Fans of FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance know Travis Wall as a former competitor turned choreographer on the dancing competition series. Starting July 31, they’ll get a chance to know Travis personally, as he stars in the Oxygen reality series, All The Right Moves.
The new series documents the lives of Travis and his close friends Teddy Forance (Dancing With The Stars), Nick Lazzarini (season one SYTYCD winner) and Kyle Robinson (also from DWTS) as they launch their own dance company, Shaping Sound. How did the series come to be?
“I got approached by producers and they said, ‘Are you interested in doing a reality show about yourself?’ I said, ‘You should definitely see my life and see my best friends.’ I’ve known these guys for truly my entire life,” Travis explained. “All of us brainstormed this idea together. And I just saw this is something probably really entertaining to film. I have a lot to offer in inspiring teenagers and you don’t hear people’s stories like mine all the time. I’ve known these guys for truly my entire life. And you get two dance numbers an episode. I’m so happy I decided to do this; it’s a different show.”
There’s certainly a lot going on in Travis’s life for the show to cover. In addition to his work on SYTYCD, he worked as one of the choreographers on the upcoming Step Up: Revolution (aka Step Up 4), and has filled that role for awards shows and popular musical artists such as Drake. He gave me some insight on what that means on a day-to-day basis.
“[It’s] five to seven hours of rehearsal a day, but you’re coming home and trying to figure out what you’re going to put in the show,” he explained. “[For] SYTYCD, they only give us five hours with the dancers before we actually head to stage, and then we go on stage for 30 minutes, and we do a camera blocking, and we throw them out on television. For Step Up, we only had two weeks of rehearsal to put all the numbers in the movie together. We had four choreographers on it and we threw those numbers out so fast. There’s a duet at the end of the movie and I had seriously twelve hours to put it together.”
What is that kind of schedule like to live under? “Let’s just say this: you have to find a balance between being like ‘Oh, God I’m so busy,’ and then in the back of [my] head I’m like ‘Really, you’ve always wanted this and you’re going to start complaining?’ I always have to remind myself ‘You should realize how lucky you are.'”
He’s hoping that All The Right Moves will give SYTYCD fans a little more insight into “why I resort to some of the things I do. If they know me personally more, they’ll care about [my work] more. Once you know me, if you see my work, you’ll go ‘Wow, he really puts himself into his work.’ You understand where the work’s coming from and why the pieces are so dramatic.”
As for future aspirations, “I eventually want to move into directing. I definitely want to become a director. Hopefully in the next six to seven years I can start making that transition. [But] I’m really happy with what I’m doing right now.”
All The Right Moves premieres on Oxygen on July 31. For more information on the show, you can visit the network’s official website.
For more from Brittany Frederick, visit my BuddyTV writer page, and follow me on Twitter at @tvbrittanyf.
(Image courtesy of Oxygen)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
