Holding to the theory that a rising tide lifts all boats, there are some in the concert-dance world who believe TV shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” will enhance the appeal of dance onstage, often beset by small audiences, short runs and a lack of funds.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.
It’s not for any lack of talent or visibility. “SYTYCD,” a granny of U.S. dance reality competitions, launched in 2005 and is now in the middle of a Season 12 national tour, whose 53 U.S. cities include Chicago. This year’s 10 finalists, plus four other Season 12 dancers, will perform at the Chicago Theatre Friday only, in both new routines and favorites from the TV show. After New Year’s, the tour resumes in Canada for an additional 17 cities. Like the televised “SYTYCD” this year, the tour is divided for the first time between “Stage” (ballet, jazz, contemporary) and “Street” (hip-hop, breaking) dancers.
Seventy one-night stands in 31/2 months? The “SYTYCD” performers, ages 18 to 30, are nothing if not hardworking. They’re also ambitious, even driven, as my conversations with Stage runner-up Hailee Payne and Street runner-up Virgil Gadson made abundantly clear. And, even with slipping ratings, “SYTYCD” remains hugely popular in comparison with dance onstage, generally reaching 3 to 4 million viewers per episode during Season 12.
But will such shows really be the shot in the arm that the dance world needs? People have been making that claim for decades, despite evidence to the contrary. A 2011 report by the National Endowment for the Arts projected slower than average growth (in comparison to the rest of the U.S. labor force) in dance employment through 2018: an increase of only 3 to 6 percent, less than for actors. The NEA also noted the escalating competition for dance jobs.
Fundamentally conservative, TV dance shows have generally followed, not created, dance trends. Britain’s 1949 televised ballroom competition, “Come Dancing,” reflected the popularity of the Hollywood musical, whose heyday began in the ’30s. Much later, in 2004, “Come Dancing” begat the U.K.’s “Strictly Come Dancing,” which begat U.S.-based “Dancing With the Stars” in 2005 — a franchise that, like “SYTYCD,” has conquered the televised world.
Live audiences — sometimes observing, sometimes dancing along — have historically marked these shows, often closely intertwined with pop music. One of the earliest in the U.S. was “American Bandstand,” first broadcast locally in 1952. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, today we can see shockingly rhythm-challenged, unglamorous teenagers in glasses and cardigans back in the day, eyes on the floor as they shuffle through semblances of swing dance.
Perhaps in the interest of “protecting” American youth, these early shows were sanitized bastions of the prejudices of their times, including racism. “American Bandstand” regularly hosted black musicians yet did its best to keep black teens off the dance floor; though host Dick Clark claimed he integrated the studio audience in 1957, African-Americans and whites weren’t allowed to dance with each other until 1964. Baltimore’s “Buddy Deane Show” (which inspired John Waters’ kitschy 1988 film “Hairspray”) never allowed black and white dancers in the studio at the same time. Though it ran 21/2 hours a day six days a week from 1957 to 1964, blacks were on the show just one day per month, and never along with whites.
In an explicit response to the racism of ’50s and ’60s dance on TV, Don Cornelius started “Soul Train” in Chicago in 1970; syndicated in 1971, it ran through 2006. Its choreographed, primarily African-American dancers (who included Rosie Perez and Jody Watley) blew their amateur counterparts on “American Bandstand” out of the water; the Soul Train Line became an iconic feature of pop dance.
The late ’70s and the ’80s ended the battle to maintain viewers’ supposed innocence, earlier upheld through a ban on “suggestive” moves. Hip-thrusting disco dominated programs like “Dance Fever” (1979-1987), whose “rising tide” host can be seen on YouTube crowing that “the popularity of all kinds of dancing has skyrocketed in the last few years.” Meanwhile the barely clad, even more suggestive dancers of “Solid Gold” (1980-1988) brought the ’70s sexual revolution to the tube, for those who might have missed it in the first go-round.
Whether “SYTYCD” and its ilk are enhancing the concert-dance world is open to debate, but the interrelationship of dance on video and on the stage is undeniable, as is the versatility of the well-trained “SYTYCD” performers.
Gadson, 28, and Payne, 20, were both originally inspired by dance on the small screen and have done many styles, though he’s labeled “hip-hop” and she’s “jazz.” At 3, Gadson says, “I was doing hip-hop, but I didn’t know I was doing hip-hop. It was pretty much dancing at family gatherings, imitating Michael Jackson and MC Hammer and all those old music videos. My family danced a lot, and my friends in the neighborhood — there were like little dance crews.”
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At about 12, Gadson started taking dance and theater classes at the Freedom Theatre in his hometown of Philadelphia. Later he got a degree in dance from Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, which gave him some partnering experience before he made it onto “SYTYCD” — and its heated Top-10 and Top-4 competitions, where he did a lot of partnering.
The multitalented Gadson says it feels “great” to be the “SYTYCD” Street runner-up this year: It was one of his many goals. As a child he wanted to be on Broadway — specifically, as Simba in “The Lion King” — and in 2013 he made it, getting a hip-hop gig in Broadway’s “After Midnight.” Now living in New York, Gadson is eager for more of the Great White Way; he’s also singing in a band he hopes will tour Europe.
Payne discovered her jones for dance at 4, while watching “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” on TV with her dad. “I saw the Radio City Rockettes perform and said, ‘I have to do that.’ My dad signed me up for dance classes the next day.” A native of Roy, Utah, she started with jazz at Valley View Stars, then took hip-hop at Elite Dance Force in Ogden, north of Salt Lake City, but didn’t take ballet until the advanced age of 11. Though that’s the source of some regret, she also believes her earliest training has helped her nail “hard-hitting” jazz and hip-hop.
The upbeat Payne says she’s been “blessed” to have a wide range of experience: She performed in Ballet West’s “Nutcracker” and Odyssey Dance Theatre’s popular “Thriller” revue as a child, danced in a music video and started teaching dance at 15, and has since toured to Israel and China.
After the tour ends, Payne will be moving to LA. “I have an agent,” she says, “I have a place set up — actually I’m moving in with Jenna Johnson,” a “SYTYCD” Season 10 grad and also a Utah native. Payne adds that, having gotten a taste of touring, “I want to keep doing it, hopefully tour with (a music) artist one day.” In between auditions, though, she’ll keep up her certification as a pharmacy technician: “My mom always told me I need to have a backup plan.”
Laura Molzahn is a freelance critic.
‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Season 12 Tour
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.
Tickets: $28.50-$78.50 at 800-745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com