Posted:
First off a big hello to the IF community - my first time here!
From what I've read, there are a lot of passionate folks here speaking their minds which in itself is a wonderful thing and I certainly don't want to step on any toes but I do have to say something on the new norm of watching Professional Dancers as Contestants on the show. Now, I'm a huge fan of the format (Dancing with the Stars/Strictly Come Dancing) because essentially it is about celebrities from different arenas of entertainment getting pushed out of their comfort zones into the world dancing.
Taking on a Professsional Dancer (someone whose profession is dancing) and trying to pass them off as a Celebrity Contestant (Pros could very well be celebrities but not in the context of the show)
This new norm started with Isha Sherwani, a girl who has done the odd film but is primarily known as a professional dancer and I felt that her addition to the competition with the other contestants were amateur dancers was not entirely fair. I would clarify here that I understand every contestant has varying skill level and ofcourse not everyone is going to be on the same level (for instance quite a few contestants had previous dance experience and had taken ballet/kathak/etc but they weren't dancers by profession) yet it is important to distinguish the Pros from the Contestants. Had it been the BBC's or ABC's installment of the franchise Isha would've most probably been the 'Choreo-Partner' not the contestant.
With Lauren, the following year, things got a bit more odd. if Lauren had competed in her native country's installment of the show (DWTS) she would've definitely been hired as a Pro because everyone who had migrated from So You Think You Can Dance to Dancing with the Stars was hired on as a Pro - most definitely not a contestant.
Again this year we have Shakti Mohan who has won India's take on (SYTYCD) and is primarily recognized as a Professional Dancer dancing on this show as contestant amongst non-professional dancers.
Now before anyone cites fan-bases (or lack thereof) of Professional Dancers and how that is validating their position in the competition amongst popular tv stars - I'd like to say that I'm not talking about the outcome of the competition, I'm talking about the criteria of selection and how the competition itself shouldn't deviate too far from its core ethos of celebrities being pushed out of their comfort zones and attempting something off-the-cuff. Its like hiring professional stunt performers on Khatron Ke Khiladi and making them compete against celebrities.
On a different note I wish Professional Dancers on Jhalak were given the same kind of recognition as their western counterparts. Maksim Chmerkovskiy and others like him are bonafide celebrities but that is largely due to the exposure and recognition they get on their shows - maybe if Jhalak becomes a little less tv/bollywood obsessed and a little more dance obsessed than Professional Dancers like Shakti, Lauren, and Isha would find it more fruitful to be a Pro on the show than a Contestant. I'm glad Salman, Punit, Shampa, and others have become household names and I hope it continues and grows beyond the one odd season on TV.
Side note: there will always be grey areas in the competition like Nichole S winning DWTS even though she had danced before as a part of PCD but since she was primarily a recording artist it became slightly less obvious.
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