Kids in COMPETITIONS
Brian Friedman has enjoyed incredible success as a Dancer, Choreographer, Artistic Director and TV Star. He has danced with and done choreography for some of the world's most famous performers in videos, TV, theatrical productions, tour and movies. Brian currently appears as a judge in the hit TV show, "So You Think You Can Dance." We caught up with Brian in Orlando, Florida, where he was teaching with the Co. Dance National convention.
Question from Al Klopman:
How does a guy from Scottsdale, Arizona become the most sought after choreographer and one of the most popular guys on the planet?
Answer from Brian Friedman: Good genes (laughs)...My mother was a dancer so I inherited that. It's what I was born to do.
Q: Tell me a little bit about your early training.
A: I started training at a small studio at Scottsdale, Arizona called "The Dance Center" which actually just closed not too long ago. It was basic training. My mother taught dance at a nearby college, so I would observe her classes and stand at the back of the room and kinda try the steps. So, when I finally did my first dance concert I knew what pirouettes were...I had the basics early on. I wasn't good but I had the basics. I was 11.
Then, when a friend got a scholarship in California to take classes and I went with her. An agent was there, she spotted me and she signed me on the spot and started sending me out to L.A. for auditions. By that time we were in California all the time. I was taking classes at professional studios, so I can say I had my real training from the masters, all the choreographers I look up to.
Q: Who were some of those?
A: Let's see...In the early years it was the Tremaine faculty: Doug Caldwell, Joe Tremaine, Barry Lather, Jackie Sleight. Those were the people I looked up to when I was younger. As time progressed, I started finding new mentors: Jamie King was someone who I learned a lot from, Kenny Ortega, Vince Patterson, Bill & Jackie Landrum. I started to do more than just dance and lyrical. I started learning modern and more contemporary. I got to work with Twyla Tharp too when I was younger. I got a lot of training from a lot of different avenues, with the best people in every avenue.
Q: When did you really leave Scottsdale?
A: I was 12 ( laughs). But I would still go back and forth and would go home to compete with my dance studio, just because it was a part of childhood that I did not want to let go of yet. I basically would learn the numbers or I'd even choreographed them in the beginning of the year with my studio, and then just fly back into Arizona and do competitions. I got disqualified from Tremaine one year because the other studios complained it wasn't fair I was competing. I was 14 years old. They said "it's not fair because he is on TV, he shouldn't be able to compete." So they disqualified me.
I kept doing my thing back and forth from Arizona until I was about 16. By the time I was 16 I had already been working in L.A., I had done film, TV, videos.
Q: What was some of the early stuff?
A: A movie called "Newsies" was one of the first auditions I went on and I booked that job, so I already had in my head that I basically could do anything I wanted (laughs). I had a rude awakening when I got a little older though.
I did "Kids Incorporated" for three years on the Disney Channel. I did commercials, I danced for Michael Jackson, I danced for Paula Abdul...a lot of the people I looked up to when I was younger. After that I got too tall! I turned sixteen and I was taller than I was supposed to be. People want to hire adults to do the sixteen year old's works so they could work more hours. So basically I was unemployed. I went back to Arizona and opened a dance studio with my mother. We had our studio until 2000. By the time I was 18 - 19 I was already back in L.A. working, doing the studio thing back and forth yet again. I never wanted to stop the studio thing because I had students that I was training and they depended on me. We kept the studio until 2000 when we decided it was time to close the school (the studio was called The Dance Source). After that I was actually able to really pursue my choreographer career, full speed.
Q: Tell us about a little about what you did then...
A: I did a job called "MTV Icon," which was for Janet Jackson. It was like a tribute to her. Then I was also hired as a dancer on the project. Wade Robson was choreographing. But he actually couldn't be there at some of the rehearsals, so he asked me if I could take over and choreograph some of it. This is something I had never done before professionally, I had only choreographed in my studio. I said I didn't know if I can do it and he said "Yes, you can. Do it." And I did it, and the second I walked out after the rehearsals I said to myself "This is for me, this is what I need to be doing." It felt so natural. After that he asked me to choreograph a tour that he couldn't do, which was Christina Milian. So that was my second choreography job. I was basically artistic director for the project which was huge because I had never done anything like that before. Britney Spears actually came to one of those rehearsals, I already been on tour with her. She watched my rehearsal with Justin Timberlake and she said "I love this. Can I please, please have you do a number for the tour?" I did. It was just only going to be a number but it ended up being a whole tour and videos for her, everything. A hundred percent of her whole new project, "I am a slave for you."
Q: You look like you are versed in a lot of different dance disciplines; Do you have any ballet in your background?
