Old Interviews

Thanks Nony!


Anonymous said...
Hi, It's Nony!

I don't know if you've seen this but here's an article from DanceSpirit.com. That interviews Bnji, Ivan, Travis, Martha, and Allison.

http://www.dancespirit.com/sytycd.html

This month's Dance Spirit has Blake McGrath who was on the first season of SYTYCD (though seriously I don't remember any of those people as well as I know this season's crew). I haven't read any of it yet.

But there's also an ad for the NYCDA (New York City Dance Alliance) that has b&w pics of a bunch of dancers/cherographers including Mia Michaels. But there's a big congratulations "We Know They Can Dance" and 2 color pics of Travis and 1 color pic of Allison adversting that they are going to be part of the tour.

Backstage Exclusive: SYTYCD Chicago
DS catches up with half of the Top 10 in the Windy City

By Lisa Arnett, Midwest Editor

Did You Know?
The Top 10 dancers have a combined 121 years of dance experience.
Runner-up Travis Wall is long-time best friends with last year’s winner, Nick Lazzarini.
244 different outfits are worn nightly by the dancers in the touring show.
The night before the finale, Benji was sent to the hospital and treated for exhaustion and dehydration…and ended up in a room next to Lindsay Lohan.
Since the second season of SYTYCD wrapped in August, the Top 10 have been piling in and out of a tour bus, road-tripping across the country to perform for adoring fans. When they complete their tour on October 29, they will have danced live for more than 120,000 people. On September 22, they took the stage in front of a sold-out crowd in Chicago.

The dancers ran the show—literally. Cat, Nigel and the judges were reduced to video spots while the Top 10 passed the mic to introduce each number, fished for laughs and got the audience riled up. As promised at the end of the season, the tour delivered re-tooled renditions of group openers, like Wade Robson’s zombie-rock routine, “Ramma Lamma Bang Bang,” and favorite duets, from Ivan’s first foray into contemporary with Allison to Annie Lennox’s “Why,” to Travis and Martha’s “Steam Heat,” after which the judges proclaimed them “the couple to beat.” Fans wearing t-shirts and hats emblazoned with "Tranji" were present en masse, and were appeased with a performance of Shane Sparks' geek-cool hip-hop routine. Each dancer also took the floor to showcase a polished, brand-new solo—without that bothersome “So you think you can dance, dance, dance…” sound byte cutting them off at the end. The best surprise of the night? A graceful duet Travis choreographed for himself and Natalie to “Flying Without Wings.”

There’s a lot new with the crew—some things superficial, and some running deeper. Natalie’s locks are dyed red, but she’s still wearing her trusty knee brace. Benji’s sporting a darker ’do with a funky bleached streak. Travis is nursing a back injury (“I just came from the chiropractor,” he told us. “After the show, I can barely walk.”).

Before the show, Benji, Martha, Ivan, Travis and Allison sat down with DS to answer the same four questions about the show, the tour and their futures.

DS: How has touring been different than the TV show?

BENJI SCHWIMMER: Both have pretty hectic schedules. The thing about the scheduling during the TV show [is] it was set everyday; we’d be waking up at the same time. Now, it’s different because depending on where we’re performing, sometimes it’s a 6-hour trip on bus, sometimes it’s a 3-hour trip. Either you can decide to sleep on the bus or you can wake up, go to your hotel room and sleep the rest of the night off.

ALLISON HOLKER: “[The tour] is a lot more relaxed. It’s still stressful because you’re performing in front of a lot of people, but it’s not a competition between us. We were all a family on the show, but it’s even a bigger family now on the tour. Before, we were always helping each other with our duos that week, but now…we can really hang out and truly open up to each other. It’s a lot more fun this way. We don’t have tons of time to relax, but when we do, we relax. We’re all chilling in our pajamas watching a movie.

IVAN KOUMAEV: “The tour is different because you’re not on camera anymore. You don’t have the chance to mess up. You have to do everything perfect; your formations have to be perfect. Everyone sees everything. There’re no breaks. You can’t just be like, hold on let’s stop shooting. You keep going and going no matter what happens. Last night’s [performance in St. Louis] is a prime example. Donyelle had an accident; she fainted, and during the 15-minute intermission, we switched [around] the whole second half. And no one had a clue. There’s no take two.”

MARTHA NICHOLS: All the choreography is already learned [and] we already know each other. Even though its more laid-back, we’re still on our toes because we have to make sure that each show is new and fun and exciting, because even though this is our eighth show, this is the audience’s first time seeing it. Even though the show is our job and this is what we’re here to do, we’re still friends and we’re friends first.

