So You Think You Can Dance, Season 4, Pt 1

My favorite time of year has officially begun. The flowers are in full bloom, the days are long and bright, Central Park is filled with picnickers, and my all time favorite tv show and slightly inappropriate pop culture obsession is back - So You Think You Can Dance aka The Search For America's Gayest Hairstyles. For those somehow unfamiliar with the show, think American Idol for dancers. But way more fun. Seriously, if you've never seen it, take a look!

So here's my thoughts on the first show of the new season. First of all, its good to see that someone has once again reanimated the corpse of Nigel Lythgoe and smeared some pancake and blush on it. He doesn't look eerily inhuman at all. Also, thank you to the p.a. who found just the right balance of booze and uppers for Mary Murphy - she was as loud and inarticulate as I'd hoped for. Those two are really such a dream team, huh? But all sarcasm aside, I'm glad that the usual roster of awesome choreographers is back this season. No, not you Dan Karaty. The show really does get some of the best people currently working in the dance industry to put their movement on the SYTYCD kids, including some folk that I usually find totally engaging: Mandy Moore, Wade Robson, Tyce Diorio and Doriana Sanchez. For those of you familiar with her work, yes, I do indeed enjoy Doriana Sanchez's disco stylings. Her choreography is actually quite fun when its done confidently (see last season's disco number with Neil and Sara). Mia Michaels, probably the most widely known contemporary choreographer, is also back. Now, I have mixed feelings on this bitch. She often does very moving work (see last season's piece to Elisa's song Dancing), but then she has this tendency to get pompous and pull some shitty, self indulgent garbage out of her ass that ends up being more like a badly acted soap opera than an actual dance piece (see last season's piece about her relationship with her father - yeah i went there). I'm also pretty into this husband-wife hip-hop team I had never heard of: Tabitha and Napoleon.

So yeah, I'm hoping that his year's choreography will impress. My biggest criticism of Wednesday night's episode, though, and really of the show in general is that its fallen into this trap of 'impress the audience by any means necessary.' And I'm not talking about cute boy Jaimie's pants being pulled down in the middle of a hip-hop piece to reveal his american appareled swimsuit area - that was just plain fun AND hot! I'm talking about THE DANCER'S BAG OF TRICKS. The multiple fuete turns, the gymnastics, the split leaps a la seconde. Yes, these things are difficult to do and can be very impressive and beautiful. But c'mon! When done back to back to back, they're nothing more than a gimmick, and the audience is being misinformed as to what real dancing is. Which is totally not to say that the people competing on the show aren't real dancers. Quite to the contrary - they are all both artists and athletes with beautiful and unique qualities of movement. But they're well aware of the nature of the show. They are surely pressured to do these trick movements in their solos in order to 'stand out.' Even with this being said, I remain optimistic. The dancers know they have the opportunity to blend artistry with entertainment value, and hopefully they'll be pushed in this direction by some of the choreographers (c'mon Mandy Moore, I'm counting on you!). And hopefully the producers will realize that a backflip is much more impressive when it follows more sustained movements, that there is an organic and logical place for it in a piece when there is a well thought out concept behind it (see Natalie's solos from season 2).

But enough rant. Now for the fun part - the individual dancers and pieces. For brevity's sake I won't go into all of them, but I do want to say that I'm blown away by the number of cute gay boys this season. Being the responsible member of the gay community that I am, I won't name names, but if you watch then I'm sure you'll be able to tell for yourself! My standout faves are as follows: for the boys, Mark, whose quirkiness I'm totally loving, and Thayne. For the girls, well, I think I forgot to watch for any of the girls. I do remember liking little Katee, who at first I thought would be supremely annoying, but DAMN - bitch can move! The hip-hop piece she was in was actually the best of the night, even though I'm usually not a big fan of the hip-hop. Mia's was also pretty damn cool. All of the other pieces were just kinda.....eh. Not bad, but not great. Poor Doriana's 'ography was danced pretty poorly. Maybe one day she'll get tired of her style's bad rap and she'll break a beer bottle over Mia's head. God I hope that happens this season! Stay tuned.