On TV
Dwight Rhoden
What was the SYTYCD experience like?
Rhoden: You get in there and you go bam, bam, bam. You are on a deadline. Everyone focuses on what they have to do, but they are very well organized and extremely on schedule. The dancers just go for ten weeks straight. It’s intense for them, and from what I understand they don’t even have much of a day off. They are always busy taping or rehearsing some portion of the show.
You don’t have that much time to make it all come together. We had an hour and a half with the dancers but the cameras are present and you sort of have to make sure the rehearsal is fun, but you want to get some work done. On Saturday, we had three hours with no camera, so that’s the real, pivotal rehearsal. The next day, Sunday, we had two half hours, one in the studio and one actually on the set, and then on Monday, the day of the taping, they run the number four times.
With an audience?
Rhoden: Three times without an audience, and the 4th time, still without an audience but the judges are in and they are running all of the camera shots the way it will be that night. And then they start bringing in the audience at four o’clock on Monday and by five o’clock, we are taping the show—because it is not live for Wednesday. The comments and all of that are done on Monday. Tuesday they edit. Wednesday they air the show. Thursday, the elimination—that’s a live performance.
Had the dancers done this kind of work before?
Rhoden: Not at all. I had been watching the show and they do a lot of different things, but this was the first time they were having this type of genre, which they were calling the “pas de deux.” I honestly didn’t realize that that’s what this was. I thought I was being asked to do a contemporary routine.
Do you think the goal was to make ballet more accessible?
Rhoden: Absolutely, and I think that Nigel, who is a great guy, just loves dance, loves dancers, loves what he’s doing. He wanted to bring this type of work to the show, but you know, it’s television, and it is a different audience. One thing for him is that it has to be entertaining, it has to move people and make you want to get up and cheer. But they do try with some pieces to go a little farther.
Was the duet choreographed on the spot?
Rhoden: Yes, it was made in the moment on them. I can choreograph fast, but this minute and 30 seconds—! The dancers are really tired. They are working everyday and they usually have two or three choreographies going and a group number. They come in and they are ready, but this was brand new. I knew them from watching them on the show, but once you get in the room it’s a little different. I definitely had to make some changes to really make it for them, because I didn’t know them really.
Was this a positive experience?
Rhoden: It was a real pleasure, and I’m not putting that on. I have to say we were really, touched when Nigel stopped the show to talk about Desmond. I’m glad he took the time to recognize who he actually had in the fold. And he went on for a long time about it. They edited a lot of it out, but they actually kept much more in than I thought they would have. I think he was just very appreciative that he was able to bring that level onto the stage, and that was nice.
Desmond Richardson
It was such a thrill to see you on “So You Think You Can Dance.”
Richardson: Thank you. We had a really good time. I was very happy that they had us come to partake in it.
They do all sorts of dance, but this was something else.
Richardson: Look, it’s a competition. It is what it is, and there’s the entertainment factor, but we are doing the art of dance. We only know it in a high caliber, a high quality way. That’s the only way I want to know it, because we have a responsibility to keep it going, especially for the people who came before us, who paved the way. How dare we even think that we can do anything less?
The dancers were so nervous, but I said to them, what you can’t do, don’t—though there is a lot to think about, in the moment on the stage, you just have to go into the zone and remember that there’s nothing to prove, you are just sharing this gift that we have been given. All of that mad class taking has given us an awareness of our bodies. Just go in. You never know whom you are inspiring.
How did they cope, doing it all so fast?
Richardson: They actually did it—they were very tired because they go straight through, but they do have physical therapy and massages. The main thing is to know when you get into that show that you have to be ready for that boot camp thing. You have to be on point in your mind, and in your body.
On pointe in their minds?
Richardson: How about that? [laughs] The fortunate and unfortunate thing is that some are coming from that convention background, so they are just ready to hit it, quit it. You know, they are getting off the van and they’ll just do maybe a head roll and they are ready to kick out. That really is not healthy for your body. You can maybe get away with it once or twice, but then your body will turn on you. That’s when the injuries start. Your knee is hurt and your back is out because you are also dealing with a lot of different elements: The stage, floor, air conditioning—all of those things—so one has to be really attuned and aware.
When we were there, so many of the dancers were coming to us for little things. And I thought if I can give back, that’s the most important thing for me and if you listen, then that’s even better. Be hungry.
I pulled a couple of them aside to tell them to prepare better. There’s a lot that they have to deal with. They have to go to hair and make up, and they have interviews constantly in front of the camera. So I told them that there are things they must do for their preparation. Sometimes you need to go off to the side and just regroup for a moment. Take those 10 or 15 minutes when they are not working with you to really go in and do a proper roll down. It’s not that you need to do a huge 30-minute, or hour warm up, it’s actually the coming into your center and then you go out. A lot of them got it. The ones that we worked with, Will [William B. Wingfield] and Katee [Katee Taira Sheen], really got that they needed to come in and prepare.
You know, it’s just the little things. Had we been there to give them a class or something, then they would have gotten that information. We were not asking for a whole lot of stretch. It’s not about that. It’s just defining where your legs are in space. You don’t just whack them up, and the foot is crunched. The foot is pointed because it’s going somewhere. And actually it’s going from the standing leg up, out of the earth up to the sky, or wherever you want to place it, because it is an emotion. It has nothing to do with how high it is. That’s nice, but it has nothing to do with that. Everybody in the audience was so surprised when Katee and Will ran it the first time: “Katee,” they said, “I didn’t know you were so stretched!” But when she watched her playback and saw herself, she said, ‘Oh, I never did a penché like that!” That’s the penché. The leg takes you over, not you whack it. You press through foot. The leg only brushes up, from underneath, from the inner thigh!
But they got it and I was really proud of them. Hopefully they will allow us to come back, and work with some others and we can expound upon that a little further. Because it is not just about the competition, you are also doing the art of dance and you’ve got to make it accessible. It’s nice that you can do all of these things, but on this show, it seems to be about the versatility, so you have to be on point. These people are coming in who are formidable in their careers, so you may want to chime in. Here’s your chance, so chime in.
Did you get to pick the dancers you would work with?
Richardson: I think they chose the two who were most likely to get it. Though Katee and Will never partnered together—which was a whole other lesson—we told them, even though you have never touched each other, you’ve never been taught to partner, you have to come together. To start, we had them stand and just lean out, so that they could feel each other’s weight, and plié together to get to know the other person’s body, how much he or she weighed. We tried to make them aware of the smallest things too, like sensitivity to touch: Are you a grabber, or are you a tentative toucher? You must know all of these things and get comfortable with them quickly.
Dwight told them about the 3 “F”s: face, focus and feeling. That is what I grew up doing since I was 17. No one cares that you didn’t have a whole lot of time, but if you are in a professional environment, that is the protocol. You get it, and you go do it , and you keep the standard.
The work is an extension of what you have to say. You have to be honest. Before we left the stage we said, ‘This is you, and the thing you have to think about now is, within this art, what do you want to say? Just go in, go to the zone, don’t think about us. You do you. Obviously you are dancing because you have something to say, and you have to be in that moment and let the dance do you so that you can actually have an experience.”
