Posts Tagged ‘Nigel Lythgoe’
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Nigel Lythgoe’s Mid-Season Reflections
So You Think You Can Dance judge and Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe gave us his mid-season Dance reflections on a press call this week. With eight dancers remaining and two weeks left in the competition, Nigel assured us that the race to crown America’s Favorite Dancer will be an exciting one.Nigel said that this season of Dance has had many surprises. “Russell, the Krumper from Boston, is an enormous surprise. I don’t know where he’s getting his lines from and he does a pas de deux, which is just tremendous, and doing pressage lifts and everything else.” In addition, Nigel has been surprised with Legacy Perez’s growth, saying that “Legacy has grown far more than I thought he would. I didn’t think that the boy had any musicality; when I first saw him he was just a tricker.” Nigel also mentioned that Ashleigh and Ryan Di Lello surprised him – “The two ballroom kids are just tremendous.” These aren’t the only surprises of the season. Nigel commented on all of the finalists, “It is always a pleasure to see them be like sponges and try and soak up everything that they can from the choreographers and from the dancers that they’re working with. They truly do, unlike most other programs like this, help each other tremendously with learning and with providing knowledge.”
For the first time in So You Think You Can Dance history, a married couple made the show and both Ashleigh and Ryan Di Lello are still vying for the title of America’s Favorite Dancer in the penultimate week of the show. Nigel said that having a married couple on the show hasn’t been an issue. “Ashleigh and Jakob formed a relationship for pure dance and respect for each other,” Nigel stated. “At the end of the day she’s in competition with her husband and her husband’s in competition with her. They’re extremely professional about it and both of them, I think, have been two of the major dancers that have grown in this production and this season so far. They’re a joy to watch at the moment.”
During last week’s Top 10 performance show, the judges went wild over Jakob Karr and Ellenore Scott’s mastery of Sonya Tayeh’s contemporary choreography. Nigel said that was possibly one of the best routines from this season. He was excited to see Ellenore and Sonya, who “both come from the same planet and probably speak the same language,” bring Jakob down into their world.
One year ago, Nigel stepped down from his position as Executive Producer at American Idol in order to spend more time on Dance. Now, Nigel and company are launching So You Think You Can Dance in the U.K. so he is flying back and forth to work on both shows, all the while running the Dizzy Feet Foundation.
Nigel is excited for the next two weeks that lie ahead. “I think this season has had the most diverse dancers on it. It looks to me, especially after [the Top 10 performance] show, that we’re going in the right direction to produce a really good champion.”
Nigel opened up about Season 6 on a press call just before the season started. Read it.
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Executive Producer & Judge Nigel Lythgoe Talks About Adam Shankman & Season 6 Changes.
On a recent press call, Executive Producer and Judge Nigel Lythgoe discussed Adam Shankman, Season 6, and more.
Although Season 6 is the first fall season of So You Think You Can Dance, Nigel promises that they aren’t changing too much about the already successful summer seasons to cater to a fall crowd of viewers. One change that we’ve announced is the addition of Adam Shankman as a resident judge. That means Tabitha and Napoleon, Lil C, Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, etcetera will most likely not be sitting on the judges’ panel this year. Nigel said, “It’s always difficult to put them in because I want them choreographing, and the minute they choreograph, they’re not allowed to be a judge…We will still have an open chair. I would still like Paula Abdul to pop in. I would still like guest judges to pop in when they can. Jennifer Lopez has said how much she loves the program. I would love her to come in and sit down. We tried it with Ellen. It was very successful. I just don’t want four judges every week.”
With each season of So You Think You Can Dance, the judges always mention how the bar is constantly being raised. “The standard of dancing is just improving all of the time,” Nigel stated. “All I’m seeing is this exponential growth that, all of a sudden, we’ve brought street dancing and formally trained dancing together and it’s exploded. Whereas the formally trained dancers didn’t want to take chances, the street dancers will do anything and, therefore, they’re teaching the formally trained, and the formally trained are turning around and teaching the street dancers lines and elevation and things, and it’s absolutely fantastic to see. It’s a great joy for somebody that felt dancing was stagnant for so many years to see this happen, and I’ve really seen a huge growth in five years. A formally trained dancer would never, ever jump onto the back of their head from a standing start without hands. There has always been this fear and knowledge of ‘no, I’ll hurt myself if I do that,’ whereas an untrained dancer will just go for it. So mixing those two things together, we have something very exciting, which I think has brought integrity back into the world of dance and everybody realizes that you have to be an athlete nowadays to be a dancer.”
Nigel opened up about the dancers on Season 5 versus the dancers he hopes to see on Season 6. “I thought technically [the Season 5 dancers] were superb and I would like to certainly keep that standard, that level of dancing, but I would like whoever we have this year to bring personality with it and bring charisma.” Nigel admitted he’d be a very happy man if he can achieve the perfect combo of Season 4’s personalities with Season 5’s technique.
