It's not the dancing.  I love the dancing. And I love the idea of this show, bringing dancers together from every culture and class, from hip hop to ballroom to ballet, forcing them to discover their weaknesses and stretch their skills.

It's not the judging.  It's hard for newcomers to understand how a long time fan can endure Mary's screeching, Nigel's weirdly macho prissyness, or Mia's  ongoing "I love you/I hate you other blond women" psycho drama. 

But these judges have been on the other side.  If they haven't come from dance competition backgrounds, like Nigel and Mary, they are choreographers, like Mia, who are also having their work judged on this show. This adds a level of professionalism and empathy I never see on the other shows.

Since the franchise has expanded to New Zealand, Turkey, Israel, Canada, Germany, Greece, Poland, Malaysia, Norway, The Netherlands, South Africa and Australia,  they've been travelling the world guest judging.  Sure they have some personality ticks, but there's not a lot of self-indulgence.  They don't waste our time creating faux rivalries.  This show is about dance. Everyone here is about dance. 

Everyone  that is, except the technical crew.  I HATE the camera work on this show. 

What camera work? you ask. 

Exactly.

Good camera work is to dance what good sound is to singing.  How do I know?  Because I'm from Canada,  a magical land filled with camera crews who have cut their teeth on non-stop  hockey  and figure skating. It took me a while to figure out why SYTYCD Canada had such a different vibe---and then I started looking at clips of the best routines of the season from both shows. 

And come, let me show you.....

The Case Of The Amputated Ballerina

Let's take a look  at one of the best performances last year on SYTYCD U.S.  A breathtaking pas de deux choreographed by ballet and broadway star Desmond Richardson and danced to David Archuleta's cover of Imagine.

If you haven't seen this yet, maybe enjoy it first with a naive eye. But if you're a regular fan, a year's gone by. Time to put on your critic's glasses.  Why? You wouldn't watch American Idol with fuzzy sound.  So why should we have to settle for  B-list camera work? Especially since ratings seem to be decreasing every year. 

Watch for the following things: 

Nothing too bad happens in the first 30 seconds.  The dancers are staying within a pretty small area on the stage, so getting this right isn't exactly rocket science.  The lighting is, let's be nice and call it minimalist.  The dancers seem a little blanched, but let's be fair and chalk this up to faded youtube video.

Then the dancers mess up.   This  could have been minimized  by a quick change of camera angle.  But the static camera is unmoving and unforgiving as Will not only fails to properly twirl Katee, but then seems to tumble halfway out of the frame.  That part's not his fault, but the camera mistake adds to the awkward blunder. 

Notice how often these dancers are dancing at the periphery of the frame, how often feet, arms, even a head, accidently slip outside the  edge of the frame.  If you watch closely, at one point  you'll see the camera jerk to the side to catch up with a dancer. Watch how the camera loses Katee, twice.  In a PAS DE DEUX.  (Hello Hollywood camera crew.  Deux means two...two dancers.) 

One thing you'll rarely see on SYTYCD is any attempt at interesting shadow work.  But look, some shadow! Problem is these are shadows of the audience, swaying their hands to the song.  Is this  a sophisticated piece of contemporary dance, or a David Archuleta concert video? 

There are two climactic lifts. Watch how  both times the camera cuts Katee off at the knee.  It's one thing to cut a dancer off at the knee in a static pose where the drama is in the upper body.  But, mother of god, you don't cut off the female dancer's legs in a lift! Not unless it's a story about a boy and his amputee girlfriend.  Pay special attention to the last lift.  It's gruesome.

And then the final insult.  These are both two of the most talented dancers on the show.  They've just completed the most  challenging piece of choreography this season. They've done a beautiful job except for the one little f-up.  You want to see their faces.  Are they happy, are they disappointed?  Hard to tell because the camera decides this would be a good time to retreat into the ceiling.  It would be so interesting, apparently, to have a  birdseye view of two dancers walking along the stage. 

(Unless you're a nostalgic fan, fast forward past Kerrington's solo performance to about minute 2:30.) 

Now let's take a look at their Canadian counterparts dancing, ironically, to David Cook's Permanent.  Canada has been waiting for this moment all season.  The two frontrunners have never danced together: Nico, a gorgeous half-deaf  Montreal street punk, and Allie a cute as a button Halifax ballerina. 

The first thing you're going to notice is the extra dancers in the studio during rehearsal.  For a while I thought the Canadian network was too cheap to pay for private studio time.  Then I realized these were stand-ins so that the technical crew can run through the choreography to get it right and add some drama.

This explains the attention to lighting.  If you can take your eyes of these dancers keep an eye out for  the beautiful shadow work, how the shadows gradually multiply and amplify the dancers as the story builds.  

Also, notice how often and fluidly the camera changes point of view. Every angle is planned out.   You could never imagine this camera crew losing a foot, let alone a dancer. 

And, finally,  notice how the shot lingers on the dancers' faces, giving us plenty of time to absorb their feelings about this performance.

(A note to hardcore fans: Stick around for the judging and watch Jean Marc Genereux out do himself in the category of over the top judge crying. Watch how he takes an entire two minutes to link this to dance to  all the suffering in the world.   If I ever had any doubts about Nico deserving the SYTYCD Canada crown, he won my heart by not cracking up once.) 

Angry Dance With Prop

So what? you say.  The important thing is good dance, not camerawork.  True enough.  But the more I started re-watching the U.S. routines, the more I started to notice how the best American choreographers kind of  limit the dancers to avoid making them vulnerable to lame camera work glitches.  The queen of this is Mia Michaels.  All of her best performances involve a prop that anchors the attention to the center of the stage.  The challenge is to provide a choreography that doesn't sacrifice the momentum that dancers usually build by using the rest of the stage. 

This contemporary routine with Katee and Twitch is a classic example of Mia condensing her choreography into one tiny invulnerable bundle of energy. (Fast forward past Comfort's solo until about minute 4.00:)

It was a great piece.  But imagine a Mia Michael's piece if she were also able to use the  entire stage and work with a technical crew engaged with the drama, and dancers who've obviously been learning over a season how to perform for the camera. 

I wouldn't say that the dancing in this piece choreographed by Blake McGrath is much better.  But you can see how a bit of interesting camera work adds a whole new level of energy to this scenario, as does the momentum the dancers build from fearlessly using the stage.   Here the prop is a prop, not a crutch. 

And it's not like the U.S. technical crew isn't up to the challenge of choreography that uses the entire stage. When Canadian choreographer (and judge) Jean Marc Genereux gives American competitiors Will & Courtney this  Samba, the camera crew works it out  well enough (except for the spots where  they seem to be shining cop lights into our faces.) Fast forward to about minute 4, where you can see Genereux redeem himself  from the waterworks of  SYTYCD Canada. 

 But this ain't no Canadian camera crew: 

(Some of you may have seen this samba already if you stopped by my SYTYCD Canada re-cap.  You can fast forward past the intro to about minute 1.  But don't miss the opening shots.  And don't miss this classic Mary Murphy piece of judging.)