TV: Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew

I'm not a dancer, but my sister is. From her, I've learned to appreciate not only a well-performed dance, but the long hours of practice necessary to rehearse complicated choreography and difficult moves. I've also started watching the second season of "Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew" (ABDC), hosted by Mario Lopez:



There's a lot of dancing competitions on TV, but ABDC doesn't feature B-list celebs. Instead, teams of very talented young men and women perform dances to various hiphop, R&B, and pop songs. The show obviously skews towards the type of dancing that's popular with the urban youth of today, but that hasn't stopped many of the crews from innovating with almost Broadway-like moves:



One caveat to mention is that the fans still pick which teams are in the bottom two for each week, with the judges (Lil Mama, JC Chasez of 'N Sync fame, and hiphop choreographer Shane Sparks) selecting who will be kicked off. This ensures, though, that the level of competition is very high - all three judges know what to look for in a dance routine, and it's pretty interesting to see how the little details - a move of the hand here, a facial expression there - can make a performance special.