SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
NATIONAL DANCE DAY
Interview with NIGEL LYTHGOE
NIGEL LYTHGOE Judge on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
Watch SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE on Wednesday & Thursday Nights on FOX
July 31, 2010
By Lena Lamoray
NIGEL LYTHGOE is the co-creator and judge of “So You Think You Can Dance” on FOX. Nigel is responsible for setting “National Dance Day” into motion. “National Dance Day” has been established to promote health and self-esteem through the art form of dance. Nigel is also a co-founder of the Dizzy Feet Foundation with Adam Shankman (So You Think You Can Dance), Carrie Ann Inaba (Dancing With The Stars) and actress Katie Holmes whose mission is to elevate and standardize the quality of dance education throughout the U.S. Together the team has been doing some pretty amazing work in the world of dance and humanity in general.
I spoke with the fabulous NIGEL LYTHGOE about “National Dance Day” and “So You Think You Can Dance” and about what dance means to him. Watch “So You Think You Can Dance” on FOX!
Lena Lamoray: You’ve been a strong proponent of dance, so what does it mean to you personally?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I started off as a dancer, so I thought the end of my dancing career sort of happened some 20, 25 years ago. I never dreamt it would come around full circle like this. It was really through this program that I realized I’d tapped into this underground movement of dance that has got such a wonderful heritage here in America, but people have almost forgotten that. Through Idol Gives Back I realized that I was taking a great deal of pleasure out of giving back, so it allowed me to tap into this and say wow, this is giving me an awful lot of power in truth, because so many people want to gain respect again for dancing. So with the medium of television and the Internet you’re very strong nowadays if you have people behind you that want to do this. I think we’ve given an awful lot of power to guys now to dance that don’t feel bad about saying, hey, I want to dance and I enjoy dancing, because that was put down for a long time. With this, to try and get fitness back into it, what’s better, just sitting in a gym working out or actually putting music on and moving to it? Well, I think putting music on and moving to it and dancing, if you like.
Additional Interview Conference Call Highlights:
Q: I know we’ve been hearing a lot about the National Dance Day on the show the last couple of weeks. Can you talk about the genesis of it, where the idea came from and how you guys took off with it?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I think the realization of how So You Think You Can Dance has opened up an entire community that was extremely quiet, the dance community, that suddenly came alive with programs like So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew, and Dancing With The Stars, and I read one morning about the obesity problem and I thought listen, this is an absolutely perfect way to try and combat obesity is to get people dancing. It helps me … the world of dance and it helps them get fit at the same time. So I just mused with the idea and I tweeted it, “Hey, we’re going to have a Dance Day.” I never dreamt that it would take off as much as it has done. Obviously with the benefit of using the television program, it’s grown, but it’s really important to note that this isn’t about So You Think You Can Dance really and it’s not about FOX television. It’s about an entire country realizing how much they enjoy dance and then using that and using the power of dance in order to help with sort of a fitness regime which then links into the First Lady’s idea of “Let’s move.” So it all came together.
Q: Outside of the show, how have you guys been spreading the word?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I’ve been tweeting it. I know that it’s on the Dizzy Feet Foundation Web site. Again, it fits in with us. We’ve got a scholarship program and an outreach program we’re involved with in Los Angeles and New Orleans, with dance programs in both of those cities.
Q: I’m wondering, you have been promoting this day, what has been the response you’ve gotten from fellow celebrities or people in Hollywood?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I’ve not really spoken too much to people in Hollywood. I know that a number of dance groups like The Groovaloos and … Quest, the JabbaWockeeZ are all doing things in their areas. I think there’s a big thing going on in Vegas with all of the dancers there. But I don’t really have a lot of time to talk to people in Hollywood. But it’s gone much better than that, because we posted a viral campaign with Napoleon and Tabitha, who choreographed a routine. It was our, Dizzy Feet contributions, idea for Dance Day. What we’re doing now is getting stuff back in from Indonesia, and that … has turned in … the world, you forget how small the world is nowadays with the Internet, and people are sending in their videos from all over the world.
