Friday, May 25, 2012

Lady Jule's (Beat Freaks) Must-read blog post: Why Dancers in the past were unforgettable and today's are not

In a blogpost called "What Happened to the Heart of Dance?", 'Lady Jules' Urich (member of ABDC3's Beat Freaks) writes about she feels is missing from the dances shown on reality TV:  "I see amazing dancers who can extend their legs  beyond reason, spin what seems like thousands of times on their hands, toes and heads- but I am not moved by it, I am not changed by it and I pondered why until it hit me...[dancers in the past like Martha Graham and Fred Astaire] had to work harder than ever to not only earn their spot as a dancer, but to communicate in their dance a feeling, a story, or an experience to the rest of us that was unsaid but only through the movement could it be felt...It pains me to see the dancer’s purpose of communicating music and feeling through movement chalked up to fancy flair and an oversized ego to boot."
Read the whole thing. I think it gets to the heart of why we continue to care about some dance crews (e.g. Jabbawockeez) but not others. And, I think it speaks to the difficulty of keeping shows like America's Best Dance Crew meaningful and fresh.