Archive for the 'Dance Shows' Category

What I’m Listening to Tonight: Thriller

Published
by
Alfina the Vague
on June 7, 2008
in Dance Shows, Listening Tonight, Music, Pop, Reality and TV
. 2 Comments

Obviously, you need no introduction to The King of Pop. What you may not know, though, if you don’t watch all of the dance shows I do, is that this year is the 25th anniversary of Thriller, one of the greatest albums of our time. Oh yes, indeed.

Dance shows have been capitalizing on the excellence of Thriller, making contestants do Thriller-related routines as part of the competitions. Rightfully so! MJ’s awesomely funky beats will make anything and everything better, even if that anything is a badly produced and badly edited dance crew competition show that should have been replete with extreme awesomeness and, disappointingly, was not. Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew, I am looking at you.

The reason Michael Jackson makes everything better is that when listening to his music it is completely impossible not to jump up off of your butt and start shaking your thang. This is as true today as it was 25 years ago. When the album came out, I was in kindergarten. I listened to it day in and day out, until my stupid mother got so sick of it (and so sick of the awesome dace routine I was choreographing to it, which necessitated a lot of couch jumping and, possibly, some crashing around into other furniture) that she took the cassette tape away. Luckily I am an adult now with my own furniture to jump on and my own very loud stereo. Well, what are you gonna do NOW, MOTHER? MWA HA HA HA HA.

Now that that’s out of my system, let’s listen to some tracks:

Billie Jean


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Beat It


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Thriller


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Guilty Pleasure Confessions: Dance!

Published
by
Alfina the Vague
on April 6, 2008
in Dance Shows, Guilty Pleasure Confessions, Reality and TV
. Closed

Dance shows aren’t actually the guiltiest of my guilty pleasures — after all, dancing is an art, so I can always think of myself as a Patron of the Arts every time I gleefully settle in for an episode of So You Think You Can Dance. Let’s face it, though: I mostly like the cute, cute boys and the breakdancing. I am afraid I can neither confirm nor deny rumors that after the show ends I recreate the breakdancing performances in my kitchen. I don’t even know where you would have heard such a thing anyway.

The goofy-ass costumes are a lot of fun, too.

Suffering the absence of SYTYCD since the last season ended in the summer, I was thrilled at the premiere of Bravo’s new dance show, Step It Up And Dance, last week. While Fox’s SYTYCD is made on the model of American Idol (which I flatly fucking refuse to watch), purporting to choose not the best dancer at the end of the season, but rather “America’s Favorite Dancer,” Bravo’s SIUAD is the sister show to Project Runway, Top Chef, and Top Design (um, all of which I watch religiously), meaning that it is decided by the panel of judges rather than America’s vote.

As might be expected on a Bravo show, they are not afraid of The Gays. While the judges on SYTYCD are always pushing the (clearly gay) male dancers to butch it up, and none of them are even really allowed to mention their sexuality, the guys on the Bravo shows are out and proud. Bravo, I say! The weird undercurrent of homophobia on the Fox shows has always made me uncomfortable.

Well, let’s not get too serious here! It is a dance show, which means it is completely impossible to take seriously. After all, they had Mel B., a.k.a. Scary Spice, as a guest judge last week. There is nothing serious about that. The audience was treated to the excited squeals of an 18-year-old B-Girl who has been watching the Spice Girls “her whole life.” For one thing, holy Hell I am old; for another thing, spice up your life!