surprised to see So You Think…? get more glitzy next year. I hope not. I like it just like this: great dancers, interesting choreography, enough cultural anxiety and flaws to be blog-worthy – you know, my summer companion. My boutique show. This really fun thing that took a lot of words to even begin understanding.
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I am so happy that you and I and many commenters on my blog don’t need judge’s sanction to know that the foxes routine was something special.
I have been and will be watching Danny’s solo countless times. That moment you mentioned may turn out to be the most memorable of many memorable moments on the show.
Thanks for another great piece. We really appreciate your perspective. We’ll be checking in to see what you’re discussing here. Don’t be a stranger.
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Thank you for this wonderful post. Like you, I thought that Danny’s comment directed at Nigel was a wonderfully aimed touche (which I posted on as well). If there’s one thing that has gotten on my nerves about this otherwise wonderful show it is the constant obsessing over sexuality. The more I watch the fox piece the more I love it– it’s actually starting to stand out to me as one of the most beautiful and sensitive pieces in the whole season.
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I also loved how much the finale was purely celebratory. Even the losers looked like winners, and the predominant feeling was pride and pleasure in everyone’s performance. I think it stands just enough outside the market to allow for exultation beyond moneymoneymoney. You can’t sell a cd of any of these guys, and they’ll soon all be back in the world of dance, where most of us won’t get a chance to see them again.
I’ll miss the show a lot because I’ll miss your commentary on it. I hope something else takes its place.
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As usual, right on. I thought of you in that moment where Danny made a crack to the camera about Nigel. It really was perfection.
This has been such fun. Thanks so much for your perspective.
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I’m not sure that I agree completely about the masculine anxiety–though I don’t dispute its existence–simply because I think it’s primarily a structural problem of the show.
I don’t know if you saw season one, but Allan and Melody danced a lyrical (http://youtube.com/watch?v=9M6kpqIO58k) that landed them in the bottom 4. It was such an absurd and awkward dance to watch because of their size disparity, and I think because Allan’s size contributed to his clumsy movements. To some extent, I think it’s this spectre (and poor Jamile picking ballroom a disproportionate amount of the time) that drove the restructuring of the show that led to set partners who would look the least absurd together and to try to pick people who fit a physical type.
It’s sort of the eternal problem of pop culture isn’t it? Pop’s uneasy symbiosis with culture. On one hand, the show needs to be accessible while being “unique”–the same problem the contestants have, not forgetting that this is a popularity contest.
Because of the mish-mash nature of the show (seriously, John, love this idea), the more structured dances like ballroom, which require a strong masculine and a feminine persona, limit their contestants within their narrower bounds (than, say, lyrical).
Actually, I’d love to see two men or two women dancing together–romantically or otherwise–but at this point in time it’s an other–John might label it an anxiety–that really becomes an unfairness to the contestants who are themselves competing in this popularity contest. I mean, look at my poor darling Ricky and his partner Ashlee who were eliminated (http://youtube.com/watch?v=8KouayJIxTE) because he looked so disproportionately small next to her in the Tango with her in high heels. Her head also looked huge next to his. And this was only a minor deviation from the heteronormative. (I’m reminded of the story of Fred Astaire and Ann Miller in Easter Parade where she was forced to wear flats in every scene she danced with Fred because she was too tall, but when she would walk off the dance floor her flats became heels.)
The problem is that any sort of physical or even social type would have to be explained or made a feature of whereas the norm obviously doesn’t. Allan’s size would have had to be accounted for, for it to have not seemed ridiculous (Allan’s an oak, Melody’s a sprite…go!), which is made even more difficult by the necessity of the dancers to be often male-female cogs for each (semi) random new dance they pick from the hat. The other real issue is partners dragging the other down (Cedric) or being propped up (Kameron).
“Solving” the problem of random assignment of disparate-looking partners meant locking them into partnerships that would fail due to incompatibility. Plus, I miss the variety of different partnerships from season 1, especially since this is ultimately and individual, not couple competition. It’s a tricky problem.
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Does anyone find it hard to believe that Sabra has only been dancing for four years?
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Pingback from Top Posts « WordPress.com on August 17, 2007 at 7:01 pm
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I’m such a fan of danny’s..he should havwe won!!! I’m happy for sabra but even she has to know that it’s what the judges were aiming for all season. The better winner lost the show but he COULDN’T be a bigger winner in my book…for me he is perfection
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Maria, thanks for the kind words. I think I forgot to mention, but thanks so much, too, for your comments on a previous point, which caught some slips in choreography around time in a previous Latin dance. That’s the sharp eye I don’t have. Much appreciated.
Emily, I think you’re right about the outside-the-market thing. Dance isn’t the big consumer item and won’t be in the foreseeable future, so that’s the hope for a summer boutique show. It’s also, sadly, a reflection of where the show leads. Alas.
