Dance Competitions Rev Up Reality TV

April 3, 2008 — -- It's why "Fame" remains a pop culture point of reference 28 years after it left theaters. It's why you stop and stare when a street performer starts doing head-spins on a concrete sidewalk. It's why ridiculous crazes like the Macarena catch on.

People love to dance. Or more accurately, people love to watch people who love to dance.

That may explain the recent boom of TV dancing competitions. Sure, ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" has been cha-cha-ing strong for six seasons, and Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" kicks off its fourth go-around in May.

But a new crop of shows -- the hip-hop driven "America's Best Dance Crew," which last week wrapped its first season on MTV, and pro-competition "Step It Up & Dance," premiering tonight on Bravo -- is reviving the genre of reality TV and scoring younger fans.

"I've always loved dance and I felt like nothing really spoke to the youth of America," said Randy Jackson. The "American Idol" judge created "America's Next Best Dance Crew," the first dance competition to put groups head-to-head rather than individual performers.

"Every time they're in a club, they see people dancing," Jackson said. "Every time they see a video, every time they see a commercial, they see people dancing. But there was nothing that spoke to that group.

"This show ... it harkens back to the Michael Jackson video of him getting out of the sewer with his crew, getting ready to battle another crew. It harkens back to 'West Side Story,'" he said. "The passion of these dancers, it just shines through and shows on the screen."

It's true -- far from coiffed "America's Next Top Model" contestants or nervous "American Idol" hopefuls, the kids on "America's Best Dance Crew" pop-and-locked their hearts out and looked as if they were having a good time.

Viewers responded -- the show's season finale drew 7.9 million viewers. More than 38 million votes were cast -- a record number for a single event on a cable reality series -- to crown San Diego masked marvels JabbaWockeeZ the winners of the show, which brought them a $100,000 prize.