A: Yes.
Q: Now you are even judging on TV...Tell us about that.
A: That's what I do everyday here with Co. Dance so I had been judging for years now, it's something I feel naturally. When I tell someone what is wrong it is to get them better. I love building people up and making them better dancers.
Q: What do you like to see when you are judging?
A: It's not that I am looking for something in particular, I look at what they are giving me. And then I am going to tell them what they can do to make it perfect.
Q: What do you not like to see when you are judging?
A: Oh there are so many things. I don't like to see bobble heads, bobble heads are when people rattle their brain inside their head and make a really funny smirky face. It is okay for a 6, 7 or 8 year old to do that on stage, but the cheese factor on adults is really just disgusting. There is a way to perform and not be fake. I like to see something real. Even when somebody is smiling it should just be natural. You know, when I watch old musicals, they are smiling and having fun but it doesn't look cheese and fake to me. That is a big thing for me. Also, I don't like people to dance outside their ability. I like people to do what they can do, and what they have mastered. I don't want to see a bunch of fouettes and four pirouettes when they can't even do two. Or doing high leg holds when they aren't even flexible. It's like "work with what you have". What else do I hate mmm...? Lip-synching. Lip-synching is really bad, unless it's for a reason. If you are playing a certain character and each person is playing a certain role on stage, then lip-synching is OK. But, just to randomly sing some words in you song...that's a pet-peeve of mine.
Q: Are you strict in you judging on how precise people do the individual dance moves?
A: Oh, of course. Everything has to be clean. I want to be able to see the choreography. I want to be able to know what it is supposed to look like, to hear the accents of the music. I love musicality and I don't like people who rush. Technique overall, of course I am looking for technique. No matter what style it is, even if it's Hip Hop, there is a technique to doing that.
Q: How do you judge Hip Hop?
A: A Hip Hop judge can judge Hip Hop very well. Again it is about musicality, it's about contraction. It's about being low to the floor, if you are supposed to be low to the floor, it's about being up, if you are supposed to be up. Fists are fists, a blade is a blade. There are certain moves you do in Hip Hop that have a certain way of being done. Some people think that Hip Hop is just let everything go and be sloppy. That is completely untrue.
Q: Can Hip Hop be danced to another music that we traditionally don't think of as Hip Hop?
A: I also teach for Monsters ( of Hip Hop) as well. And when I am at Monsters I am the teacher who kinda switches stuff up: I do Hip Hop to lyrical music, I do Hip Hop to old school, I do Hip Hop to 80s music.
Q: How did you get involved with "So You Think You Can Dance?"
A: I auditioned. As a choreographer everyone still always auditions for each job. It is a different audition process. Rather than going to an audition and showing our steps, we send out reels in which our choreography is all put together and edited into one tiny little package. My agent sent my reel and resume in, and then they take meetings. I went in for a meeting, and we basically just talked to the executive producer and told them what we would bring to the show. He said, "Critique me, right now; I am bad dancer" and I critiqued an imaginary bad dancer. And then he said "Critique me; now I a good dancer" so I critiqued a good dancer. After a couple of meetings they offered me the job.
Q: What's coming up in the future for you?
A: Oh, I will have my own line of shoes coming up very soon, which I am very excited about. They will be everywhere, they are not only going to be sold to dancers but for the regular market as well. It's going to be a Hip Hop shoe, it's going to be an athletic shoe. Hopefully they will be carrying it in all the sports stores.
And next year, possibly I will be releasing my new clothing line, which is not going to be a dance line, it's actually going to be a signature line. Like a couture line, it will be on runways, and hopefully in all the huge stores around the country.
Q: What are your plans as far as dance and choreography?
A: Dance and choreography: I am where I want to be. I can't think of anything else I would want to do. I enjoy every aspect of my choreography work, I am still going to teach at conventions, I am still going to judge in "So you think you can dance?", I am still going be choreographing videos and movies and tours. If I could say someone who I would love to work for, I would love to choreograph for Madonna, who I haven't choreographed for yet, that is something I would love to do. I am hoping, keeping my fingers crossed, that I will be able to choreograph a number for Janet Jackson's world tour this year. I would love to do something for Jennifer Lopez choreography. Besides all that, I just keep setting my goals high. I want to direct. I just directed my first industrial show for Macy's and actually hired kids from around the country that I had seen at Co. Dance. I called some of the studio owners that I remembered and had them send their children out to California to audition and I booked six out of state dancers, to do their first job at the ages of 9, 10 and 11. I am basically giving kids the opportunity that I had when I was a kid.
Q: What is the best advice you can give to an aspiring dancer?
