So you think you can dance Lindy Hop

I decided to watch SYTYCD this summer after a friend showed me some of the dancing from last summer on TiVo (which btw is the greatest TV invention since the TV IMHO). I haven’t been dissapointed yet (except by the Tango choreography given to Ashlee and Rickie – I actually blame the choreographer for their early dismissal from the show) even though the Lindy Hop couple (Evita Arce and Michael Jagger – who will be at SONH this year – and again I weep, for I will miss this year again) didn’t make it into the top 20 finalists. Evita is interviewed in this latest issue of Swing Dancer Magazine FYI.

It would have been nice if they could have made the top 20, but I thought the coverage Fox gave them was good for Lindy Hop in general. My only hang up is that due to the filming techniques, their dancing looked rather flat and not very exciting though no fault of Evita and Michael.Lindy Hop made an appearance in the finals of SYTYCD last year.

Will Lindy Hop be back this year (I don’t know anything about the show’s format really)? I certainly hope so. But I don’t think Lindy Hop on TV really matters as much as many people think it does. Granted my inspiration to learn was initially the Gap Khakis Swing commercial, but I actually went out dancing because of the people, and stayed dancing because of both the music and dance and also the friends and community. To take advantage of media exposure of Lindy Hop we need to make Lindy Hop extremely accessible (not it the technical sense but in the social/heirarchical sense) to new folks. Newbies don’t stick around if they feel intimidated, out of place, etc.

technorati tags:So-You-Think-You-Can-Dance, SYTYCD, Evita-Arce, Michael-Jagger, Ashlee-and-Rickie, Lindy-Hop, Swing-Dancing, Swing-Out-New-Hampshire, SONH, Newbies