In the beginning, “So you think you can dance” seemed unstoppable. The “American Idol” -style reality competition met with enthusiastic audiences when it premiered in the summer of 2005. In the late 2000s, at the height of the show’s popularity, the names of the “So You Think” dancers were familiar enough to pepper the casual conversation of the audience at the dining room table. Did you call to vote for Benji or Sabra or tWitch?
A decade and a half later, “So You Think” is on shaky foundations. The show has not been on for nearly two years, and Covid forced the abandonment of season 17 at the eleventh hour last June. While the series hasn’t been canceled, production has yet to begin making another summer without it likely. “We’re holding our breath,” said Jeff Thacker, an executive producer on the show. “We’re not drowning yet.”
While “So You Think” may be pausing, the dancers haven’t slowed down. During the pandemic, they were all over the small screen, the big screen, and inevitably our phone screens.
Season four Stephen Boss, known as tWitch, is co-executive producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Season 6 Ariana DeBose starred in Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of “The Prom” and played Anita in Steven Spielberg’s new remake “West Side Story”. Season 13 Tate McRae released a single called “You Broke Me First,” which drove a TikTok wave to the top of the Billboard charts. Like dozens of other alums, each of these artists has hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Instagram followers.
If So You Think faces an uncertain future, it will be part of its legacy: the show helped propel dancers into the mainstream. By presenting them as individuals, it contradicted the entertainment industry’s tendency to view dancers as interchangeable, a sea of blurry faces behind musicians and marquee actors. “So You Think” brought dancers into focus, paved the way for high-profile, lucrative entertainment careers – and paved the way for dance influencers on social media.
“The show was a huge platform for dancers,” said Allison Holker Boss, a season two contestant who is now a television and social media personality. (She and tWitch started dating “So You Think” after a graduation party and got married in 2013.) “That put our stories in the foreground. And there weren’t many places for that elsewhere. “
In the days leading up to So You Think, entertainment industry dancers were generally, and sometimes deliberately, anonymous. “Most musicians, when they had backup dancers, didn’t want people to pull the focus,” said Julie McDonald, founder of McDonald Selznick Associates and one of the earliest talent agents to represent dancers.
Thacker described commercial dancers of the ’90s and early’ 00s as “transparent – no name was ever attached”. Or a voice. At auditions, Thacker said, they were expected to “say nothing, do what they do, smile and get out.” Those who sought fame left the dance behind. “The dancers who wanted to be stars? You had to start studying acting, ”said McDonald.
But “So You Think”, created by “American Idol” producers Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, saw evaluation potential in these charismatic artists. True to the basic rules of reality television, not only technicians are auditioned in the show, but personalities are also cast. “The concept was originally loosely based on the musical ‘A Chorus Line’, which wasn’t all about skill. It was, ‘Who are you?’ “Said Thacker. “We didn’t want America’s best dancers, we wanted America’s favorite dancers.”
The weekly episodes are about live performances by the participants, but also about recordings of rehearsals that familiarize the mainstream audience with the demanding, often invisible work of a dancer. And the show doesn’t shy away from the dance language. Technical terminology spices up the judges’ criticism and nudges the audience to take the dancer’s craft seriously. “The talk about dance that was on prime-time television – ‘Oh, your passé, your grand jetés’ – was completely new,” said McDonald.
“So You Think” competitors also receive a crash course on self-expression. The show contains get-to-know segments that allow them to feel comfortable in front of the camera. Live tours after the season, in which the dancers perform both as actors and hosts, offer particularly intensive training courses. “We did full skits!” said the witch. “It was a 360-degree preparation not only to perform the movements, but also to present yourself as yourself.”
From its first season on, “So You Think” shaped dance influencers who were known to fans of the show for both personality and technique. But “influencer” was not yet a career option. Early season alums – so many Cassies now out of the choir – often took a whack figuring out how they fit into the dance industry. “I think a lot of them didn’t know exactly where to go,” said Thacker.