Burbly, I think you’re right on with your thoughts. For sure. I thought the same with Ricky and the heteronormative issues around size and pairing:
I agree with your straightforward conclusion: it’s a tricky problem. Like the problem of dance aesthetics and cultural conceptions of masculinity, there isn’t a way to win, especially given, as you nicely put it, that the norm doesn’t have to be explained. As it stands, I really think it is how the show manifests cultural norms and, inevitably, anxieties. The anxieties come in moments where we’re drawn in by the beauty, yet pushed back out by incompatibility with social norms and rules.
I do remember that first season, and that moment in particular. There was a moment in the second week that reminded me of the first season, though it was in tryouts. My suspicion is that the two are linked, at least a little bit, in the consciousness of the judges. (Apologies for pimping my own posts!)
Thanks for that long comment. Really interesting.
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Oh noes! A homework assignment! Et tu, John, et tu.
I did read your previous post, and the thing is, I always thought Nigel was mostly angry on the chubby lyrical dancer’s behalf, condescending though he was.
I still feel ambivalent about the whole incident. As you say, the dancer’s body “got in the way.” But what does that imply about dance and the physical body? Doesn’t that mean that his body wasn’t integrated in his dance in some way, and is it a cultural anxiety about fatness, or is it a commentary on a dance aesthetic where the dancer tries to be pure lines and movement instead of gross body? I just don’t know.
And what about physical beauty? I’m not sure I can definitively call homophobia on Nigel simply because the dancer embodied so many different “othernesses.”
Nigel, you’ll notice, wasn’t directly angry at the dancer, but at the audience’s response. And I think implicit in their applause was the acknowledgment of the dancer’s fat otherness, and it was that, I think, that Nigel railed against, a prizing of dance that wasn’t integrated with the body (whether it’s because of cultural anxiety or something else). Also, I think Nigel feels a special responsibility to narrate, which can be–ironically–patronizing.
No conclusion here, I’m afraid.
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I think the problem with Danny was that he’s a very complex individual – I mean, his background alone (which he never really spoke about) and being adopted by Travis’ mother, of all people! It’s the stuff of Lifetime TV. That kind of personal hardship might have endeared him to audiences, but he seems to be much too private and guarded to open up to the camera.
I didn’t watch Season 1, so I can’t comment on Blake, but Benji won partially through sheer force of character – his openness made him such a likeable person to support and vote for. Danny’s discomfort with the camera and his reticence in speaking about his public life is understandable and even justified, but it probably partially contributed to the supposed arrogance and coldness of his onscreen persona. When judges told him off for that, I think they were reacting to his persona more than his person.
Unfortunately, a lot of his persona is down to editing alone. You never really got to see Danny’s candid self, the part of him that goofs off and makes him a likeable, relate-able (is that even a word?) character – most of what we saw was an incredibly talented dancer, always professional and always stoic – but also slightly distant and removed. Remember his “yes sir” to Nigel? But in the edit of the clip you linked, you can see Danny joking, Danny walking into an elevator door (HAHA – oh Danny). It was just unfortunate that the editors took this long to show that part of him.
CHANGING TACK IN THE LONGEST COMMENT EVER:
I thought the Robson routine was really interesting. I’m following this show from overseas, so I only saw clips without the judges’ feedback – but I understood the piece anyway. I think you’re right in saying that the judges feel pressurized to “dumb down” the complexity of the routines for the benefit of the audience.This is partially true, because the routines audiences react best to rest on simple concepts – “boy meets girl, relationship ensues” (Lacey/Kameron contemporary routine) or “father dies, girl cries” (Neil/Lacey again). But more complicated dance routines have also been tested and proven successful: the “robot Transformer hip-hop” by Pasha and Lauren and the “hummingbird/flower ballet” by Hok and Jaime. Considering that some fans are even irritated that the routines have been “dumbed down” since Season 1 (again I can’t comment), I think the producers of the show would do well not to underestimate the audience.
So I really don’t see what the big fuss was about! I mean, the judges themselves have always emphasised the importance of having a “backstory” to the dance.
Like you said, I also really wish they had two men dancing together in sync as in a contemporary or lyrical dance, as opposed to dancing against each other (Neil/Danny’s fight-dance) or in a way that’s meant to be goofy and comedic (Benji/Travis’ nerd dance from last season). Nigel’s bitching about dancers not being “masculine” enough might finally stop if they had two male dancers dancing in a way that showcased the combination of power, grace and strength that male dancers have. (This isn’t to say that female dancers don’t possess these traits, but very few of them can perform on the same physical level as male dancers.)
Anyway, THANK YOU for justifying my irrational love for this show. Being able to have meta-SYTYCD has made this show even better.
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g’day.
I just saw what is probably a replay of the 2007 finale. I was wondeing who the special performer in the bowler hat and glasses is. He danced to “Ain’t no other man”.
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very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
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