While watching all of the dance shows available on television today, I have gotten excited about the many forms and styles of dance that they show, especially those with an international flavor. I've been hoping for a television show to highlight the diversity and excitement of the world's dance. Superstars of Dance tries to do that, but is hobbled by its concept and execution.
The first problem is the theme of a global dance competition. Due to understandable resource limitations, only a handful of countries and dancers can participate. The selection of the countries and dancers is unexplained and seems very haphazard. Some dancers seem chosen for their professional accomplishments, and others for their entertainment value. Neither are bad qualifications, but the diversity borders on complete randomness. This is a big problem for an audience hoping to view this show as a serious international competition. The mystery behind the choices of judges, countries, and dancers makes the competition seem unfair at the very least.
Because of the demands of modern network television, this show has a competition format. I don't think this is an inherent problem, but it is handled poorly. For starters, the judges seem to have no guidelines on how they give their scores, giving them without consistent reasons. This makes the scoring incredibly variable and makes it seem unfair, more so than can be attributed to the subjective nature of judging. The judges make comments talking about dance content, difficulty, and performance without applying those standards evenly to all the contestants. Also, the contestants were obviously given no clue as to what the judges were going to be looking at. I'm sure if several groups knew they were going to be judged so harshly for not having enough "dance content," they would have given different performances. I believe that the participants were given such a vague outline of what the show was going to be, they aimed to please the crowds and then were penalized by the judges for that. That strikes me as disingenuous.
One last problem is the filming of the show itself. On So You Think You Can Dance, for example, it is obvious that the dancers have practiced with the cameras and the choreography takes the cameras into account. This improves both the dancing and the filming, making even a lackluster performance at least coherent. Superstars of Dance lacks that professional polish, and it shows glaringly. If the dance cannot be conveyed well to the television audience, then it doesn't make a very good TV show.
Superstars of Dance has shown improvement between its first and second episodes. The judges have become more consistent, and the unscripted banter with the judges and the contestants is slightly better. Unfortunately, the deep flaws in the setup of the show will last the whole season, and I don't think this show will get another season for it to improve.
I, for one, will keep watching. I find world dance interesting enough that I can grit my teeth through the flaws and enjoy seeing dances that are new to me. Sadly, I cannot whole- heartedly recommend this show to others, especially if they have access to other dance shows, either live or on television.