Q: This is great timing, as the show is getting very exciting. I just have to ask you if you’re pulling for any favorites to win So You Think You Can Dance.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: Not really. They’re all our favorites otherwise they wouldn’t be in the top ten …, and I think people forget that because they turn around and say, “Oh, you supported them,” well, we supported them all. Now we just sit back and watch them grow and see who America likes. The top three haven’t really changed too much over the week, so I think it’s pretty obvious who’s in it to win it now.
Q: Did it take much to get the Congress involved? This is a pretty big feat to get this accomplished.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: So I understand. I’m afraid I don’t know too much about your politics, but I wrote to the First Lady because I thought our aims were very similar. There’s a huge problem with child obesity and more than that I think something like 68% of the American population over 20 is overweight or obese, and I’m afraid I include myself in that. It’s the same aim. So I wrote to her and I honestly don’t know, but I guess Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is proposing this bill, has spoken with her and they’ve pushed this along.
Q: What support are you getting from dance organizations on this, whether it is groups like American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey, whether it’s magazines like Dance or Dance Spirit or Pointe, or whether it’s things like USA Dance, the amateur ballroom dance association that Carrie Ann Inaba from Dancing With The Stars is involved with?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: We’ve always had support from them through the Dizzy Feet Foundation. In truth, the first people that we gave scholarships to were Ailey, Juilliard, ABT, so they’ve always been very supportive purely of bringing dance back into the public arena. So with National Dance Day they are all doing something, and I think that’s really important to be recognized by those bodies as well. Dance Spirit and Dance magazine have again supported us through So You Think You Can Dance because they’ve always had the winner on the cover of their magazines. So we’ve always been aligned with them. We’ve had nothing but support from everybody in the dance world, in truth, for National Dance Day.
Q: I saw the Ginger Rogers’ profile you did for Turner Classic Movies the Star of the Month, and as you go forward with this effort whether you might get, let’s say, Turner Classic Movies to do, in honor of National Dance Day, let’s say, a marathon of dance films. Or whether you go to other cable networks or do more with FOX in terms of spreading the word.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I hadn’t thought of that, but I think it’s an absolutely fabulous idea and it’s certainly something that I will suggest that they do. They often do, I must say, and I would also say how much I enjoyed doing that Ginger Rogers, following up and doing research and everything else. It felt like I was back at school, like I’d gone back 50 years or something.
Q: New York has been listed as one of the cities that have an official event. Do you know what’s happening in New York City during Dance Day?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I honestly don’t. As far as I was aware, I was speaking with one of the producers of The Addams Family and they were saying that the Broadway dancers were looking at doing something. What it is I don’t know. I guess it will probably be somewhere on the Fox.com/Dance Web site. But I don’t know, sorry.
Q: You were mentioning about obesity, that’s why you were inspired to do National Dance Day. You had a contestant during season one, Allan Frias, who didn’t look like a typical dancer. Would you have a contestant like that in the future on So You Think You Can Dance—?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: We don’t pick them just because they’re obese, they’ve got to be good dancers. I’m often shocked and sometimes get annoyed a little bit with if an obese person drops down into splits they get a huge round of applause from the audience. “Wow. Look, a fat person danced,” and that sort of annoys me a little bit because you can’t just be applauding because you’re an obese person dancing. You’ve got to be a good dancer as well to get on the program. I think in that sort of series I don’t think Allan would necessarily get in nowadays; it’s grown so much. So I think we need to be aware not to credit people with being obese and dancing, we should credit them just for the fact of trying to stay trim and healthy.
Q: I was wondering if you knew what you and the other Dizzy Feet founders, Carrie Ann, Adam, and Katie will be doing on Saturday.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I know that Katie is in Canada and she’s filming. Carrie Ann, I haven’t spoken to. She unfortunately has some personal problems with her family. Adam is going to be at the music center in Los Angeles where there’s a huge … that’s been inspired by the … routine. I’m going to be in Washington D.C. being given a copy of Congresswoman Norton’s proposal.
