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Another SYTYCD Alumni heads to (Off-)Broadway as Choreographer

With all the talk of various dancers from the seasons of So You Think You Can Dance being in Disney’s the Newsies or other musical productions in the past… not one has made a splash as choreographer…

Until now.

Season 2’s Runner Up, Travis Wall has been tapped to choreograph the Off-Broadway production of Bare, according to Broadway.com.

“Bare: A Pop Opera” is a rock musical about two gay high school students and their struggle while growing up at their private Catholic school. The musical had its regional opening in 2000 at the Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles, California before popping up again on Off-Broadway in 2004 for a one-month run. Bare then resurfaced at Houston in The Country Playhouse Black Box Productions in 2008 and has had steady productions throughout the United States and Canada. It made its overseas debut in 2010 with a production in Sydney, Australia and in 2012 has additional overseas productions in the Philippines (Manila) and Great Britain (York and Liverpool).

This new Off-Broadway revival is expected to open on November 19th, 2012 for previews with an official opening a month later in December 2012.

You can hear clips from Bare at the Bare the Album website.

The new production team will also include:
– Director: Stafford Arima
– Producers: Randy Taradash, Paul Boskind and Martian Entertainment and Gregory Rae
Scenic Designer: Donyale Werle (Tony Award winner of Peter and the Starcatcher)

Ever since his time on SYTYCD, Travis has made a name for himself has choreographer for various pieces on the show as well as during the results show on ABCs Dancing with the Stars. His choreography has earned him an Emmy nod in 2011 for the following pieces:
Collide” – SYTYCD Season 7: Lauren Froderman and Kent Boyd
How It Ends” – SYTYCD Season 7: Kent Boyd and Neil Haskell
Fix You” – SYTYCD Season 7: Robert Roldan and Allison Holker

***Many thanks to reader, Leann Hoffrogge for the heads up.

June 19, 2012 I Written By

My life can be summed up in the following two quotes: 1) "I am married to engineering and am its faithful wife by day, but at night my wanderlust takes hold and the arts becomes my jealous paramour." and... 2) "Engineering is my safety net. Writing is my passion. Acting is my escape when the other two become too much." So where does dancing fit in? Pretty much anywhere at this point... =)

Travis Will Choreograph Evan Lysacek

Check out this Tweet from Evan Lysacek just now.

Evan Lysacek EvanLysacek

Had an awesome day of choreography with @travISova. He’s such an insanely talented guy. We’re working 2gether for a number for Stars on Ice 28 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to travISova Retweeted by travISova and 2 others

Travis is having such a great post SYTYCD career!

November 2, 2010 I Written By

Sonya choreography in Lucy Schwartz video

Our reader, Tristen, dropped us a line to let us know that Sonya Tayeh of SYTYCD fame choreographed a new video for singer Lucy Schwartz’s “Graveyard” Graveyard video.

It’s a great song and you can definitely see Sonya’s style in the video.

Check it out!

The video is doing well over at MTVU.com and maybe we’ll get to see some Sonya choreography to Lucy’s song on the show!

You can also check out this video of her playing, “Darling, I Do,” Darling with Landon Pigg, which is from the Shrek 4 soundtrack.

September 29, 2010 I Written By

Nappytabs Dance Day Choreography

Via Nigel and Adam, check out this short video where Tabitha and Napoleon walk us through some of their choreography to get us worked up and fit before tonight’s show. (Come on, you know your butt’s gonna be on the couch for hours tonight, catching the first performance episode of Season 7!) 🙂

June 16, 2010 I Written By

MTV Music Awards – Tom Cruise and Jennifer Lopez

Three words for you: Best. Thing. Ever.

And I’m not even a Tom Cruise fan.

Apparently, he worked with Tyce Diorio for the dance skillz.

And that’s Jennifer Lopez and not Beyonce, dur. Thanks Amanda. Guess I was paying too much attention to Tom… that’s a first…
June 7, 2010 I Written By

Another SYTYCD Choreographer Arrested: Shane Sparks Charged with Child Molestation

Scary news out of the SYTYCD world today, according to sources, Shane Sparks
was arrested today and charged with 9 counts of felony child molestation. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time a SYTYCD choreographer has been arrested, Alex DaSilva was arrested and charged with rape earlier this year.
Shane Sparks

From articles on Usmagazine.com and TVGuide.com, among others:

“According to the criminal complaint filed by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office, the alleged molestation — with an underage girl — began in 1994.”
“The lewd acts include oral copulation and other acts “with the intent of arousing, appealing to, and gratifying the lust, passions, and sexual desires of the defendant, who was at least 10 years older than [the victim].”
-US Magazine

“Sparks was arrested early Friday morning at his Hollywood home and brought to a Van Nuys, Calif., jail where he is currently being held on $590,000 bail, LAPD spokesman, Richard French, told TVGuide.com. French also added that Sparks was the “subject of an ongoing child molestation investigation.” -TV Guide

Shane has contributed some wonderful and memorable pieces to the history of SYTYCD. It’s a very unfortunate situation and will probably have a major affect on Shane’s involvement with SYTYCD. We can only hope that the investigation is completed thoroughly and fairly for everyone involved, especially the alleged victims.

December 18, 2009 I Written By

Sean Cheesman on SYTYCD Season 6

First of all, hello, I am Mandy and I am from Vancouver Canada and post on https://puresytycd.com/canadasite regularly but will be posting periodically here on the USA site also.

