How do you compare?

Paso Doble with Bollywood and Modern Contemporary? 😕

This is another one of my gripes with shows like JDJ. Firstly there is no emphasis on authenticity. Even if we forgive the lack of authenticity - how do you compare dances of completely different genres. If you grade on a fair curve (if it so exists), you can make compensations and adjustments based on dance experience, and other concerns like age. However, how can you compare apples to oranges.

Paso Doble is an aggressive Latin Dance ballroom dance. It can be compared to other Latin forms like Tango or Samba, perhaps even a salsa because there is a certain common factor between some holds, techniques and the general Latin flair.

On the other hand Modern contemporary is a very interpretative fluid dance form. The styles, the holds, the techniques, the movements, everything is a whole different ball game.

Then we have Bollywood which is not really a genre but an anything and everything goes dance form. Its basically entertainment value set to beats. You can mix and mash any dance from Samba to hip hop, to contemporary to classic waltz and create anything you want. There are no rules.

How hard is it to create a level playing field of at least comparing apples to apples?

I agree with you. They should choose a particular theme/style for each week and all should do that theme/style only. In the second week, half were given one style, half were given other.

In first season of JDJ, Mona did Waltz when Sweta did Bollywood. Judges said we enjoyed Sweta's performance more and gave her more marks. Obviously!!! If someone does a slow dance like Waltz, and someone else dances on 'Beedi jalai le', the energy and mood will swing to the second dance only. Very natural.

Going by todays episode however, I do not know whether they were given that style, or whether they chose it themselves depending on the song they had chosen. The theme this week said only- Teen ka tadka. Nothing else was said, so maybe this week they were free to chose anything they wanted.

I hope from next episode they make these things a bit more clearer.