Fox Revamps 'So You Think You Can Dance' for Season 12, New Stage vs. Street Format Revealed

Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" series is getting renewed for a twelfth season, but this renewal isn't simply a new season. The show is getting revamped for the next season, with a new "stage versus street" format as mentioned by Fox.

Unlike with the previous seasons, participants will no longer be placed in a single large pool but will be split into street dancers or stage dancers. Street dancers will be those who specialize in hip-hop, animation or break dancing while stage dancers will be those who are trained in contemporary, ballet, jazz or tap dancing.

From the auditions, the top 20 dancers will feature 10 street dancers and 10 stage dancers. When the live episodes and the performances start, the dancers will be challenged to do a variety of dance styles – not necessarily limited to their own dance style. At the end of every week, one dancer will be eliminated from the roster and the finals will feature a stage-versus-street showdown.

The show's co-creator, executive producer, and judge Nigel Lythgoe has said that contestants may be great dancers in a certain style but if they aren't professionally trained in a certain dance form, they may get overwhelmed.

"What we thought was why don't we give them an opportunity of getting through and then they've got the opportunity to train a little bit … to relax a little bit, and then once we get to the top 20, that's when we hit them with, 'OK, now you've got to do all the different styles' … where the stage kids are given hip-hop to do and the hip-hop kids are given stage dance to do," Lythgoe said.