Dance 100

I'm fussy about dance shows and was hoping this would please, but it ended up being more frustrating than entertaining. I like the concept and it could have been successful, but the production was all wrong. I was expecting "World of Dance" and got an MTV video with CW drama. I came for the dancing but saw more of the audience (why??) and could hardly see the routines for the constant wide angle and zoom shots. Add smoke and dark lighting, and it was usually pointless. I was curious to learn more about the 8 choreographers professional background but there wasn't much meat there. The "world class 100" consisted of a variety of people but only about 5 got all the camera time. One reviewer said everyone on the show was American (and therefore bad I guess?), however they must have had it on mute because the majority of dancers (that spoke) were from another country. There was the requisite drama thrown in (completely unnecessary) and the usual filler to drag out 8 episodes. I didn't like that the songs were chosen for them (some really odd choices) and that it all felt one note- same dance style/moves over and over again. I come from a contemporary dance background, but I appreciate all styles which made World of Dance so engaging. I quickly grew tired of the frenetic bumping and grinding that is fine only in small doses. There were moments of creativity, but not enough to make this satisfying. In fact, the one choreographer that was a bit of a creative oddball was voted off fairly quickly. I'll watch the finale, but I would never watch a second season of this without drastic changes.

I love this format and am really enjoying the show, the camera doesn't show enough of the dancers feet! It's a dance show. Surely seeing a full view of the dancers feet is imperative to making a judgement. I'm still only on my first episode so I don't know if there will be more contemporary dances; there would definitely need to be more clear footage of all the body movements and especially the feet. It seems so far that facial expressions and audience reactions are the main visual objectives. This is certainly not agt standard of quality viewing. I will keep watching though. Don't judge a book.

Finalists were awesome. Really awful directing and editing though. There were routines where you won't see the end because the cameras were on an audience member's reaction. I feel like the director didn't take note during the dress rehearsal.

This won't be getting any technical emmy's either. Some focal dancers can't be seen sometime because they were flooded by light or drowning in fog.

If you found World of Dance and So You Think You Can Dance entertaining, you'll be underwhelmed by this.

Oh, plus I don't believe their claim that they picked the Top 100 professional dancers in the world.

I would love to see this done with the choreographers getting to choose their own music and being able to switch out dancers that are being a pain. One of the "100" (Johnny) seems to be chosen almost every episode to give his (usually snarky, often negative) feedback on the dances. I suppose for "drama." Also, in earlier episodes especially, the camerawork doesn't allow us to enjoy the dances, with frequent angle and distance changes and cuts to the audience, sometimes every few seconds. At least that seems to get better after the first few episodes. Definitely has potential, but not there yet.

It's mind-boggling how wrongly this show was directed.

Zoom ins and zoom outs, fast cuts to nowhere. Showing the audience at key moments instead of the dancers (ie Brandi's reveal in the second to last episode happened off camera).

Directing a dance show is not about getting the action from multiple angles. It's about focusing on what's important and letting the viewers see the whole picture.

Ironically, the best way to direct a dance show is by doing it in the simplest possible way. A camera, in the middle, at a zoom level that shows everything and is as close as possible.

It's like being in the theater. What's the best seat? Smack in the middle of the room. Directing a dance show is about being brutally minimalistic with your directing choices.

Netflix produced a show that looked great if you attended the live show but looks terrible on the screen.

Plus, not letting the choreographers choose their own songs and at the same time giving them songs that fall more or less into the same genre made it even worse. Oh, and those cheesy, uninspired story themes? Who chose these?