Comments on: I’m Pretty Sure I Can’t Dance

By: Matt Helm

Matt Helm — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:47:42 +0000

And I mean that in a pleasant way.

By: Matt Helm

Matt Helm — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 02:45:43 +0000

Yes Floyd, I know all that about Kelly and even the tactics he used for Reynolds. I’m almost a film historian, with what I know about film, for crying out loud. I just can’t compare what these kids did on TV to a make a definitive art regarding film.

By: Floyd

Floyd — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:11:36 +0000

Matt — of course they’re not Astaire and Kelly — they’re only 18 or 19 years old — and they only had maybe 3 or 4 days to learn the routine before performing it live before a huge live audience. Kelly was a dance teacher in his 30s before he hit it big. He used drill sgt. tactics on a 17 year old Debbie Reynolds to get her up to snuff for Singin’ in the Rain. Imagine those kids a year or two later after solid dance training with professional choreographers and a chance to get on Broadway…. It’s a “diamond in the rough” show — not the Gene Kelly/Donald O’Connor Hour. Bollywood routine was just cool b/c it’s different. The whole show has lyrical, jazz, Broadway, tap, ballroom, hip-hop styles… they’re all pretty great actually.

By: Matt Helm

Matt Helm — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:45:35 +0000

I don’t watch these shows. These two did good but I wouldn’t compare them to Astaire, Kelly, etc. This dance routine lacks the grace of those dancers and is more like something you’d see at a Hawaiian luau. For the most part, these two seemed to be doing background dancing with little interaction which seems to be the trend in modern dancing. That’s what you get from the neo-me generation.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:42:50 +0000

He definitely said something, but it’s not showing up there!

He said: “I am very sad the word ‘homophobe’ is being used. That is someone who hates homosexuals. I dislike effeminate dancing! Wake up and listen!”

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:38:20 +0000

You’re exactly right, Floyd. I’m sure I undervalue singing and the effort that goes into doing it well, but I can’t watch American Idol because I feel I’ve seen just as good performances at the neighborhood karaoke night.

I am astonished by good dancing. I’ve never watched “Dancing with the Stars” because I want to see nothing but good dancing if I’m going to watch it at all.

I don’t watch every week, and I don’t watch the audition shows, but “So You Think You Can Dance” is the only reality show I watch. (I especially like it when the guys get flustered and cry.)

Plus you’ve got Mia Michaels as a judge:

And when two guys danced together in their audition, here’s what judge Nigel Lythgoe said:

“I think you’ll probably alienate a lot of our audience,” he opined, comparing them to the duo in “blades of Glory” and saying they’ve never had two guys dance “in each other’s arms before.”

Lythgoe admitted, “I’m really one of those people that like to see guys be guys and girls be girls on stage.”

“I’m not a fan of ‘Brokeback’ ballroom,” he said.

After a complaint by GLAAD accusing him of homophobia, he said:

By: fritz8945

fritz8945 — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 02:20:48 +0000

It’s very refreshing to see someone with a talent this good.