A: Never think you have made it. Never think you have made it at all. Always think that there is more you can do and more to grow. And be versatile. You have to be versatile. If you can only do one style of dance you will only going to book that one style of job. I would say do everything. It just makes you better at that one thing if you can do everything.
Metan Cutler, AJ Twyman & Hanna Tiep
Interviews with Megan Cutler, age 13, from Orange County, California, A J Twyman, age 18, From Acworth, Georgia, and Hanna Tiep, age 17, from Ridgeland, Mississippi.
These three young dancers are part of the Summer Dance Caravan tour. Known as the "World Famous Caravan Kids," the program selects 30 or so lucky dancers who spend the summer touring with the Hoctor pros. They tour the country and perform along side of the touring pros, giving each student an opportunity to perfect their skills as well as see what it is like touring the country with a dance company.
Question by Alan Klopman
(Q): How long have you been touring with the Caravan Kids?
(Answer (A) (Answerer abbreviations as follows: Megan Cutler, MC, .. A J Twyman, AJ, ... and Hanna Tiep, HT.)
A: MC: This is my first year.
Q: Can Kids stay longer than one summer?
A: MC: You can stay longer than one year but you have to be invited back.
AJ: This is my first year. I heard about it from friends that had been with the program before.
HT: This is my first year as well.
Q: There are only a few select dancers that get to participate with the Kids Caravan. Tell me a little about the selection process.
A: MC: Last year at Nationals they had a Kids Dance Caravan audition. There is also a competition. Then afterwards by August they would tell you by letter if you were accepted.
Q: What's it like to travel with a professional dance company?
A: AJ: To me it's really exciting. I started dance late, when I was 15, (now 18), so just to get to this point where I can dance with people who have years more experience than me is so exciting. Additionally I get to be around these great choreographers too. I would like to one day dance professionally and afterwards become a choreographer. I'm a performer, I love to perform. It just makes me so happy to dance. Without dance, I don't know if I could get through life. Dance has given me the chance to put my emotions out on stage. For me it's a great blessing to be around and travel with all these great dancers. We work hard but it's really fun.
A: MC: I'm the youngest on the tour, (13), so it's given me a great opportunity to expand my dance dancing with all these great dancers older than I.
Q: How many years have you been dancing?
A: MC: I've been dancing for almost 11 years. Pretty well since I was 2. I think it has matured me a little and greatly helped my dance. Its great do dance with all these professionals. It has made me really want to go for it more and reach my dream.
Q: What is your dream?
A: MC: My dream is to be a dancer, singer and actress on Broadway and be famous, be a Hollywood star and have my prints on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (laughs). And I want to change the world like Martin Luther King tried to do.
A: HT: This tour is really exciting. Getting to meet all these new people and gaining so much dance experience is something I don't have words to describe at the moment. It was just great.
Q: Do you make lasting friends from touring?
A: (All) Yes!
A: AJ: For me this is the future too. There people, for me, (Kids in Dance Caravan) are for the future, so when I get out there they some may be my connection. If some make it, and I want to follow, I may be able to call them and ask them if they can get me an audition. So this is a little future network we have around here. I think it will be good to have that.
Q: What is the hardest thing about touring?
A: HT: It was really hard for me to leave my friends and family in Mississippi , because I had never been away before where I didn't know anyone. It was really hard for me to think I would be working with kids I had never met before in my life. But now it's great. I love 'em.
A: MC: The hardest part for me was the fact that most everyone is a lot older than me so I tried to set standards for myself to their level. I felt I had to work extra hard to dance to their level and not hold back the group. That was at the beginning. Now I know how everyone else dances so it is a lot easier for me as I feel I have learned how to set the bar that high.
Q: Last week we covered a large group that had learned a very complex number to perform together.. in just under 2 days practice. How are kids able to learn some complex choreography for a new number so quickly and so well?
A: MC: The more you practice, the easier it gets. This tour has helped me so much. I used to be terrible at that. I used to never be able to quickly pick up choreography, but now I can. It has been just practice, practice. When you go into a classroom and the instructor they teach you combinations, practice that because when you go on an audition, it will be a lot easier to pick up choreography. I practice 24 hours a week over 6 days a week.
A: AJ: I would just say that I practice a lot, (laughs), because I practically live at my studio at home.
A: HT: I practice 12 to 15 hours a week. For me, picking up the choreography is about motivation and passion. You have to have the passion if you want to learn to dance.
A: AJ: For me it is also muscle memory. By that I mean that you have to feel the beat. You can't just mark choreography. It is just so hard to try to mark choreography. You need to feel the music and go full out. If you feel the connection, learning the choreography becomes a whole lot easier.