NATIONAL DANCE DAY
Interview with NIGEL LYTHGOE
NIGEL LYTHGOE Judge on SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
Watch SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE on Wednesday & Thursday Nights on FOX
July 31, 2010
By Lena Lamoray
NIGEL LYTHGOE is the co-creator and judge of “So You Think You Can Dance” on FOX. Nigel is responsible for setting “National Dance Day” into motion. “National Dance Day” has been established to promote health and self-esteem through the art form of dance. Nigel is also a co-founder of the Dizzy Feet Foundation with Adam Shankman (So You Think You Can Dance), Carrie Ann Inaba (Dancing With The Stars) and actress Katie Holmes whose mission is to elevate and standardize the quality of dance education throughout the U.S. Together the team has been doing some pretty amazing work in the world of dance and humanity in general.
I spoke with the fabulous NIGEL LYTHGOE about “National Dance Day” and “So You Think You Can Dance” and about what dance means to him. Watch “So You Think You Can Dance” on FOX!
Lena Lamoray: You’ve been a strong proponent of dance, so what does it mean to you personally?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I started off as a dancer, so I thought the end of my dancing career sort of happened some 20, 25 years ago. I never dreamt it would come around full circle like this. It was really through this program that I realized I’d tapped into this underground movement of dance that has got such a wonderful heritage here in America, but people have almost forgotten that. Through Idol Gives Back I realized that I was taking a great deal of pleasure out of giving back, so it allowed me to tap into this and say wow, this is giving me an awful lot of power in truth, because so many people want to gain respect again for dancing. So with the medium of television and the Internet you’re very strong nowadays if you have people behind you that want to do this. I think we’ve given an awful lot of power to guys now to dance that don’t feel bad about saying, hey, I want to dance and I enjoy dancing, because that was put down for a long time. With this, to try and get fitness back into it, what’s better, just sitting in a gym working out or actually putting music on and moving to it? Well, I think putting music on and moving to it and dancing, if you like.
Additional Interview Conference Call Highlights:
Q: I know we’ve been hearing a lot about the National Dance Day on the show the last couple of weeks. Can you talk about the genesis of it, where the idea came from and how you guys took off with it?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I think the realization of how So You Think You Can Dance has opened up an entire community that was extremely quiet, the dance community, that suddenly came alive with programs like So You Think You Can Dance, America’s Best Dance Crew, and Dancing With The Stars, and I read one morning about the obesity problem and I thought listen, this is an absolutely perfect way to try and combat obesity is to get people dancing. It helps me … the world of dance and it helps them get fit at the same time. So I just mused with the idea and I tweeted it, “Hey, we’re going to have a Dance Day.” I never dreamt that it would take off as much as it has done. Obviously with the benefit of using the television program, it’s grown, but it’s really important to note that this isn’t about So You Think You Can Dance really and it’s not about FOX television. It’s about an entire country realizing how much they enjoy dance and then using that and using the power of dance in order to help with sort of a fitness regime which then links into the First Lady’s idea of “Let’s move.” So it all came together.
Q: Outside of the show, how have you guys been spreading the word?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I’ve been tweeting it. I know that it’s on the Dizzy Feet Foundation Web site. Again, it fits in with us. We’ve got a scholarship program and an outreach program we’re involved with in Los Angeles and New Orleans, with dance programs in both of those cities.
Q: I’m wondering, you have been promoting this day, what has been the response you’ve gotten from fellow celebrities or people in Hollywood?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I’ve not really spoken too much to people in Hollywood. I know that a number of dance groups like The Groovaloos and … Quest, the JabbaWockeeZ are all doing things in their areas. I think there’s a big thing going on in Vegas with all of the dancers there. But I don’t really have a lot of time to talk to people in Hollywood. But it’s gone much better than that, because we posted a viral campaign with Napoleon and Tabitha, who choreographed a routine. It was our, Dizzy Feet contributions, idea for Dance Day. What we’re doing now is getting stuff back in from Indonesia, and that … has turned in … the world, you forget how small the world is nowadays with the Internet, and people are sending in their videos from all over the world.
