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Is it just me, or is anyone else bothered by the image of a street dance crew in bejeweled bras performing to Britney Spears remixes?

While I applaud MTV for bringing street dancing into the mainstream media, the network’s show America’s Best Dance Crew (ABDC) makes a mockery out of B-Boys, B-Girls and dance crews everywhere. Weekly challenges such as “The Britney Spears Challenge” and the “Rock the Title Challenge” guide crews toward producing full fledged Broadway productions. In other words, the show has become as much about the glitz and glamour surrounding the dance as it is about the dancing itself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’m not addicted to the show; I am. I marvel at the tricks that are executed on the stage each and every week I watch it. It is unbelievable to me that a dancer can slide across the stage on his head, or that another dancer can do an aerial flip and land in a pretzel on the ground.

I find that the weeks that present a physical challenge to the dancers – executing a specific move versus mastering the style in a certain music video – are more intriguing to me as a viewer. Such challenges allow the crews to be creative and to truly test their physical limitations. That being said, I find that most of the challenges are assigned with a certain bias.

In season two’s “Video Star Challenge,” each crew was given a different video with a dance sequence in it, which they had to perform while keeping their own style as a crew. Sass x7, a crew made up of seven foxy ladies, was given “I’m a Slave for You,” by Britney Spears. I highly doubt that was a coincidence.

MFA Dance Candidate Angeline Holmes grew up watching the Jabbawockeez, Season one’s winning crew, perform at the Choreographer's Carnival in Los Angeles. The show was held once a month that allowed local choreographers to show work.

Holmes was blown away every time she saw the Jabbawockeez perform, so she was excited to see the crew on ABDC.

But after watching the show evolve over three seasons, Holmes is equally frustrated with the show’s commercial twist.

“The moment a network begins to manipulate the success of a show, I believe it loses its original flavor… These crews have all been dancing forever with plenty of challenges in their lives and their creativity comes from these natural experiences. I would prefer the show leave the ideas up to the crews and give them more creative freedom,” she says.

The “Illusion Challenge” on last month asked the crews to incorporate elements of magic into their performances. After allowing groups to struggle with assignments that ranged from making something levitate to making an object pass through their bodies, illusionist Franz Harary gave the crews “magical” props to use.

While groups such as the Beat Freaks utilized their props to enhance their choreography, others allowed their dancing to be overshadowed. The Quest Crew gave a performance that resembled a gambling scene from Guys and Dolls, using a desk, wads of money and a coat tree to mask a lack of content in their choreography. Thankfully, the judges recognized Quest Crew’s shortcomings.

Judge JC Chasez commented that the routine seemed to be a lot of posing and lacked good transitions.

It seems that the entire show could benefit from better dancing and less showmanship. After all, they are looking for America’s best dance crew, not America’s best marketing team.