Man, they can dance

Sitting here watching the finale of Living TV’s “So you think you can dance?” I’m appalled that the prize for the winner is a year’s contract with Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show.

Yes. Celine Dion’s Las Vegas show.

I’m sure that this is a hugely popular and lucrative (comparatively speaking… dancers get paid shit, mostly) show to be in but I find myself hoping that the gorgeous and unbelievably talented Travis doesn’t win so that he can get the job he deserves in a major league contemporary company or somesuch with credibility.

It is, of course, a popularity contest – “America” votes for their favourite with the guidance of the “judges” (Nigel Lythgoe included, well it’s his baby) but the quality, temerity, versatility and showmanship of the dancers blows me away each week. Two of the finalists are contemporary dancers, two are latin/ballroom types yet all of them have managed to wing every style with consummate professionalism and flair. I’m jealous. I’m exhilarated.

It’s just really not fair that winners of reality shows like Pop Idol and America’s Next Top Model get hot shot, thousand dollar deals and outrageously privileged opportunities (number one singles, magazine covers) but dancers get… Celine Dion*. Life’s just not fair.

*Ok, so they also get an SUV and $100,000 but, still. Celine Dion. Kuh.

Ballet-hoo

There’s something I forgot in my cynical old grumblings about Ballet proper like. How Nutcrackers and Romeos are dull and dated, conservative and elitist (well, it may still well be the latTer two). It’s the magic, see. I spent the afternoon watching the More4 back to back repeats of “Ballet changed my life: Ballet-Hoo“. The youth project “Youth at Risk” teamed up with the Birmingham Royal Ballet to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity to difficult and disadvataged kids in the West Midlands; to train to appear in a special performance of Romeo and Juliet alongside the Company’s professional dancers on stage at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The underlying aim of the project: to see if Ballet could change these kids lives.

One of the older white male teenagers, baseball cap, pasty looking, pierced and previously surly, came out of his first professional ballet performance to say, incredulously, “I was rooted to my seat”. Even came out with a stiff neck from not wanting to move in case he blocked anyone else’s view and missed something himself. The magic. Proper good ballet, that. Creating a world through incredible movement, mime, music and storytelling. It really can be something else.

This is an great series and an inspirational project which you can find out more about here.