{"id":1852,"date":"2010-08-07T14:33:10","date_gmt":"2010-08-07T21:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2010\/08\/so_you_think_you_can_judge\/"},"modified":"2010-08-07T14:33:10","modified_gmt":"2010-08-07T21:33:10","slug":"so_you_think_you_can_judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2010\/08\/so_you_think_you_can_judge.html","title":{"rendered":"So You Think You Can Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

I watch So You Think You Can Dance<\/i><\/a> for the dancers and a few of
\nits choreographers, including Travis Wall, Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo
\n(Nappy Taps), Shane Sparks, Mandy Moore, Sonya<\/em> Tayeh and Tyce
\nDiOrio for his contemporary, not Broadway. His Broadway is dead move on
\ndead move. Week after week, however, dancers push past whatever
\ngrindingly obvious theme the choreographers hand them to create a
\ngenuine moment or two. However bad the choreography, dancers manage to
\nredeem it. When the right choreographer meets the right dancer, which
\nhappens at least once an episode, the result is thrilling.<\/p>\n

Dance
\ncritics tend to dislike the show, for good reason. (Watch Travis Wall’s
\nfake audition in which he crams every slam-bam cliche for which the show
\nis know into a 3-minute, cross-dressing routine<\/a> that manages while extremely corny, to be great. Choreographer dim, dancer killer.)<\/p>\n

But the real problem is the judges. <\/p>\n

With
\nher vehement and irrational distaste for first Brandon Bryant and this
\nseason’s Adechike Torbert, Mia Michaels appears to be unable to bear the sight of heavily muscled black men. (Slender black men are, in her book, OK.) Two geysers of crazy aren’t enough evidence of conscious racism, but
\nunconscious? Hell yes, especially because Michaels comes from the
\nunedited id school of criticism. Whatever she’s feeling, she says. In
\nthe end, unconscious is more insidious. When sleep walkers commit a
\ncrime, they wake up indignant at the charge. <\/p>\n

In the dance context, however, nothing out of Michaels’ mouth comes close to the stupidity of Nigel<\/em> Lythgoe’s comment last week. Addressing a dancer, he said:<\/p>\n

You are not the artist at the end of the day. The choreographer is. You are the artist’s brush if you like….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Following
\nthat reasoning, actors aren’t artists either. Nor are singers, unless
\nthey wrote the song. What about musicians? (Yes to Mendelssohn, no to
\nIsaak Perlman?) <\/em>I can’t remember reading or hearing anything as
\nwrong-headed about an art form. Is he what we have to put up with to
\nsee dance on TV? Can Michaels employ a personal diversity trainer to address the root of her
\nproblem or will she go on and on, making life hell for the type of male
\nblack dancer she fears and\/or hates?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I watch So You Think You Can Dance for the dancers and a few of its choreographers, including Travis Wall, Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo (Nappy Taps), Shane Sparks, Mandy Moore, Sonya Tayeh and Tyce DiOrio for his contemporary, not Broadway. His Broadway is dead move on dead move. Week after week, however, dancers push past […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}