The Church of So You Think You Can Dance

Somehow I have managed to get myself hooked into So You Think You Can Dance on CTV. Time and time again during the auditions people would come out crying because they had not been chosen to go to Las Vegas. And time and time again they would say that dance was the most important thing in the world to them. One girl in particular actually said that it was what helped her get through life. Now we all have reasons to live and support systems to get through life. We are not islands unto ourselves. But what it points to is the tendency for us as humans to find a passion and turn it into a cause which in itself becomes the reason we exist. It is the existential angst, the need to have meaning and understand why we exist that drives us to make hobbies, interests, passions or family the fundamental centre of our lives and the reason that we exist.

For Nigel, one of the judges, So You Think You Can Dance was really drawing peoples attention to the meaning found in dance. He was so passionate about showing the world the beauty of dance. Nigel is a dance evangelist. He has good news and wants to share it. He wants the world to know that dance is a place were life is really found, where we are able to experience the true joy of living, express who we are and be who we are meant to be. It is definitely good news for those who are experiencing its joys but as an outsider I feel a little bit isolated from the whole thing. Maybe if I just gave it a try I would see what he was talking about.

The dance routines themselves where very entertaining and one involving crash test dummies really pushed the envelope as to what dance is. One of the judges commented that he was proud that this show was open to exploring dance in all its forms, even if it was a bit strange. While the judges found the dance routine strange they were willing to accept it.

On the other hand there was a different reaction when two men did ballroom dancing together. The judges could not identify who was leading and who was following and so they could not evaluate if it really was good dance. It did not fit into their understanding (history) of what dance had looked like and commented that they needed the two men to dance with women next time to make it fit into their conception.

All of the judges were struggling with what they knew from the past, that is the history of dance, what they were seeing in the present, what was right in front of them and how that would shape the future of dance. Could what was happening in the present be reconciled to the past in a way that would produce a recognizable future? I guess that all depended on the individual case. The two men, no. The crash test dummies, yes. One will work and one won’t. Sounds vaguely familiar. I must be having deja vu.