I’m so established that I don’t care about what nobody think about how good I am at dancing, how good I am at doing whatever I’m doing.
With ‘Dope Walk,’ I wanted to bring back kids dancing and having fun again. That’s how it used to be in Harlem. I remember everybody Harlem-shaking and ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’-ing. Those were some of the most fun and memorable times in my life.
Prom has all the elements of a popular story. It reeks of all-Americanness, tension, drama. It has romance. Pretty dresses. Dancing. Limos. High school. Coming of age.
I have a background in erotic dancing, but that’s mostly just – it’s not professional, it’s just amateur.
I was always an actor, starting in middle school. I was in all the plays and all that. But dancing didn’t come into my life until late into high school.
Dancing and music were my first love. I was happiest at being a chorus boy.
My brain knows how to learn musical theater dancing, but learning hip-hop? It was so hard for my body to understand how to move in that way.
I would be on the ‘anti-reality’ show. I can’t stand reality TV. I can tell you one that I absolutely would not be on, and that’s ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ If you ever see me on that show, just please understand my family is starving to death, and things are really bad in the Church household.
My mum – and my granny and I – would close the curtains, turn on the TV and snuggle up and watch ‘Come Dancing.’ It was actually my granny who was the biggest fan; she loved the show, and she passed on her passion for it to me. I loved the dancing but also the frocks and the glamour.
The dance community suddenly came alive with programs like ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ and ‘Dancing With The Stars.’
Dancing is like – it’s another way of communicating, no?
My parents weren’t keen on the giving up of school at the beginning to go into singing and dancing, but once they saw I was serious about it, they gave support. I was quite stubborn about my decision, and in the end, they realised it was for the best.
My audiences who love me don’t mind me dancing with two left feet.
To keep my back from getting stiff, I have a strict regime every morning of stretching and do yoga once a week and Pilates. ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in 2008 was great for my fitness.
I really don’t think I will do the dancing type of movies with ‘jhatka-matkas’ any more. Every actor goes through a phase, and so did I.
So dancing was not something I had a great desire to do.
My mom is actually a former prima ballerina, and all the women in my family are associated either with dance or choreography or acting, so I’m very lucky in a way because I grew up in a family of artists. I’ve been dancing since I was a little kid.
I sent out a tweet, ‘Dancing with the Stars’ should stop the jibber jabber. They shouldn’t make the departure of a dancer so tear jerky because nobody’s going to war.
I spend at least a couple hours a day in the studio, every day, whether I’m dancing or not.
Patrick Swayze reminded me a lot of Gene Kelly. Patrick had that Everyman quality. Gene made dancing sort of an accessible idea for the regular guy out there.
I’d love to do a musical. I’ve been known to have a good step or two. I’m half Samoan, you know, and part of our culture is singing and dancing daily.
I think I’m a lot funnier and goofier than people were able to see on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’
I did dancing and singing when I was little, and then when I was 12 years old my friends were taking speech and drama at school. They were private lessons, and I started doing that. Over the years everyone else dropped out and I just kept going. I loved it.
The old footage of my dad, I always knew we were cut from the same cloth, because my dad was such a renegade and always marched to the beat of his own drum. To see where we were both dancing and being silly together, it’s too beautiful for words. I was really happy to have that.
It’s a bit like school camp, shooting a film. Everyone’s on heat. It’s a strange energy. It’s full of adrenalin. I funnel my excess energy in funny little ways. I do a lot of dancing in my trailer. I love music.
People think skating would translate very easily to dancing, but it really doesn’t. Dancing is a lot of fun and not as dangerous as being on the ice.
When I owned the theater, I had the Glen Miller Orchestra. I had 20 girls singing and dancing. I had a cast of characters. It was a big group production, as well as ushers, ticket takers.
Dancing improved my fitness level and endurance.
I guess I was phenomenally lucky that I was introduced to dancing because I’m suited to it. It would be very weird if you had this natural ability for something and you never discovered it. It must happen all the time.
I was in the National Youth Theatre, too, but there was no dancing there. I was doing plays like ‘Julius Caesar’ and playing the lute very badly.
And I just thought, this is what I want to be. And I knew that dancing would be my chosen profession.
I love seeing people smiling, dancing. There’s enough sadness in the world, man.
When people start dancing, they dance like they don’t know they are doing it.
To watch people dancing is the most entertaining thing on the planet and, as they take in more alcohol, the better it gets!
We’re dancing from here, from inside, not from outside. You could look at anybody throwing their leg and kick their leg up and a million pirouettes and do all kinds of tricks and stuff like that. But that’s not what dance is really about.
I’m learning what I gotta do to get people hyped up. It doesn’t matter even if they’re not dancing, as long as they’re bobbing their head and as long as it looks like a mosh pit down there.
Most ankle strap shoes are seriously unattractive, cutting the line of the leg as well as cutting off the circulation! Try dancing in them – your feet will look like a pair of overdone hotdogs afterwards.
I just feel so sexy when I’m salsa dancing and wearing the salsa clothes. I love dancing, and the salsa is just so sexy.
The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized slaughterhouses of work are also arguing, singing, drinking, dancing, making love, holding the streets, picking up weapons and inventing a new poetry.
When I think back to some of the most fun nights of my life, it was just me out dancing without a care in the world. It’s a release, an outlet.
I’m happy to dance with anyone, to be honest. I’ve had some great partners, who have all been talented. But not all of them at dancing.
I’ve been known to have a good step or two. I’m half Samoan, you know, and part of our culture is singing and dancing daily.
The level of sacrifice in the world of dancing is incredibly intense, that work ethic if nothing else – get up, go to class, rehearsal, performance, get up, go to class – that’s your life, and it’s like that for a finite time, usually.
Most men, even egotistic actors, always shy away from dancing with me. Other dancers report the same trouble. They probably figure that I would be mentally comparing them with Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly. So I go to parties and usually just sit – unless George Burns is there – and then I have a ball.
Dancing was my sport when I was younger. So I chose that over everything. And then, I just had to keep going because it became a competitive thing. But I’m not trying to impress anyone anymore. Dancing is more like my art, now.
If I’m not working, I like to attend a dancing class. At least that keeps you in condition. Then, if you get a call for a dancing part, you don’t have to go through two weeks of misery getting back in shape.
I’ve never worried about being rich or famous – for me, it’s all about the dancing.
Whether running, biking, swimming, or dancing, I just like to always be on the move.
We were doing the dance routine and I dislocated my knee. I’ve been doing stunts for a long time and it’s kind of weird that I’d dislocate my knee just dancing.
I was told that when I’m dancing, I give off the feeling of a rainy day.
If Romeo can do ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ anything is possible.
I think a lot of what you do in acting, and for the most part singing and dancing and everything, is trial and error. It’s all about just seeing what works, and if it does, to use it, and if not, to throw it away.
Everyone is taught the essentials of writing for at least 13 years, maybe more if they go to college. Nobody is taught music or tap dancing that way.
The first Matrix genius, the second one, what’s up with the dancing? I haven’t even seen the third one.
I started dancing when I was five, and I trained intensively as a competitive dancer up until the end of high school. I did all genres, and later on a did a lot of extra ballet on top of that. I actually got accepted to Julliard for dance during my senior year, but I ultimately turned it down to come to L.A. to act.
I have been photographing people dancing for 20 or 30 years now, and I think I will eventually do a book of dancing photos.
There’s this certain caliber of dancing I was striving for when I was younger, and it’s very hard for me to go back and just do it for fun. But I take all other kinds of classes: I take jazz classes, modern classes, and I love doing that instead of going to the gym. The gym is not very much fun.
