Two Hip-Hop Kids Dance Tchaikovsky on US TV

Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” is another of those talent shows that have cropped up on American broadcast TV ever since the country got bored with “reality TV.” Much like “American Idol” for singers, the show whittles down the dance troupe until the finale when a single winner is selected. On Wednesday, though, one performance took what is otherwise an adequate dance contest and made it truly artistic. Two young hip-hop dancers with no formal training conquered “Trepak” from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite.”

The development of dance in the US is hampered to a large degree by the fact that there’s no money in it. Singers can always hustle up a gig at a wedding, and even writers can ply their trade as journalists or copywriters for advertising firms. Dancers never get rich, never make millions, and never have enough food in the fridge to get fat. “So You Think You Can Dance” is one of the few opportunities to turn a buck.

That is counter balanced by the fact that dance in black America is something that’s taken for granted and that in white America can substitute for Little League or Girl Scouts. Hip-Hop, being an American art form that appeals across racial lines, is one of dance’s great strengths.

The two young men in question, Twitch Boss and Joshua Allen, are products of the hip-hop culture but have so much talent that they transform themselves on stage if the musical genre demands. Both can foxtrot, waltz, mambo, tango, and much more. Host Nigel Lythgoe stated at one point in the program that the final four dancers had spoiled the choreographers with their talent.

The trepak is based on the Ukrainian tropak and derives from Cossack celebratory dancing (which includes much vodka and acts of physical strength and endurance). It is essentially a duel done in dance. These two young men exposed themselves to the art, and shared it with a TV crowd that would no more go to the ballet or a folkdance performance than howl at the moon. Artistically, it was a risk, and it paid off handsomely. For a couple of minutes, American broadcast TV was not a vast wasteland but a shining example of dance as art.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home