With the airing of the last night’s special “Meet the Top 20,” I was reminded what I hate about So You Think You Can Dance: Everything except the dancing. And Cat. And Adam Shankman.
Nigel Lythgoe spends all his time congratulating himself and fawning over the choreographers (and thus himself for bringing the choreographers on board). What makes the choreography good is the dancing. Would Nigel congratulate the choreographers if the dancing was shit? Oh wait, we had one of those last year with the horrendous Russian Folkdance. He did blame the choreography rather than the dancers (even though the male was the weakest dancer there). But, to be fair, Nigel also blamed himself for trying to bring something so unusual to the show. (Sort of like how he explained why they won’t be pulling tap dance out of the [literal] hat this, or any other , year.)
As for Mary Murphy? Oh please, she’s just become a caricature of herself.
The thing is, these people could provide real praise and critique to the dancers, but they seldom do. It’s usually just a bunch of fawning and screaming.
I should put Adam Shankman in the same category, since he often reacts emotionally to the dance rather than critique it. But he gets a pass because he’s so adorable. I’m hoping his constant presence on the show doesn’t jade me towards him.