TRAVIS WALL: We’re used to looking into cameras and doing that whole thing. With the tour, you have to attack the dances differently because the person in the back row should feel it as much as the person in the front row. And with the camera, everyone saw the same thing. So it’s a lot different, and you can’t disappoint people from what they saw on the show, so you have to work twice as hard.

DS: What are your plans after the tour wraps?

ALLISON: There have been different offers, but we haven’t been able to accept anything because we’re on tour and still under contract [with Fox.] There’s one TV show that I might at least do one episode with, and there’s been some other movie offers, and assisting other choreographers. And then also, I’m going to be doing a lot of choreography and teaching with workshops. There’s been some dance, acting and modeling offers—I’ve been asked to model for some jeans [companies] and stuff like that. Dance is definitely my main love, but there’s a lot I need to explore.

IVAN: I don’t want time off. Because dance careers are short. I want to keep working and going for it. I don’t know: for the first time in my life, I don’t have anything [next], because usually I’d have school, but now I’m done with high school. I’m praying that something will come my way.

MARTHA: I’m going to go back home [in Raleigh, NC] to my dance studio and choreograph and teach there, and visit my little sisters and my family and my grandma. And then I think I might be moving to Los Angeles in January or February [of 2007] to pursue dancing.

TRAVIS: There’s going to be a week period when I take time off. I haven’t been home [to Virginia Beach] yet since the start of the show—since May—and that’s a long time. And then [after that I’m going] right straight to L.A.—Ivan and I are going to be roommates. And there’s some stuff planned I’m not allowed to talk about quite yet, but I’m very excited about it. So, it’s not the end of me yet.

BENJI: Gosh, I know don’t know. I think I want to go to Disneyland. I’d like to [take some time off] but it’s probably going to be impossible just because of so many things being booked. I’m moving to Hollywood, and I have couple of offers there. I just signed with [McDonald Selznick Associates] dance agency. I’ve had a couple interviews with some executives from Disney, and we’re producing a couple of ideas right now. There’s something for CBS, a TV show about dancers who live in L.A., kind of like the movie Crash, everything just kind of coincides, all different styles of dancing and somehow its all related. I’m also possibly recreating one of the roles that Fred Astaire played in a movie, [Flying Down to Rio,] they’re changing the name, though, because they want it set in Cuba, because I’m fluent in Spanish so I’d be able to speak in both languages. These things take a long time [so] it’s not going to happen over night; we’ll see what happens. I’m being invited to come [teach at] to the more traditional jazz and hip-hop conventions, which is something I’d never thought I’d be doing. I mean, I teach at swing conventions all the time.

DS: What’s your dream job?

IVAN: If it was [back-up] dancing for somebody, I’d be dancing for Justin [Timberlake.] I absolutely love his choreography; everything’s just dope about him and I enjoy watching him. As far as long term goals, I want to get to a point where not only I am a respected dancer [and] respected choreographer, but I want to be respected for how I did my career, so people look back at me and are like, “Wow, that’s how I want to do things, all the way from the start to the finish.” Any mistake that’s ever made, I want it to be a mistake that everyone learns from and that I learn from and keep moving. I want my career to be flawless and be respected by the dance community, if not the world.

MARTHA: My goal in life was to always just have a job doing what I love to do. So whether it’s behind somebody in a music video, or in a huge ensemble scene in a movie, or a principal dancer in a company, or choreographing at dance studios—I just want a job doing what I love so when I get to [age] 40 I don’t regret anything. And my one long-term goal is to be in one Broadway musical with a leading role.

TRAVIS: Absolutely more TV, which hopefully you will see. I’d love to dance for an artist—but with [the tour], we’re not back-up dancing for anyone. It’s just us, and we’re filling out a 4,000-seat theater—it’s unheard of. And I want to push that envelope more. I want to push dancing on television and in movies more, especially contemporary dancing. People don’t really know about contemporary dancing, and I think I’m in a great standing point to push that a little more and I plan to do that. Absolutely [I want to be] directing and choreographing stuff. I was doing so many more choreography jobs than dance jobs when I came on this show; I came onto the show to push my dancing more. I want to be groundbreaking. I want to be remembered when I’m dead. I’m really young and I can do so much more…so there’s no downtime. You’re always thinking about something new.

BENJI: You know what it would be? To write my own major motion picture that’s a complete dance picture. Totally artistically done, not just your typical two people from the hood, one white girl, one black guy—I mean, its so cliché now to do movies like that. I would love to see a movie where it’s based on just straight dancing—not a Fame style thing, not [characters] overcoming boundaries. Like Disney did with Fantasia, I want to do that, but with dance. And I want it to win awards, not just for cinematography, but everything. I want it to be a best picture. I think that would be amazing. No one’s ever gotten to that point, with the exception of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly back in the day. That would be amazing to incorporate all different styles, to do something totally amalgamic and new and refreshing.

