Suggestions for stars’ next moves

MAGALONA. Should focus on “heating up” his performances.

Since we keep advising stars and starlets to plot and manage their careers instead of leaving everything to chance, we get requests for suggestions for stars’  next moves. Some specifics:

For Elmo Magalona, it’s great that he’s been given a new drama series opposite Janella Salvador, but he needs to stop being so bland and nice, and focus on “heating up” his performances. Ditto for Freddie Webb, who’s played a number of character roles—all too nicely.

Other excessively and predictably nice and bland performers include James Reid, Alden Richards, Benjamin Alves, Rafael Rosell,

Mark Bautista, Christian Bautista, Carlo Aquino and JC de Vera.

Why are many of our performers so focused on coming across as “nice?” Some of them want to make it as “boy-next-door” types, because they know that many female viewers go for such good-looking but “safe” types, in keeping with their fond fantasy of ending up with the perfect and perfectly “manipulable” guy who won’t hurt them in the end.

Unfortunately, that fantasy quickly overstays its welcome and ends up as dismally and numbingly boring, so actors should avoid it like the plague, and opt instead for less safe and obligingly sweet performances.

They’re much more interesting, and enable them to grow and deepen as actors, instead of just being flavors of the month—or week!

Other notes and tips: What will Ken Chan do after his cross-dressing portrayal in “Destiny Rose?” It’s boosted his stellar stock, but he can’t have a long career by being typecast as a tranny.

His best bet is to play a challenging role in an action-drama series, and thus convincingly affirm his versatility.

Aga Muhlach? He needs to continue losing weight and star in a new movie this year, or some notoriously forgetful and fickle fans will fail to remember that he’s one of the best “maturing” stars we have.

Late-night TV host Jojo Alejar? He’s too good a talent to continue limiting himself to the late-late and early-early timeslot, and needs to come up with a wider range of comedic and character portrayals.

And  Renz Fernandez should act more regularly to remind viewers that he’s a worthy successor to Rudy Fernandez’s show biz legacy.

‘Dance Kids’

Last month’s “Dance Kids” telecasts were an improvement over the debut shows we watched. Finally, the three judges were being less giddily approving of the juvenile dance acts they were vetting.

Judge Georcelle was especially noteworthy for her pleasant but steadfast refusal to “humor” the other jurors and “allow” a rather ordinary folk dance  group to go on to the next level, just because they were cute and were doing something “local” and “cultural.” —That’s more like it.

In general, however, most of the dance acts featured were still not as exceptional as they should be. Yes, they’re “just kids,” but this is a competition that’s supposed to reward “the best”—so, for that to happen, everyone has to come up with his or her utmost—the production’s talent scouts, audition masters and judges included.

We’ve seen enough kiddie dance shows and competitions through the years to know that children don’t have to remain enthusiastic but raw amateurs just because they’re so young.

On UK dance shows, a lot of child soloists and acts are featured, and given their years of training and creative choreography and “showcasing,” they’re marvelous. Why can’t Filipino kids be as exceptional?

A final note: We know that hip-hop is popular here, but for “Dance Kids” to feature so many hip-hop and other trendy dance exponents is to paint itself into an increasingly small career, because hip-hop is ultimately repetitive and thus self-limiting.

There’s so much else to encourage, and if the performances are exceptional and exciting, they too will find favor—and viewership.

Now that “Dance Kids” has concluded its run, we can sum up its plus and minus points:

On the positive side, some of its finalists were exceptional, like the duo of hip-hop Fil-Canadians, Lucky Aces, who romped off with the tilt’s top plum (they were our obvious picks from the very start).

On the other hand, some entrants were patently too old to still qualify as kids, and struck us more like tween or even teen performers.

Others came across as too limited to just one trendy dance style, like the hip-hop variety that the show obviously tended to favor.

We trust that, if “Dance Kids” has a new edition, it will opt for younger contestants and more varied dance styles to showcase, so that it can more fully live up to its promise!