Patrick Donohue is the proudest Indiana native you're likely to find. Seriously. No one is prouder to be from a state that so many people know relatively so little about than he is. Patrick is a native of Terre Haute and a graduate of the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University. Knowing this, you might think he’d be a huge John "Cougar" Mellencamp fan, a man considered by some to be the Hoosier State's poet laureate. But you'd be wrong. In a major way. | In the history of American television, no show has been more poorly marketed than Fox’s dance competition show, “So You Think You Can Dance?”
I know this because anytime I mention my unwavering love for this show, I get curious and confused looks from people clearly confusing it with its brainless, glitzy, spray-tanned cousin, ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.”
The two shows couldn’t be more different.
“So You Think You Can Dance?” is a celebration of dance, of movement and of an art form that I’ve always thought of as the physical embodiment of how music makes us feel.
There’s a purity to the show that I find refreshing. Although produced by the same evil geniuses that inflicted “American Idol” upon our nation, the show is delightfully free of Idol’s gimmicky voting that often results in attractive, non-threatening and demographically pleasing teens sticking around for weeks despite being borderline tone deaf.
Each “Dance” contestant isn’t seeking stardom, but an opportunity to make a living doing what he or she loves.
Having just started its ninth — and what some sadly speculate will be its last — season, “So You Think You Can Dance?” is a show worth your time and attention.