With the demise (for now, at least) of the BBC’s Saturday night musical theatre talent shows, the main talent contest for BBC1 is now So You Think You Can Dance, which returns for a second series on Saturday. The BBC has released the pre-credits teaser from Saturday’s show:
I’ve heard on the grapevine that, after last year’s series rattled through the audition process leaving us with several finalists who we’d never “met” prior to the start of the live shows, this year the series will give a little more time to the intensive selection process that whittles down all the applicants to the dozen or so dancers who will compete for public votes every Saturday. This can only be a good thing - every year I’ve been covering the BBC’s talent competitions for The Stage, from Any Dream Will Do onwards, a major gripe has been that the audition process has been glossed over.
Nobody wants The X Factor-style series on the BBC, where the footage of talented individuals auditioning is eked out over a couple of months by giving increased amounts of airtime to people who should have been weeded out at the very earliest stages. But showing the huge amount of work that goes into auditioning, with even the best dancers having only a chance of getting through, should make for great television, while enabling the audience to empathise with both those who make the cut and those who don’t. It should also help to remind the public just how hard dancers work, and how effortless motion on stage comes as the result of arduous training.
From BBC1’s point of view, So You Think You Can Dance is a mass-market entertainment show that needs personalities to take part — and to a certain extent their dance ability is secondary. One of the reasons why I love reviewing these shows for TV Today is that it’s a chance to redress that balance, to look at the performance first and the performer second.
Each week, my review of the show will go online every Monday or Tuesday. Do please join me at thestage.co.uk/sytycd and weigh in in the comments box!