As you saw in the Season 6 premiere, a lot of talented tap dancers have auditioned this year. Nigel said that tap dancers and ballerinas have come out of the woodwork, possibly because they were inspired by Season 5 ballerina Melissa. Will So You Think You Can Dance see their first tapper in the Top 20? “I think two or three of them will possibly even get into the top 20. They’re that good,” Nigel shared.
Recently, it seems like America is having a love affair with dance. Nigel always talks about his goal to promote dance as an art form and make it entertaining. “To be instrumental in trying to bring that back is absolutely fantastic, and it’s not just in this country. [SYTYCD] is the number one show in Australia, and the number one show in Canada. It’s a global phenomenon at the moment…all different forms of dance are coming through around the world and it’s just been out of the spotlight for so long. So to be a part of that movement and feel instrumental in it, to be frank, is absolutely wonderful. I’m so passionate about it. I’m so pleased that we can even start charitable foundations now to bring dance to people who can’t afford it…I would love it to be a legacy that’s followed up on long after this program is gone.”
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So You Think You Can Dance is Different from Other Shows
We caught up with So You Think You Can Dance judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy to ask them how their show differs from the other dance shows out there.
Nigel Lythgoe:
It’s pretty obvious – I don’t know any other dance show out there that deals with all of the different genres of dance as we do. I don’t know any other dance show that shows the choreography in the way that we show it or the choreographers. I also don’t know any other dance show that deals with the public. We have kids – ordinary kids, and some who came from the streets – who want to become professional dancers. The other dance shows are based on one genre – just hip hop or just ballroom. We also have real talent.
Mary Murphy:
It’s all done with extraordinary dancers. There’s not a professional paired with an amateur. It’s not just amateur-amateur. These are all dancers that are going to make it their life. This is something that they have a true passion for. They haven’t been asked to do it just to lose weight or to advance their career. This is their life. Whether this show was on the air or not, dancers will dance just about anywhere because they feel the need that they have to. So when you have such commitment and such passion, I think it is so very different then any dance show out there, and the fact that we’re asking them to switch from one dance style to the next is incredibly difficult. I’ve tried it myself and I can tell you once you get your body moving into a specific way, it doesn’t really want to change. It’s very hard and we ask them to do it in 5.5 hours. They go from hip hop to Quickstep. A ballroom dancer may have to dance hip hop and a jazz dancer may have to dance Krump. It’s unbelievable and it never ceases to amaze me that a lot of the dancers seem to pull it off at a fairly professional rate. Every once in a while, a dancer like Brandon and Janette do an Argentine Tango that looks as good as any Argentine Tango dancers you’ve ever seen in the world.
Cat, Nigel and Mary Discuss the New Fall Season of So You Think You Can Dance
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Cat, Nigel and Mary Discuss the First Fall Season of So You Think You Can Dance
Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance marks the first fall season for the show. After being on the air for five summers, Cat Deeley, Nigel Lythgoe, and Mary Murphy talk about what to look forward to for the fall season debut.
What about the fall season are you most looking forward to?
Cat Deeley: I’m just looking forward to seeing how we do, actually. I’m very, very excited. The fact that Fox has this faith in us and are putting us on then is amazing. Obviously, they see the show’s strength and want to capitalize on that. As far as watching the show, people are still incredibly passionate about it, so it’s going to be very, very interesting to see if it does stick or if we move back to summer. Either way we are a hit in the summertime so it’s good. I’m excited about it. It will be interesting – a new slot, a new time, a new challenge. I think it’s going to be good.
Nigel Lythgoe: From what I’ve seen so far from the dancers, the generally high standard is going to be maintained from last season. But I think we have more personalities ready to break out, so that’s what I’m looking forward to from the dancers. From the choreographers, I’m looking for them to be as inspired as they were in Season 5 and take on as interesting subjects as they took on. We’re looking at doing a group competition on our results show. I’m not sure yet what form that’s going to take, but I would like to see Latin American formation team dancing, clogging, hip hop, tap troupe, and anything and everything that gives a reason to enjoy dancing. And it will help brighten up the results show.
Mary Murphy: We’re definitely going to add 20 new amazing dancers and characters to this cast. I think that’s one of the biggest changes, because me, Nigel, and Cat remain the same. I’m sure we’ll have some new guest judges this year, we always do, and new choreographers on the show. I know there is some talk about something different going on during the results shows. It was so fun when we had Ellen, and the JabbawockeeZ, and the different musical artists, so we try to make results shows entertaining even though we do lose two dancers. Sometimes we have such a great time with the group numbers and guest performers and guest singers that we almost forget we’re about to lose two dancers. It’s like a party up until that moment.
Hear more from Cat, Nigel and Mary as they discuss the recently concluded Season 5.
Check out the schedule for season 6 audition episodes.
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