MTV's 'Crew' way outside the box step

By Michael Mehle, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

MTV

The Super Cr3w performs on America's Best Dance Crew.

Summertime means there's more hoofing on TV than at a Riverdance reunion.

As soon as ABC's Dancing with the Stars and Bravo's Step It Up and Dance crowned their winners, Fox's So You Think You Can Dance and ABC's Dance Machine were fox-trotting into high gear.

But for our money, none of those shows can stay on the same floor as Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew. Originally ordered by NBC (which wanted to call it World Moves), the show has found a much better home on MTV, where it's a cable juggernaut for the all-important 12-to-34 demographic.

Here are four reasons why we watch. 1 It's all about the dancing. Looking for a sob story about an inner-city urchin who has battled his way to the top despite rhythmically impaired parents? It's probably here, but you won't hear it. With five or six dancers per crew, who has time to delve into some plodding back story? That suits us just fine, because we're not looking for a long-term relationship, just some eye-popping pop-and-lock dance moves reserved for the double-jointed and Gumby.

2 The dancing is outrageous. While Dancing With The Stars shackles its C-list celebrities with buzz-killing ballroom rules ("Hey, Marie Osmond - we said 'No lifts!' "), MTV's Dance Crew abides by only one tenet: Make our jaws drop. Forget lifts; even the basics of break dancing are passe in this competition, in which the moves defy gravity and the physiological laws of the skeletal system. The dancers flip, catapult, crunk, slide, glide, levitate, spin on their heads and bend in half. Earlier this season, judge JC Chasez tried to set some limits ("You guys have a flair for the theatrical, but we saw a lot of tricks . . . this is a dance show, so next week I need to see a little more dancing."). But fellow judge Shane Sparks set him straight ("Break dancing, it is tricks. That is dancing, to me, to us, to the break-dance world."). Indeed, the more tricks the better. Anything goes, and the crews that don't embrace that notion are sent packing.

3 Teamwork is tops. After watching Dance Crew, enduring the one-on-one dance moves of the other competitive dance shows is like listening to a lame Mick Jagger solo album when you really wanted all the Stones working together on Sticky Fingers. Partners tangoing across the floor can't compete with a team of five or six dancers who must choreograph all of their moves with one another. Each crew is only as good as its weakest part, and the intrinsic one-for-all, all-for-one approach is a refreshing twist on reality TV's me-first format.

4 The judges keep it real. Few reality shows have dared mess with American Idol's formula for a three-person panel of judges that includes an overly sympathetic vote of confidence, the British blowhard who finds fault with everything and the professional voice of reason in the middle. Dance Crew's judges aren't playing those roles. You never know which of the three will rise up and deliver a verbal beatdown - or just how they'll do it. "I've got a 10-year-old that could have choreographed that routine," Sparks told one crew. Lil' Mama last month said, "You've just got to make sure you make that extra stab in the heart of the chicken. You feelin' me?" We have no idea what it means, but we're certain no one scripted that line. This we do know: You won't find another show where the judge will tell a contestant, "Y'all ripped it! When y'all grabbed your crotch? That was crazy! Y'all represented!"