I had the chance to interview So You Think You Can Dance 11‘s Teddy Coffey & Emily James on October 26, 2014 just before their Live! Tour Stop at Hamilton Place Theatre in Hamilton, Ontario.
In our interview, we discussed a variety of topics including what the tour has been like so far. I asked Teddy if he felt like the show had a different flavour to it this season, as hip hop dancers have dominated the last two (with Fik-Shun winning last season and Cyrus as the runner-up the season before). Emily also weighed in about the versatility of the So You Think You Can Dance 11 dancers. I asked them about the show’s decision to let dancers perform in their style for the ‘Meet The Top 20’ show and then transitioning them into learning other styles and how they felt about starting on a high only to go to genres that they aren’t as familiar with. In one of the more interesting parts of the interview, we discussed the importance of having a ‘story’ during the audition phase of the program and how much this affects pushing dancers into the Top 10 versus performers who aren’t featured and have a harder relationship establishing a rapport with fans. I also asked them about what it was like to perform on a season where there was a clear-cut favorite in Ricky Ubeda and how if affected things backstage. We also discussed how technical the season was and how the focus seemed to always be on performing well with less a concentration on playing up to the crowd (as has been the case in other seasons).
Check out the video above!
The So You Think You Can Dance 2014 Live! Tour runs until February 12. For a full list of participating cities and ticket information, please visit fox.com/dance
