If you do not already know, “So You Think You Can Dance” is a summer program on Fox in which contestants from all around the United States — and, in some cases, from all around the world — audition and compete for the title of “America’s favorite dancer.” Once the auditions are over, about 160 contestants are sent to Las Vegas for the “callback” round, and after those eliminations are processed, the top 20 are sent to Los Angeles to perform on the main “So You Think You Can Dance” stage. We know for sure that many of you Cal students are avid TV watchers, especially during the summer, and for you dance fans and aficionados, SYTYCD has been your go-to summer show since the first season! If you haven’t caught on to some of the very valuable lessons you can learn from the show, we’ve got a couple of things we learned to help you out like:
When in doubt, be Cat Deeley. Cat Deeley is the host of “So You Think You Can Dance.” You could say she is the Beyonce of all television hosts. She’s pleasant, charming and always “dressed to impress.” She’s always the happiest person on the show (probably because she’s not in fear of having her dreams crushed during an elimination round and because she gets paid $60,000 per episode), but her confidence and seemingly eternal perkiness are admirable. So if you’re ever down in the dumps, remember — be Cat Deeley.
Actively avoid being “that dude.” In the most recent “Vegas Callbacks” episode of SYTYCD, in which approximately 160 dancers compete to be in the top 20 dancers, drama ensued when a female contestant called out her assigned dance partner, Jade Zuberi (who is now part of the top 20) for “holding her back a bit” and requested another partner, whom she tried working with instead of with Jade. After doing this, jazz and contemporary choreographer Sonya Tayeh proceeded to scold the young dancer for not listening to the choreographer’s initial instructions to “fall in love with your partner” and for essentially being “that guy” in front of the judges, the crew and all of the dancer’s fellow contestants. And if we’re being honest, after that little incident, it looked like the show was actively trying to portray the dancer as “that dude” who calls out her partner. Lesson learned? Don’t be THAT DUDE!
Good music makes everything seem cooler. If you’re ever looking for some good music and don’t know where to go besides the “Playlist of the Week” section of the Daily Clog or the “Tunesday” articles from the arts and entertainment section of the Daily Cal, SYTYCD is always a good place to go. A variety of music genres are included in the show’s dance playlist considering all the different types of dances performed. Songs range from artsy sounds like Bjork’s “Enjoy” all the way to dance remixes like “Let’s Have a Kiki (Guwremix)” by Fanny Pak & District 78. Various choreographers on the show, including Christopher Scott and Sonya Tayeh, like to use interesting music to their advantage by including certain songs from genres that usually would not go with their music styles — Christopher Scott is a hip-hop choreographer, and Tayeh is a jazz and contemporary choreographer — to give their performances a little twist. And it usually works. What have we learned from this? Anytime you’re bored or need to add a little twist to your life, put on some good music. We can guarantee you’ll feel at least 10 times cooler than you did before.
Image source: Vivanista1 under Creative Commons
Contact Gabrielle Nguyen at gnguyen@dailycal.org.
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