When I get to work with someone like Prabhu Dheva at the beginning on my career, why would I say no?
I'd love to do something where I can act and dance at the same time, like on Broadway or in movies.
Part of what's mesmerizing about 'The Mechanics of History' is its physical eloquence - how dancerly it is. The men don't fall; they float. And when the trampoline restores them to the staircase, they move at a half speed. Cinema, they say, is 24 frames per second.
If I wanted to do clothes or if I wanted to make a building or design a choreography, you are able to do that - they are all under a similar kind of design umbrella.
To go back to visit the early days with Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, when she was the dance captain of 'How to Succeed,' and finding them again 25 years later and working with them on 'Charity.' That was really great fun.
I can dance. I like hip hop and stuff and jazz movements, but I'm horrible in ballet. I tried.
Musical theater is great; you get painted up, you get to play princesses and witches, and you sing. The joy alone of that can really carry a lot.
I did ballet, tap, jazz, modern, I taught dance here in my hometown of St. Louis.
I'm more an actor who can dance and sing if I absolutely have to. I studied theatre in college, but I studied drama, but I don't have that Broadway voice, and I'm not a trained dancer or anything like that. I identify mostly as an actor first and foremost.
If anyone is calling me to choreograph a dance, they know my style, and they know I am a taskmaster. They want to present themselves as a good dancer before their fans, and that is why they want me to choreograph.
I've actually tried to give Brett Ratner dance lessons, but he thinks he already knows how to.
For the 'Heaven' stage, the dancers and I don't use wires so we are slowly slipping down the stage if you see us up close.
A friend of my mother's, Irene Lopez, was a Spanish dancer. She saw me bopping around the room and said to my mother, 'Rosita might have talent. Can I take her to my dance teacher?' There was no thought of a career at that time, but I knew I loved the attention, and that's so much a part of being a performer.
I know I'm never going to be a professional ballroom dancer.
Choreography is amazing. I'm still a dancer, yet I transitioned into choreography then as a Creative Director. All of these creative elements are brought out of being a dancer. Directing is something that comes out of understanding movement and choreography. Directing movement is directing a dance piece.
When I was younger, I used to want to be, like, a back-up dancer, and my mom was like, 'Well, you know, you can do that, but you might want to choose another career.'
Prabhu Deva has written the opening lines for a couple of songs in 'Vedi.' He's a great lyricist too and not many people know that.
When I first moved to New York, I was friends with a lot of dancers - people from Merce Cunningham's company and things like that.
With 'Dance Moms' in L.A., we film on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. When we film in Pittsburgh, we film the same days, but we still dance in our studio when we're not filming, so I'm dancing every day except Sunday.
Basically it starts with four months of training, just basic stretching, kicking and punching. Then you come to the choreography and getting ready to put the dance together.
The funniest thing is not who influenced me positively, but who influenced me negatively. I had such an aversion to what Busby Berkeley did; in my early formative years, I thought it was terrible. Now, I think it's wonderful. But then, I wanted to do anything but what Busby Berkeley did.
When Ginger Rogers danced with Astaire, it was the only time in the movies when you looked at the man, not the woman.
Fight choreography has far more in common with dance choreography than it does with actual martial arts. You learn martial arts techniques, but those are just the movements for the choreography. You're working with a partner in choreography. You're working on timing.
When I started off as a choreographer, I had to do songs, which I may have wanted to do differently, but directors had their own inputs to give. But now, I take liberty to decide my own dance steps as well.
I'd get sent home from the first audition of So You Think You Can Dance. My dancing is sort of controlled spasms. I fully accept it might appear ridiculous. But it's passionate!