ALLISON: That’s so hard—because I’m very versatile and I like to do every style of dance, it’s hard for me to pick. I want to actually start competing as a ballroom dancer. I want to choreograph for [music] artists; I want to dance for an artist. I’d love to own my own company; I’d love to dance in a company. I would love to be in a Broadway show. I’m only 18, so there’re so many doors I can go into.

DS: If you were calling the shots, what would you change about next year’s season?

TRAVIS: I’ve been pushing to the producers on the show to come back and choreograph next year or be someone’s assistant. I want to be involved with the show as much as I can. I would definitely have some new judges. I think Tyce [Diorio] should be a judge. I think Wade [Robson] should be a judge. I think they both know what they’re talking about; I think we had some judges on the show this year that really didn’t know what they were saying. And I think people forget that the judges persuade America’s vote.

IVAN: What’s funny is that I came into this competition having a lot of ideas on how it should be done and what’s wrong with it; I came out of it understanding exactly why it’s run the way it is. The perfect example is when you’re auditioning, [a judge will] say comments like, “You wasted your own time. You wasted our time. What are you doing here? Go home!” To me, that’s real harsh. That could really break someone’s dream of being a dancer. So it made me feel bad and [I thought] I’d change that. Leaving the show, it makes a lot of sense why they say that. And anyone who ever auditions for this show has to understand [that] it’s a TV show. It’s not a normal audition. They’re making television, and people love to see drama. They love to see people being mean, they love to see tears, they love to see people break down. They’re giving them what America wants. And when America goes, “Oh, that’s so sad,” that’s exactly the emotion we’re drawing out of everyone. So, it’s not all just about dance. It’s a lot about working to the public. It was tough [to deal with] at first but once it clicked and I understood what it was, it got a lot easier.

MARTHA: I would take out a little bit of ballroom and throw in more modern, tap, lyrical and contemporary. [For example,] there was only one jazz performance the entire season, but there were so many salsas and Argentine tangos and smooth waltzes. And I understand that that’s very hard to do; I just think it would have given the show more variety and it would have shown more abilities of the dancers. If you can teach someone the salsa technique in four hours, you can teach somebody a decent tap routine without having them shuffling off to Buffalo for four counts of eight. I love to tap, and it wasn’t even an option on the show. Travis and Heidi also tap. I think that’s another category that America would love to see, and it stands out from everything.

BENJI: The whole time, you’re never competing against a girl if you’re a guy; and it’s the same thing for the girls. So, in terms of your demographics, obviously there’s going to be more girls voting—and if you have a cute little smile or shake your tush out there, they’re going to be voting for the guy. So, to have a female winner [and a male winner] would be very, very nice. And they haven’t released the top four results, but I heard that it was close with the girls and the guys this year, so it really could have been anyone’s game. [As far as the prize of a Celine Dion dance contract,] they want to give [the winner] a big start in whatever direction we want to go in the industry. I think to tell us we need to go in that direction when it might not be the best interest for both the company and for ourselves, it is a little difficult—not to sound ungrateful, because I’m really grateful that they gave me that opportunity—but I think giving us the tour is enough in terms of control of what we’re doing after the show. Afterwards, they kind of need to let us fly and to do our own thing out there.

ALLISON: I think they should pick if they’re looking for the “best” dancer or the “favorite” dancer next year. I think they should go for the “best” dancer. When it gets down to the top ten, what I think should happen [is] everyone who does their solo on [the] Wednesday [night show] should pick someone else’s name from a hat, and that person has to do their solo. I think that would truly show America who can do whose stuff. It would show if this jazz dancer can do swing, or that this swing dancer can do ballroom. It would show real versatility because someone can do nine pirouettes and another person couldn’t.


Oh yeah at tv.com there's some videos from sytycd that are interviews with the top four and some stuff from the first season too. There's also this awesome pic of the top 20 all doing amazing poses (jumps, etc). The top half of the picture is right on the top of the sytycd page. But the whole picture is the first pic under the listing for pictures. I tried to print it out but I only got 3/4s of it. But it's really cool.

10:21 AM, October 28, 2006


Anonymous said...
Hi, it's Nony!

I swear I'm not going to post anything else this whole weekend long.

But Vixen has the Much Music interview on her website and you can download it in three parts. It's really good!

http://vixen-ontheedge.blogspot.com/

11:26 AM, October 28, 2006


~ Moosey ~