Dancing with the "Stars"

By Jonathan Shealy

I have had some experience as a ballroom dancer, but for whatever reason had never watched ABC's "Dancing with the Stars". So I decided to give it a shot and watched  this season's premier, though I had no idea what to expect. As a ballroom competition, the show does little to show proper technique, and the judges scores are completely subjective. That was disappointing, because I was expecting it to give some actual tips and criticism on ballroom dancing. What it did do well was putting on a crowd pleasing spectacle, and the dancing was top notch. It does seem a great idea for a show, but this season offers almost no interest, as most of the 'stars' are C list celebrities at best.

I suppose it has a strong viewing from its fan base, but there is nothing there to draw new viewers in. People wishing to see celebrities would shy away because there are no big names in the cast, and people wishing to see a ballroom competition would leave once they realized the judging was very subjective and it was really a popularity contest relying on viewers votes over the phone.

The judges offered almost no criticism, and even if they did they were always nice about it. The scores they gave were almost exactly the same for each couple, which made that aspect of the show almost boring. They of course followed the typical original "American Idol" formula for the panel, including a woman who was very nice and emotional, Carrie Ann Inaba, and a more critical man with a British accent, Len Goodman. He was the only one who actually tried to tell the dancers what they did wrong, but whenever he offered legitimate criticism the crowd would boo whatever he tried to say. The third, only original judge, was Bruno Tonioli, a very energetic Italian, but even he didn't really offer any helpful advice.

As for what the scoring actually means, they never explained it. I guess they just assumed everyone watching the show already knew what was going on, but some explanation would have been helpful for new viewers. I still don't understand how the show works, I just know somehow the viewers votes over the phone count, and at some point couples will be eliminated.

The actual dancing was very good, most of the celebrities did a very good job, and the professional dancers were top notch. They had obviously done a lot of training, though it would have been interesting if the show had dwelt more on the training than just showing a few short clips of it. To the audience everything looked amazing, but since everything was choreographed using very few actual basic steps, it would be impossible for anyone to learn how to dance simply by watching this show.

As a crowd-pleasing spectacle, this is an excellent show, and they seem to have found a formula that works. If they had a celebrity I was interested in, or had more actual ballroom tips and criticism, I might continue to watch the show, but as of now it has nothing to draw me in. In terms of dance competition shows, I much prefer "So You Think You Can Dance", as the judges in it offer much better criticism, and the contestants are in it for their talent, not necessarily their celebrity status.

Apart from this season's lackluster casting, this show accomplishes what it set out to achieve, and follows a formula that has given it a large number of fans. I was not familiar with many of the celebrities, and some of them were there because of fame they had in their childhood. Jaleel White and Melissa Gilbert have done pretty much nothing culturally relevant since their famous TV shows "Family Matters" and "Little House on the Prairie" many years ago. Most of the other 'celebrities' were completely unknown to me. This show has been around for a while, and has been very successful, but if they are unable to bring in any big names to compete it may spell trouble for its future.

So if you would like to see some good dancing, or one of your favorite obscure celebrities is a contestant, I would highly recommend it. If you wish to see an actual legit dance competition instead of a popularity contest, it would be best to look elsewhere.