Q: This is great timing, as the show is getting very exciting. I just have to ask you if you’re pulling for any favorites to win So You Think You Can Dance.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: Not really. They’re all our favorites otherwise they wouldn’t be in the top ten …, and I think people forget that because they turn around and say, “Oh, you supported them,” well, we supported them all. Now we just sit back and watch them grow and see who America likes. The top three haven’t really changed too much over the week, so I think it’s pretty obvious who’s in it to win it now.
Q: Did it take much to get the Congress involved? This is a pretty big feat to get this accomplished.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: So I understand. I’m afraid I don’t know too much about your politics, but I wrote to the First Lady because I thought our aims were very similar. There’s a huge problem with child obesity and more than that I think something like 68% of the American population over 20 is overweight or obese, and I’m afraid I include myself in that. It’s the same aim. So I wrote to her and I honestly don’t know, but I guess Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is proposing this bill, has spoken with her and they’ve pushed this along.
Q: What support are you getting from dance organizations on this, whether it is groups like American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey, whether it’s magazines like Dance or Dance Spirit or Pointe, or whether it’s things like USA Dance, the amateur ballroom dance association that Carrie Ann Inaba from Dancing With The Stars is involved with?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: We’ve always had support from them through the Dizzy Feet Foundation. In truth, the first people that we gave scholarships to were Ailey, Juilliard, ABT, so they’ve always been very supportive purely of bringing dance back into the public arena. So with National Dance Day they are all doing something, and I think that’s really important to be recognized by those bodies as well. Dance Spirit and Dance magazine have again supported us through So You Think You Can Dance because they’ve always had the winner on the cover of their magazines. So we’ve always been aligned with them. We’ve had nothing but support from everybody in the dance world, in truth, for National Dance Day.
Q: I saw the Ginger Rogers’ profile you did for Turner Classic Movies the Star of the Month, and as you go forward with this effort whether you might get, let’s say, Turner Classic Movies to do, in honor of National Dance Day, let’s say, a marathon of dance films. Or whether you go to other cable networks or do more with FOX in terms of spreading the word.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I hadn’t thought of that, but I think it’s an absolutely fabulous idea and it’s certainly something that I will suggest that they do. They often do, I must say, and I would also say how much I enjoyed doing that Ginger Rogers, following up and doing research and everything else. It felt like I was back at school, like I’d gone back 50 years or something.
Q: New York has been listed as one of the cities that have an official event. Do you know what’s happening in New York City during Dance Day?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I honestly don’t. As far as I was aware, I was speaking with one of the producers of The Addams Family and they were saying that the Broadway dancers were looking at doing something. What it is I don’t know. I guess it will probably be somewhere on the Fox.com/Dance Web site. But I don’t know, sorry.
Q: You were mentioning about obesity, that’s why you were inspired to do National Dance Day. You had a contestant during season one, Allan Frias, who didn’t look like a typical dancer. Would you have a contestant like that in the future on So You Think You Can Dance—?
NIGEL LYTHGOE: We don’t pick them just because they’re obese, they’ve got to be good dancers. I’m often shocked and sometimes get annoyed a little bit with if an obese person drops down into splits they get a huge round of applause from the audience. “Wow. Look, a fat person danced,” and that sort of annoys me a little bit because you can’t just be applauding because you’re an obese person dancing. You’ve got to be a good dancer as well to get on the program. I think in that sort of series I don’t think Allan would necessarily get in nowadays; it’s grown so much. So I think we need to be aware not to credit people with being obese and dancing, we should credit them just for the fact of trying to stay trim and healthy.
Q: I was wondering if you knew what you and the other Dizzy Feet founders, Carrie Ann, Adam, and Katie will be doing on Saturday.
NIGEL LYTHGOE: I know that Katie is in Canada and she’s filming. Carrie Ann, I haven’t spoken to. She unfortunately has some personal problems with her family. Adam is going to be at the music center in Los Angeles where there’s a huge … that’s been inspired by the … routine. I’m going to be in Washington D.C. being given a copy of Congresswoman Norton’s proposal.