Dance Machine on ABC

By Ally Matteodo

ABC’s Dance Machine premiered on Friday, June 27^th and immediately captured the title of Best of the Week.  Airing at 8:00 p.m. ET, the new program showcases the dance talents of six talented individuals. E! News correspondent Jason Kennedy hosts the program, in which contestants are allowed to select their dance soundtrack from three categories of music.  Jeff, a mixed martial artist, was picked to dance first and chose the hip hop genre as his music.  He competed against Elvis, a grocery store cashier.  The studio audience then voted on who they wanted to make it to the semifinals.  Jeff won the first round.  The next power dancer chosen was Vinny Cardinale, a circus acrobat who chose Garth Brooks for the dance off.  He competed against a fashion designer named Michelle and won.  The final category was disco, where a graduate student named Sandra competed against a physical education instructor named Dan.  The studio audience voted for Dan, and the three men entered the semifinals.  In the semifinals, the three men danced to a song of their choice.  During the second part of the song they were required to use a prop.  During Dan’s performance to “It Takes Two,” he used a baton.  Vinny danced to “I Will Survive” and utilized a feather boa, and Jeff danced to “Beat It” and shook the maracas.  Jeff and Vinny were the two contenders who made it to the finals.  During the last portion of the show Jeff and Vinny faced off against each other to the songs “Living the Vida Loca” and “Crazy in Love.”  The studio audience ultimately voted for Jeff as the best dancer, and he won the $100,000 prize. 

This show is pure fun and contains no bad language or violence.  This is unusual in that many reality competitions unfortunately do contain foul language at times.  Dance Machine is perfectly clean when it comes to this, and it may be because there are no judges; the semifinalists and winner are chosen completely by the audience, and the television viewer doesn’t hear any negative comments or criticism about the dancer’s performances.  In a way, this show lets the performance speak for itself, which is refreshing.  So often in reality competitions we hear the judges’ opinions, which do not allow us to have our own uninfluenced opinions or thoughts.  Whatever we think may be disturbed by the buzzing of the judges’ running commentary, and that commentary can be caustic at times.  The absence of a judging panel works to eliminate any sense of acrimony in the competition.  The contestants are energetic and charming, and the host is comic and charismatic.  The D.J. gets into the spirit of the show by changing hats and wigs to match the genre that he’s spinning, and the feel is an all-around good one.  These people aren’t professional dancers, yet their sincere love of dancing infects their entire being, so that one feels happy watching them. More than anything, they dance with a sense of abandon and enthusiasm; and performers – like all of us -- become the most captivating when they let themselves go and open their hearts.

Best TV Show of the Week

The Parents Television Council - www.parentstv.org