Legion of Extraordinary Dancers comes to life online

Aug 18, 2010 by Stephanie

: Image by jurvetson via Flickr

I will freely admit that I’m addicted to reality shows. And apparently I’m not the only person who avidly followed So You Think You Can Dance this summer and was somewhat annoyed that they’ve restricted contestants’ social media engagement throughout the show. Because part of my love of reality is that its, well, real. The contestants, the judges, the fans – they’re all part of the appeal. (Sidenote: Bachelorette star Ali Fedotowsky was one of my reps at Facebook before she left to appear on the Bachelor – making this season of The Bachelorette must-watch TV for me.) It’s the talent shows – SYTYCD, Top Chef, Project Runway – that I’m most interested in; I like seeing ordinary people pursue their passions and following their engagement online.

There’s a new dance show developed for Hulu, The LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) – and Mashable is saying it’s a “game-changer” for dance shows and episodic content production. I’ve been a fan of The LXD since their amazing performance at the Oscars earlier this year. The show is an episodic drama about how members of The Legion came to be; various dance styles are highlighted in the episodes and the series has a comic book feel to it. And, not surprisingly for an online show, The LXD is doing a great job in using social media to engage with fans and followers and promote the show. The best part about it for me is that the dancers are people I’ve seen perform in a number of settings and who have amazing, real talent.

One of my favorite episodes is “Robot Lovestory” – it’s a little bit creepy and a little bit romantic and features some fantastic dancing.

So while The LXD is not a reality show, I’m closely following the reality of what this group is doing to further content creation and find new audiences online.