Malik Talks About His Time on MTV’s Taking the Stage

Tonight MTV ends its first season of  “Taking the Stage” with a 90 minute finale at 10pm. I had a chance to touch base with dance and vocal arts major Malik Kitchen, who shared his thoughts on the “Stage” experience:

RRC: How would you describe the experience of doing a show like “Taking the Stage”?

Malik: The experience was very fast paced. It was very exciting. There were a lot of ups and downs to it; mostly ups. The time when there were break ups, they were down times. But most of it was very fun; very exciting. We all learned a lot. It was just a great time; the whole experience.

RRC: What are some of the things that you learned about yourself from doing the show?

Malik: It’s taught me to be very humble; very strong. I can refer back to the first episode; how I acted when I lost that talent show.. I’ve learned that I’m not going to win everything; I’m going to have to lose some things. The show has helped to understand that, so that when I go out into life and I don’t get an audition or something, I’m going to be much more okay with it than I would have been before I experience all of this. Read more

Taking the Stage: Premier

Taking the Stage
MTV, 10pm

Set in Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts, MTV’s Taking the Stage already sets us up for an unglamorous experience. I mean, tell me the last time anything ever happened in Cincinnati? With the exception of an abysmally bad 80s remake of Babes in Toyland (starring a young Keanu Reeves and a younger Drew Barrymore), I can’t. But despite questionable appearances, the CSCPA has produced talent of all kinds: in the form of Sarah Jessica (talent) and Nick Lachey (“talent”), for example. I guess that’s why alumnus, visionary, and stupid-girl-loving all-American-hero Lachey brought us this reality show. To show us talented American teens “on the cusp of greatness.” You know, like a real-live Fame, only without the tears and the unfortunate nudity.

The series has lots of unglamorous moments that separate it from MTV’s other docudramas The Hills and The City. LA Times writer Robert Lloyd is particularly fond of these moments because “it’s important that we see these kids as the real thing and for all their rare drive and talent, they are, indeed, clearly kids and really real.” And despite the flashy production values and rehearsed video diaries, a lot of the footage Taking the Stage presents is the genuine awkwardness, insecurity, and ambition of talented young performers.

In many ways though, it’s this ambition to showcase “real kids” without glamour that the series falls a little flat. MTV is using the standard “scripted reality show” format here, where the kids are asked to talk about certain topics, asked to talk to certain people, asked to show certain dance moves. And maybe do it again, because the sound wasn’t right. Or maybe this time, hold a Fresca can instead of a water. Scripting reality shows is a way of controlling reality to a narcotic degree, and it works on shows like Celebrity Apprentice where you have absolute trainwrecks. But if you’re doing an honest and open documentary about 18-year-old performers in Cincinnati, shouldn’t you just film them, then go through the footage later to present the honest and open story? Should you maybe not stage a totally corny cafeteria dance-off that looks waaaaaaay too High School Musical for comfort? Maybe I’m just old-fashioned like that.

Even though CSCPA is an arts magnet, there’s a disproportionate number of the students featured in Taking the Stage that are dancers, with one lone singer-songwriter holding the mantle of music. Why does MTV even bother having the word “music” in it’s title at all? I think we should change it to Meh Television, because that’s how all of it’s programming feels lately. The network is uninspired, and it isn’t showing anything that anyone talks about anymore. Taking the Stage could have been an opportunity to be relevant, talking about the future of arts in a depression economy. Or it could have been fun, talking about all of the high cattiness and meanness you see senior year and in the arts. Instead, it aims for the high road, and ends squarely in the middle.