If reality television can be said to have an auteur at the moment, it is surely the Bravo channel itself, purveyor of the idea that creativity is born neither in solitude nor in serendipity but in the bloody spirit of vigorous contest. Having made incalculable cultural contributions with “Project Runway,” “Top Chef” and even “Shear Genius,” Bravo has now come up with “Step It Up & Dance,” a competition that makes literal the cuts and bruises of the career-building genre. Calves swell and hopes cave by the end of the first episode on Thursday, when the parting words take ominous form: “The show’s over. It’s time for your last dance.” “Step It Up” penetrates the freakishly curious world of the aspiring theatrical dancer.
At first the territory seems familiar (it’s a lot like Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance?”): each week choreographers subject the dancers to new routines; contestants are eliminated; dreams dwindle to dust. But a compelling sense of mystery girds everything here, because, really, what does it mean to make a life out of gallivanting around a stage in leg warmers looking like a genie jumping out of a bottle?
“Step It Up” makes us realize how little other competitive reality shows challenge our conceptions of ambition. We can watch “Project Runway,” see a 25-year-old forging blazers out of rug pads and understand that there may be a young Marc Jacobs inside. Mr. Jacobs has trainers and status and apartments and goals we can visualize. We know that “American Idol” can lead to a life as Jennifer Hudson.
All “Step It Up” leads to is $100,000 in prize money, which in itself underscores the limited career opportunities. What is at the end of the rainbow for someone who wakes up each morning to run through the numbers from “Mamma Mia!” or hang from a hoop in Cirque du Soleil? The end of the rainbow is Elizabeth Berkley, a former dancer who could exhume the corpse of Martha Graham and still go to her own grave known solely for “Showgirls,” that great degrader of the once simply disreputable profession of stripping.
As the series host and one of its judges (à la “Project Runway,” from the same production company) Ms. Berkley looks as if a rolling pin has been applied to her forehead, intimidating into fearful compliance any wrinkle that might labor to emerge. Still, despite the severity of her expressions, she leaves the business of harsh assessment to her fellow panelists, among them Nancy O’Meara, a choreographer who has worked with Hilary Duff and Ashley Tisdale and danced in “Forrest Gump.”
Ms. O’Meara likes what she sees in the athleticism of a 24-year-old dancer named Miguel, the show’s resident egomaniac. (Miguel on the subject of himself: “I’d describe my style as jazz funk, and I’d say I’m a pioneer of the genre.”) But his comportment doesn’t suit her. “Miguel, I need you to butch it up a little more,” she tells him. “I need you to be very strong and masculine. I don’t care if you like girls, boys, giraffes or monkeys. I need you to man up.”
The show’s antic energy comes in part from its unpredictable relationship to stereotypes, the judges expecting the dancers both to plow right over them and play them up. In the debut episode the guest judge is Mel B. (Scary Spice), who tells a pretty dancer named Tovah that she really ought to be more comfortable with hip-hop because she is black.
As for raw talent, even the less skilled of the dancers are awfully good, at least to the untrained eye, the eye that keeps away from new productions of “Grease.” The contestants on “Step it Up” never make fools of themselves, at least not with their feet.
STEP IT UP & DANCE
Bravo, Thursday night at 11, Eastern and Pacific times; 10, Central time.
Created by Gunnar Wetterberg. Produced by Mr. Wetterberg, Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth for Magical Elves. Elizabeth Berkley, host.