SYTYCD Goes to War!

Okay, kinda.

Last night’s episode of So You Think You Can Dance (7.26) began with choreographer Mia Michaels apologizing for a jacket she had worn on the previous night’s episode. Apparently, it was a military jacket (USMC?), but with the insignias sewed on upside down.

Mia claims that she had been given the jacket by a designer-friend, and had no idea that it signified anything at all. I don’t think there’s any reason not to believe her, but I do want to come back to this, especially because Apostropha has an awesome post on a similar situation Cameron Diaz recently faced in Peru.

But back to SYTYCD. One reason Mia’s jacket garnered so much attention is because it appeared in the same episode as Wade Robson’s solo choreography, which in the package preceding its first rendition (by Jamie), he explicitly refers to as anti-war. Or more specifically, he refers to it as “about peace,” which he stutters into “anti-war.”

And the stutter seemed appropriate, because he must know that while he might have gotten away with “peace,” a term that has been emptied of any relation to feeling and action, “anti-war” does still actually say something. Friend and SYTYCD colleague Dan Karaty, however, has already spoken out against Wade, using the sort of vague, awkwardly “diplomatic” cliches that have become epidemic in popular discourse. After pointing out that his own brother is a Marine, Karaty tells USmagazine.com that:

“Everybody has the right to have an opinion,” he says. “Part of the reason our troops are [fighting] is that so we can all have our own opinion. We are given the freedom to do whatever we want conceptually and choreographically, which is a great thing. The producers of the show trust us,” he says, adding that he is unaware of a production policy of clearing routines and themes prior to air. “But,” he insists, “I don’t think So You Think You Can Dance is the right form to express political opinions.”

Karaty can’t quite stay afloat in this sea of borrowed discourse, a discourse that has become one of my pet peeves. I generally accept the claim that American soldiers imagine themselves as fighting for American rights. But I find it disconcerting how this claim has become a way of blocking people from exercising that very right, which of course nullifies the claim itself” “we’re fighting for your right to speak. So shut up.”

This is particularly sad coming from an artist, and Karaty’s self-contradiction reveals at least one of two things: he is pulled between being an artist and supporting the war, or he is pulled between being an artist and being a successful commodity. And, in today’s political climate, the latter term in each possibility is essentially equivalent to the other, in the sense that it doesn’t matter what Karaty actually thinks about the war. What matters is that he thinks it’s his duty to say nothing, to be a good cultural soldier– to never say anything that might jeopardize sponsorship (”The producers of the show trust us”).

Like many of his “hip-hop” routines, Karaty’s thoughts on the matter leave me feeling like I’ve been watching a little one trying to swim in the big kids’ pool– with a kickboard.

Thank god there were some adults on the stage last night! I was happy that Nigel stood up for Robson’s routine, actually appealing to reason by questioning what it means for a society to be up in arms about the words featured in the piece (each dancer wore a shirt with a “peace-related” term written on it: communication, understanding, etc.) The routine, Nigel pointed out, wasn’t anti-American or anti-troop, it was against troops being in Iraq.

And I must say; Nigel’s moment was a quick moment, but it was an important moment that was unfortunately rare for television. And I don’t quite mean this in an against the war way, but more because it was nice to hear anyone say anything– and mean it.

Ironically, the verse of the John Mayer song (”Waiting on the World to Change”) that Robson chose?

it’s hard to beat the system
when we’re standing at a distance
so we keep waiting
waiting on the world to change

now if we had the power
to bring our neighbors home from war
they would have never missed a Christmas
no more ribbons on their door
and when you trust your television
what you get is what you got
cause when they own the information, oh
they can bend it all they want

Well, we better not wait too long, ’cause it’ll all be over before we know it.

Oh, and I got this link via Blogging SYTYCD; it’s a note on the piece (on the “peace”?) on Wade Robson’s website.

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