So You Think You Can Dance has been going on for 5 years now, but I’ve only just hopped on the bandwagon.  Despite having seen it once or twice a couple years ago  — and appreciated the fact that the dances are really good because they use good choreographers! — it’s taken me this long to join the audience for a couple reasons: 1. I don’t generally support the idea of dance as a competitive activity, & 2. I don’t watch much TV, so I couldn’t remember to turn it on.

But it’s summer vacation, I’ve been watching for 3 weeks (that’s 6 shows) & I’m a fan! These are things I like:

• There’s great choreography, with a focus on the expressive power of dance & dancers;
• It’s a good showcase for all styles of dance;
• Meaning takes priority over style — you quit caring whether it’s ballet, modern or hiphop because you’re caught by the dance;
• Respect is front and center — respect for dance styles, choreographers, the audience, family members, and especially for the contestants (even as contestants lose, the show features footage of their best moments, and the contestants themselves appear grateful for what they’ve gained — no coverage of them walking sadly out the door, with bitter words);
• Cooperation & mutual respect — key players in the dance world — are apparent.
• They found a place for Ellen Degeneres as a judge, and she was fabulous — human, humorous & humble!

I do have some bones to pick:

• Why on earth do dancers/choreographers refer to dances & choreography as routines?!  Yes, one of the definitions of the word is as “a set sequence of dance steps,” but the first definition is “a usual or regular method of procedure, esp. one that is unvarying.” So even when the word routine means “dance steps,” it connotes “boring.”
• The televised audition phase of SYTYCD (which again, I haven’t seen much of, but that doesn’t prevent me from forming an opinion!) is less respectful than the actual competition, with more time spent on the usual histrionics of reality-TV.
• I often don’t agree with the voting audience.  But then, I’m not voting yet, so what’s my beef?

Regardless, I’m finding the art more important than the competition in SYTYCD, & I now have a TV show that I remember to turn on.

Ideally, standards for the audience at the kids’ performance would be the same standards we teach our kids — pegged as the 4 A’s of Audience Participation in Anne Gilbert’s Brain-Compatible Dance Education:

Attend, Allow, Applaud, Appreciate

Which translates as Pay attention to everyone even if it’s not your child; Allow the kids to do their best by not distracting them with noise & confusion; Applaud when they’re done; & Appreciate them later by telling them what they did fabulously.

No harm in briefing your parents on the same standards the students have learned — ostenstibly so they’ll know what the kids are learning. Meanwhile, maybe they’ll take a hint.

Other strategies:

Spend some time with the kids working up a rubric for what good performers do and then share the rubric with parents, so they’ll have a context for appreciating their children. Post it in written form, so you can brief them very quickly — which saves time and leaves it available as a reference. This approach gives them something to think about…

Provide program notes to clarify the origin and details about the piece students are performing, what they learned from it, and how they built it.  The context may help them focus.

Ask the parents for help in the form of quiet listening — explain that the kids are working really hard on concentrating and being heard, and the audience can help them succeed.

Make the same pre-performance announcement about cell phones that other performance venues do… or at least ask folks to take their call outside if it’s important.  In the same vein, request that parents keep small siblings off the stage and with them, for everyone’s safety.

Plant some allies along the sidelines (teachers? the principal?) to remind the worst offenders.

Results are best when proactive rather than reactive. Once the noise starts, it’s hard to stop.  Use a different strategy each time, and repeat the ones that work. Hopefully, the audience will gradually improve to meet standards — allowing everyone’s kid to do their best by giving quiet attention and applause!

Post-Performance Sleeplessness from Katie Wood