Some plowed their way back into the show and returned as choreographers, judges, or all-star partners for contestants. Some jumped into the other dance shows that were beginning to populate the air waves, from “Dancing With the Stars” to “America’s Best Dance Crew”. Many became teachers at dance congresses and took advantage of the show’s popularity with dance students.
But a few seasons after So You Think began, the rise of social media began to normalize the idea of dancers as pop culture personalities and create a new realm of opportunity for the show’s standout personalities. Video and image-based social platforms were found to be particularly dance-friendly, and as YouTube and Instagram exploded, dancers everywhere became far more visible. Many “So You Think” stars built big fans and opened the door for lucrative sponsorship and business activities.
Witney Carson McAllister, a season 9 contestant who is now a pro on Dancing With the Stars, built a lifestyle brand with the help of her Instagram fan base. “Social media was a continuation of what ‘So You Think’ started: an opportunity to connect with people on a more personal level, to be a voice and personality rather than just a dancing body,” she said. “It became a place where I could start a clothing line and build a business because people knew me.”
As influencer culture continued to raise the profile of dancers, even those who had opted for a more conventional dance career began to feel the impact. Season 10 Jasmine Harper, who started dancing for Beyoncé after being spotted on “So You Think,” said She saw a new level of respect for the dancers’ work. “You will still be in the background – we all know why people are at a Beyoncé concert,” she said. “But you get a lot more support than maybe dancers in the past. You can now see fan pages on Instagram dedicated to an artist’s dancers. “
This fundamental change in the entertainment world isn’t always reflected in the wages or treatment of the average dancer. Several So You Think hits have used their clout to support other dance performers in the industry, including season five winner Jeanine Mason, who is now on the TV series Roswell, New Mexico.
“I always try to take care of the dancers on set to make sure they are compensated and given breaks, ”Mason said. Several alums cited the efforts of the Dancers Alliance, which advocates fair prices and working conditions for non-union artists. “This is the next frontier: we can enjoy and love dancers, but we also have to take care of them,” Mason said.
When the world changed around “So You Think”, the show began to feel behind the times, once ahead of its time. If what happens on Instagram and TikTok feels more relevant than what happens on network television, dancers have a path to prestige that doesn’t require undergoing the trials and humiliations of a televised dance competition.
“I think part of the magic of ‘So You Think’ in the beginning was that it gave strangers a start,” said season 12 winner Gaby Diaz. “Now the dancers who audition for the show are on social media most of the time. Those are names. “
“So You Think” remains stubbornly indifferent to the social fan base of the participants. “We have people who say, ‘Oh, you should get this dancer in the top 20, they have 16,000,422 followers,’ but we deliberately don’t let that affect our audition decisions,” Thacker said.
In recent seasons, however, the pool of auditioners has looked different, littered with established influencers. During the 2016 Next Generation season, which featured dancers ages 8 to 13, many participants arrived with big followers and long résumés despite their youth.
“‘So You Think’ definitely helped my career, but when I auditioned, I had a million followers on Instagram,” said Kida Burns, who was 14 when he won the Next Generation season. “I danced for Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, Usher.” (Burns now has 4.3 million Instagram followers, as does Missy Elliott.)
The current production limbo of “So You Think” seems ominous as some other dance shows continued during the pandemic. Although NBC recently canceled “World of Dance,” ABC just renewed “Dancing With the Stars” after kicking off a successful Covid-adapted season last fall. Fox, home of “So You Think”, ended the airing of a new reality dance series, “The Masked Dancer”, in February.
Whatever the fate of “So You Think”, both its graduates and fans are already feeling nostalgic. A few weeks ago, season seven alum tWitch and Alex Wong recreated a popular So You Think dance, Outta Your Mind, on TikTok – two influencers forged in the show’s melting pot and an 11 year old Televisions performed routine for a large audience of social followers. Tens of thousands liked and commented.
“I think audiences can feel these deep connections with So You Think dancers,” said Twitch. “Yes, they can really dance. But you also remember your “So You Think” favorites as people. “
