The new "Dancing with the Stars" is just cool, and nowadays it's a lot

Given the Israeli television universe, and even after the previous Hebrew version, expectations from "Dancing with the Stars" were slim - but we were pleasantly surprised.

"Dancing with the Stars 2022" is a lovable, balanced and viewer-friendly reality show

Walla!

culture

14/02/2022

Monday, 14 February 2022, 10:00 Updated: 10:09

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Promo "Dancing with the Stars" 2022 (Rainbow 12)

If you catch on YouTube some excerpt from the previous version of "Dancing with the Stars", which was produced online in the first decade of the millennium, you may be surprised to discover how far, almost naive, a relic of an entirely different television and cultural era seems.

Since then the TV market has changed beyond recognition and reality has grown to monstrous sizes.

It's not just the Olympics of thrills, maximalist packaging and hyperactive submission - the materials that have turned any metaphorical or real obstacle race into a ridiculous circus - but also the celebs' carnival.

Everywhere you can see today fourth- and fifth-degree celebrities being humiliated in silly missions for another grain of publicity, and television is demanding from them more drama and more drama and more drama, most of them all empty.

"Winning Couple", "Master Chef", "Winning Kitchen", "Survival", "Big Brother", "Golstar" - these are just some of the examples of the phenomenon.

The culmination is of course in Keshet's dystopian flagship program, "The Singer in the Mask",

Therefore, expectations of the rise of the new version of "Dancing with the Stars" were low.

What could already be?

Another gimmicky celebration of Rainbow's talents?

But I was pleasantly surprised: this is not a corrupt dance.

Although it is repetitive and quite monotonous, in relation to the Israeli television universe, "Dancing with the Stars 2022" is a likable, balanced and viewer-friendly reality, much more than expected.

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People who face a challenge.

Yael Bar Zohar and Anton Lapidos, "Dancing with the Stars" (Photo: Screenshot, Rainbow 12)

It's still pretty much the same idea: celebrities team up with professional dancers.

Together they practice as a couple on a variety of dances and perform in front of a team of judges.

The emphasis is on the hard work of people who may be professionals in their field but are completely amateur as dancers, not on being physical machines ("Ninja Israel") and not out of hiding ("the singer in a mask").

It's a much more modest format: the contestants do what they can - without necessarily excelling, but also without being humiliated.

On screen are people facing a challenge, not stars hiding behind animal dolls.

The casting, which as expected also includes talents of Keshet from all sorts of sides, brings to the table among a variety of media people, singers and models, also Prof. Idit Matot of Ichilov, one of the symbols of the Corona period.

She did not participate in the first program, but in advance it is a problematic choice, reminiscent of the placement of Prof. Itamar Grotto as a pea in "Singer in a Mask."

There is a point to a flaw in the placement of experts as entertainers - certainly at a time when the public's trust and its need for a reliable interpretation of the situation is so important.

This is exactly how television distorts the relationship between entertainment and current affairs, and shapes them to the point of smearing the differences.

Among the team members who competed last night, it would have been nice to see gymnast Alex Shtilov or comedian Adi Ashkenazi who impressed both, but also Eli Ildis with a Matrix style performance, which on the one hand might have been weird but also had a pinch of edge and originality hard to find in prime time.

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A successful bet.

Lucy Ayub with Moshe Ashkenazi and Jania Liebman, "Dancing with the Stars" (Photo: screenshot, Keshet 12)

The rest of the team of "Dancing with the Stars" is also surprisingly good.

The bet on Lucy Job, which came after a long period of friction in the corporation, appears to be successful.

Her style is mundane, relaxed, neither cocky nor sensational and mostly unforced - and it's interesting to see how it develops in the future.

The dynamics at the judges' table are not yet ideal, but neither are they oppressive.

Along with the veteran Eli Mizrahi (who was also in the previous version) and David Dvir ("Born to Dance"), one can really notice Bruno Lee Shimon and Anna Aronov, who both grew out of such formats, discovering themselves as mentors with character and matter-of-fact comments.

These are compliments that sound lukewarm, but that's exactly the power of "Dancing with the Stars."

It is not turbulent, not one-time, not yellow, not drifting anywhere and also not manipulative, harmful or cynical.

how do you say?

She just wants to dance.

In the commercial television of the present era, this too is a kind of upside.

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• Dancing with the stars

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• Anna Aronov

• Rona Lee Shimon

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