ABSTRACT
Got to Dance (Endemol Shine) is a reality talent format showcasing adult and child dancers. The combination of individual and ensemble dance acts creates highly physical and emotional performances, judged by a panel of professional dancers, live audiences, and people at home. As such, Erving Goffman’s (1959) idea of the performance of the self in everyday life is richly suggestive of the premise of reality entertainment as a platform for performance of selfhood. The chapter draws on Goffman’s notion of social life as a multistage drama within the live and mediated space of reality television. McGrath (2004) argues that reality TV highlights how we are producing selves for different audiences in multiple settings. Similarly, Skeggs and Wood (2012) point out how a production of subjectivity within reality television is framed around class, where the performance of class and selfhood is broken down and staged over time and space. The performance of selfhood, the body and class in reality television illuminates the significance of subjectivity, in particular affect, emotion and physical performances for self-transformation.
