Since I'm not in America, I haven't seen the reality dance show in question, but I found this NY Times article* about what happens when someone who's a professionally trained dancer goes on one of these shows very thought-provoking.

"Even more disturbing is the idea that “So You Think You Can Dance” has emerged as a viable option for real dancers, including Mr. Tidwell, who don’t have to look far to see that career options have been greatly depleted. At its best, the show provides a kind of kicky fun, the good side of cheesy. But it’s also outdated and perpetuates many stereotypes about what constitutes good dance (speed is in, subtlety is out), what language is used to describe it and how training makes boring dancers...

...In one episode, Mr. Lythgoe declared: “What I dislike are dance snobs, and those are people who think you need a formal training with years and years of experience before you can be called a dancer.” He continued: “You don’t just need a formal training. It’s because you have a great feel for dance."

This anti-training stance bothers me. Yes, you can be a talented amateur in any field and you can choose to step outside formal training but the fact remains that you still need to practice if you're ever going to develop. No artist, in whatever medium, will get far without learning some relevant skills. Just as important is learning the language used in your field, especially if you want to be a professional. I'm not saying that everyone should go to college, but I do think that you need to get some input from someone who's further on than you, whether that's by taking classes, reading books or just going and looking at what they do and thinking about it a lot.

I do understand that there can be a problem with formal training - people sometimes get stuck just repeating what their tutor does and never finding their own voice. Sometimes this is because of bad teaching, sometimes it's because people get afraid to take their training wheels off, sometimes it's because they've genuinely gone as far as they're going to. But usually you can get beyond that point by continuing to work and practice, practice, practice. When you do, you'll usually find that you do eventually start to make some leaps on your own. There is a hideous part of learning when you've lost what Zen Buddhism calls 'beginner's mind' - that state where everything is new, exciting and wonderful and you sometimes make good stuff simply because you're fresh and innocent and don't know enough about the rules to be bound by them. But once you've learnt a little bit, you can get stuck, stilted and panicked because you can suddenly see just how crap you really are - the trick at that point is to doggedly keep going, keeping the faith that eventually, through practice, you'll get good again.

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