That being said, I have to tell you how thrilled I was to see Canadian Choreographers Maria Torres (an American but was on SYTYCD Canada show), Stacey Tookey, and newcomers Gustavo Vargas and Sean Cheesman, who have done some amazing stuff for the Canadian show.

I’d like to touch on each of these wonderful choreographers throughout the week, but for now, let’s look at the AMAZING Sean Cheesman.

Sean Cheesman choreographing on last weeks show was a great surprise for me. He is one of my favourite judges and choreographers on SYTYCD Canada and has brought so much greatness to our Canadian Show.

His Afrojazz routine for Noelle & Russell  was amazing and in my opinion one of the best of the evening.

They danced to “Frog Dance” -by Mickey Hart & Planet Drum, and Sean Cheeseman threw in all his tricks, really showcasing his  amazing choreography and giving Noelle and Russell a much needed spotlight.

I am so glad to see him choreogrpah on SYTYCD as it has a wider audience than SYTYCD Canada.  I really hope they invite him back for more this season and in the future seasons too as he is truly an awesome choreographer.

Sean Cheesman’s bio reads:

Calgary native Sean Cheesman is an internationally-renowned director/choreographer who has worked with some of the world’s top entertainers, including Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, TLC, Prince, Vanessa Williams, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, and Britney Spears.

Cheesman has toured with Janet Jackson as a choreographer and dancer and subsequently choreographed tours for Prince. Cheesman appeared in and choreographed the film The Bodyguard and most recently was the host and lead judge of the U.K. television series Dirty Dancing: Time of Your Life.

Sean just completed choreographing the largest stage revue show in Berlin, Germany.

He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including two MTV awards for choreography, a “What’s on Stage” theatre award for the West-End musical Daddy Cool, and was also nominated for a Bob Fosse choreography award.

November 15, 2009 I Written By

I am a blogger and reality tv lover. I blog here for SYTYCD but mostly the Canada version, since I live in Vancouver BC. I also blog about other reality tv shows on my own blog www.mandysmind.com

What’s Next for Mia Michaels

I just found this interview on TVguide.com about Mia Michael’s upcoming plans for three t.v. shows, a book and a clothing line.

Some of the highlights:

-Mia’s watching Season 6. She was sad when Ariana got cut and says she would’ve fought to keep Ariana in (actually, she says she would’ve fought Nigel specifically on that decision).

-She talks about hurting her back and how not being able to move is like “being in jail.”

-Regarding one of her t.v. shows, she says she’s going to be the next Tyra and Heidi Klum (which one commenter didn’t like so much…)

Take a look and let us know what you think!

November 3, 2009 I Written By

How Do You Feel About Mia Michaels Leaving SYTYCD? – Vote

In case you missed it, Mia Michaels announced that she’s leaving SYTYCD US after 5 seasons choreographing on the show (yes, that’s since the beginning of SYTYCD). This has been met by some really mixed reactions. So, let your voice be heard and let us know how you feel about the departure of Mia Michaels from SYTYCD US.

October 16, 2009 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?

Alex da Silva Accused of Raping 4 Female Dance Students

This was quite sad news. It’s being covered a number of places online, but it looks like E! Online broke the story about Alex da Silva being arrested on 8 felony counts:

Alex Da Silva, who up until this past season was So You Think You Can Dance’s go-to salsa, mambo and Argentine tango choreographer, was arrested at his North Hollywood home this morning on a bunch of sex-crime charges involving four different women he tutored.

All told, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office charged the 41-year-old dance instructor with eight felony counts: four counts of forcible rape, two counts of assault with intent to commit rape and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object.

He had some real skills in choreography. It’s just sad that he had to do something so horrible as well.

Here’s some quotes from the Huffington Post from back in April as well although the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office declined to press sexual assault charges against Da Silva due to lack of evidence, pending further investigation.

[Alex da Silva] was arrested Saturday on suspicion of sexually assaulting four of his dance students, police said.

Alex Da Silva, 41, a well-known salsa dancer who teaches at several Los Angeles dance studios, was taken into custody after teaching a class at a Hollywood studio and booked for investigation of sexual assault, Det. John Eum said.

Da Silva, who was being held on $3.8 million bail, is scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

However, the more frightening part of this whole issue is the following additional quote about Alex da Silva:

Da Silva had been accused in 2003, 2004 and 2005 of sexually assaulting three women, but for unknown reasons prosecutors declined to file charges, Eum said.

Then on March 28, a fourth woman accused Da Silva of luring her to his home, using a ruse to get her into his bedroom and raping her. Detectives went back to interview the previous accusers, found similar accusations of being lured to Da Silva’s bedroom and sexually assaulted by him, and reopened their cases.

“These four women don’t know each other at all, yet their reports read basically the same,” the detective said. He noted that one of the accusers was a minor at the time of the alleged assault.

“We’re almost sure there are probably other victims out there and we hope they’ll come forward,” he said.

How sad is this? I hope that other people will come forward if there are any. I’m still a bit shocked just thinking about it. I’m quite sure we won’t be seeing Alex da Silva on So You Think You Can Dance at least in the near future and honestly I’m glad about that.

August 19, 2009 I Written By

Just call me Charlie...but where are my angels?