Joshua's bio now reads:
Q: Do you have any formal dance training?Still, it doesn't change the fact that Joshua "auditioned" as a hip hopper.
A: Yes.
Q: If you had to categorize your dance style, what would it be?
A: Performer.
There are three other non-formal dance specialists:
Gev, who seems remarkably at home no matter what style of dance he's performing, answers, "Not Really," to the question of whether he's had any formal dance training, and consistent with his audition he describes himself as a "Break dancer." Yet during his hip hop routine with partner Courtney, it was Courtney (the "contemporary" dancer) who delivered the hard hits, leaving Gev looking a bit like he was out of his element.
Comfort, who took the female "hip hop dancer, popper" spot in the top 20 explains, "I do have formal dance training because I attend Booker T Washington High School of Performing Arts for 2 and a half years." Yet like Gev, when choreographed in her own genre of dance, her performance fell flat.
Contrast those with Twitch--who we met last season and know, despite getting formal training over the past year, was a "freestyle" dancer first--and how he delivers when asked to krump:
What does it look like to you? Suspicious at all? Fans of the show know that there are a certain number of spots reserved for non-professional dancers in the top 20, just as there are spots for the various styles of professional dance. But which category is the more competitive? Would a ballroom dancer be better off learning a hip hop routine to audition with? Are professional dancers doing the same as Twitch, except they're learning to pop and break, and in the process discovering that professional discipline applied to the non-professional dance styles leads to relatively impressive results. Meaning, are hip hop, breaking, popping and the like not really that hard after all, at least not for a serious dancer with professional training? Leaving the contemporary dancer who learns hip hop the option of passing on head to head competition with the other, professional, contemporary dancers, and instead competing against the fewer in number and one dimensional hip hop dancers.
Remember the pop locker Robert Murraine? Is it possible that he was the only "true" "amateur" in Las Vegas this year?
I'm not clear on the distinction between "dance classes" and "formal training". Will's bio says he has no formal training, but that he started dancing at 9, and taking classes at 12. And he certainly looks trained.
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion that the "amateurs" are not amateurs is particularly pointed in light of the fact that Robert Murraine declined a spot in the top 20 because he felt out matched.
Well, kinda felt like I was juggling too many data points there toward the end of that post. What I meant to convey is the professional dancers have found a path of least resistance to making the top 20 by pretending to be from the street with their faux hip hopping, popping and breaking. Seems super obvious that’s what’s going on with Dev. Joshua too. Comfort maybe.
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