TV proves an ideal partner

Predictions are always risky, but the summer of 2005 just may go into the history books as the time when American dance started over -- on television.

It’s no secret that the audience for concert dance has been aging and shrinking in this country at exactly the point when (no coincidence) it’s nearly invisible on network TV, the place where America markets its culture. The greatest dance stars of our time are virtually unknown beyond what’s become a coterie audience, and the very different kinds of dance that used to be abundant on MTV and PBS have recently shrunk to negligibility.

But rescue seems at hand. Suddenly this summer, two dance series have become hits on ABC (“Dancing With the Stars”) and Fox (“So You Think You Can Dance”), both of them contests modeled on “American Idol” and both of them intent on drawing distinctions between raw talent and artful expression. If American dance must build a new audience from ground zero, that’s a great first lesson.

Obviously, dance competitions have turned up periodically on the tube -- and this writer can remember fox-trotting his way to the semifinals in a contest held half a century ago on the late Al Jarvis’ “Make-Believe Ballroom,” telecast on Los Angeles’ KLAC-TV, Channel 13. Learning to do it certainly teaches you how to watch it, and the newest series document the learning process by incorporating choreography sessions and rehearsals rather than just showcasing finished performances.

In its first season (now concluded), “Dancing With the Stars” was the summer sensation; it ranked first in its time period among everyone from adults ages 18 to 54 to kids 2 to 11. The finale attracted more than 22 million viewers and overall it was the most popular summer series since CBS’ “Survivor” in 2000. Pairing non-dancing celebs with ballroom pros, it showcased couple dancing, arguably the most widely practiced form of dance on this planet.

Hollywood took up this same subject recently in the feature “Shall We Dance,” with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. If you bought or rented the DVD, you saw an alternate opening sequence that photographed ballroom dancers not just in their glitzy performance costumes but also in revealing contemporary street-wear.

The rehearsal footage in “Dancing With the Stars” humanized and sexualized its contestants in the same way but focused on all the repetition and growth needed to make dancing look effortless.

Moreover, the series taught you the names of the key steps and what to watch for in a particular dance: exactly how all of us learned how to appreciate ice-dancing after viewing a few telecasts.

Finally, in Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman, the series boasted judges superbly articulate about the differences among personal indulgence, showbiz pizazz and the technical/stylistic rules governing certain dance forms. If only they’d adjudicate performances by American Ballet Theatre in the same way, that company and its audience might be a lot better off.

A wide variety of styles

More than 10 million people watched all or part of the two-hour July 20 premiere of “So You Think You Can Dance,” a series that wouldn’t accept contestants older than 30 but otherwise let everyone have a shot. Stilt dancing, skate dancing, street dancing, club dancing, belly dancing, tap, salsa, acrobatics, movement-theater -- it was all OK at the initial audition, though afterward each participant had to take on new choreography and partners to stay in the game.

No dance series in television history showed us as many different kinds of dance all at once, with the sequences shot in Los Angeles for the second episode on Wednesday especially impressive in displaying the variety that flourishes so brilliantly in our midst but had never made it in front of a network camera until now.

(The ratings, however, slipped some, with just under 8 million viewers -- though it still won its time slot.)

Though the voice-over narration could have been more informative, the biggest drawback in the first two episodes was producer Nigel Lythgoe functioning as the Donald Trump of dance by firing dancers right and left. Some of them eminently deserved dismissal -- examples of bad, Bad, B-A-D dancing served as comic relief -- but surely not the cheap shots that sent them packing.

Never shy about venting his prejudices and addiction to stereotypes, Lythgoe made enough bizarre statements about sexuality (even praising a dancer for being “butch”) that you began to question whether masculinity and femininity were innate qualities in dance or interpretive colors that could be added or subtracted at will.

In any case, “So You Think You Can Dance” will soon move beyond its preliminary (talent-pool) phase -- and also presumably beyond Lythgoe’s “Apprentice”-style star-trips -- into the live competitions intended to inspire “Idol” worship.

And if the show’s team of professional choreographers does its job, helping the dancers who emerge as finalists develop and polish the unique personal, technical and/or stylistic qualities that made their auditions so exciting, true dance stars will emerge with their originality enhanced and their audience ready for more.

Both “Dancing With the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance” come from production companies based in England and other countries where dance is part of the mainstream television menu and where (no coincidence) concert dance has gained a new visibility, especially among younger audiences.

The link is proved: Series like these send viewers to dance classes and to live performances.

So if ABC and Fox’s dance experiments sustain their high ratings, a new, young public could well be born from the access and excitement they provide. You don’t have to consider them any kind of replacement for the masterworks of George Balanchine or Merce Cunningham to see that they could well bring a healthy reinvigoration of the whole American dance scene -- something that only television could do and at long last is being done.

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Lewis Segal is The Times’ dance critic.