LINEUP LINEUP
PICTURE PERFECT 14 Photo Feature: 59
By Rhiannon Lee
Grand Finale Photo: Presented by Showstopper
>>>>>>> MAY 2 017
34 DANCING INTO OUR HEARTS BY CHRISTY SANDMAIER VAL CHMERKOVSKIY,
14-time U.S. National Champion, two-time World Dance Champion and DWTS sensation on finding himself within dancing and his ultimate goals. Photography By Cassandra Plavoukos
IN EVERY ISSUE 18 Publisher’s Page 20 Inside Dance Ambassadors 22 The Must List 25 New + Noteworthy 27 Scene & Social Media 29 Travis Talk 55 Dancing Mentally Tough 57 Noelle’s Notes
43 WEEKEND WITH ARTISTS CAN’T STOP SMILING! A
SIMPLY HUMAN (ASH) BY ELLIE KOROTKY, JUNIOR CORRESPONDENT
44
STARS ALIGNED
Inside the Dance Network and Star Dance Alliance partnership, premiere and predictions for the future.
46 BROADWAY EDITION!
DANCE FITNESS 101: SPECIAL
BY GINA PONGETTI ANGELETTI, MPT
50 – CHANNELING ASHLEY
TEACHER FOR TEACHER
CICALA BY JILLIAN QUINER
52 BY SARAH MCALLISTER
SULTRY SUMMER TRENDS
MAY 2017
INSIDEDANCE.COM
13
14
INSIDEDANCE.COM MAY 2017
TravisTALK
Viewpoint: Connecting to Choreography In each issue of Inside Dance, world-renowned and Emmy® award-winning dancer and choreographer, Travis Wall, shares from his life experiences, recounting some of his best memories, sharing insight into his processes and mindset as well as his opinions on a variety of subjects. This month we revisit a topic we featured before the Olympic Games where the number one Olympic sport – gymnastics – was front and center. In recent years, the sport has moved away from artistry to focus more on difficulty. Wall has worked with a number of high level gymnasts in the past on their choreography and presentation. We asked Travis to compare past eras with today…
“Ballet class is a key for (re)developing artistry. I feel like when you watch gymnastics [routines from many years ago] when compulsories were around and everyone had to do the same routine, they were ballet trained. And when you watch the Russian gymnasts [with a high level of artistry], they were ballet trained. In the 1980’s and 1990’s with the Americans like Shannon Miller, there was ballet training involved. I feel like now with all of the high difficulty, people have taken out the dance element of gymnastics – the artistic element. I agree, everything should be scored higher, but I feel like we should bring back some ballet technique into the training. I feel like everything’s so upper body, just the way they move through their floor exercise and beam, especially. I watch YouTube a lot and I always pull up old gymnastics videos and if you [compare now and then], there’s a huge difference and it comes through the ballet technique.
Aaron Felske
And you have to like the music. For me, music moves me. I can lay on my back and just listen to music forever, I can dance to it forever. There are a lot of things as a choreographer I can tell you to do, but at the end of the day you have to do it for yourself. I can try to help you connect, but you have to find that for yourself.”
Look for Travis Wall on tour with Shaping Sound now! Plus, do you have a question for Travis or a topic you’d like to see him cover in Travis Talk? Tweet it to us @InsideDanceMag.
“For me, music moves me.”
MAY 2017
INSIDEDANCE.COM
29
DANCING INTO OUR HEARTS
Here is Val Chmerkovskiy By Christy Sandmaier Photography By Cassandra Plavoukos On location at Millennium Dance Complex
34
INSIDEDANCE.COM MAY 2017
Talk to us about this season of Dancing with the Stars. What’s the same? What’s been different? I am always very, very grateful to have the opportunity to meet somebody new and go on this journey together. It’s three months of a lifetime and it’s really cool to see somebody change and evolve as a person. The process of mentoring someone else… you sometimes learn even more about yourself. This season and going to Asia, it’s been challenging flying back and forth. We land and she goes right to work – she’s nonstop. So, I’m proud of her and if I get two hours to teach her in a carpeted room in a hotel - that’s my commitment to her on this show. I will travel the world and do whatever it takes to make it happen as long as we can come out every Monday and do the incredible things that we’ve been doing. So you’re happy with the journey so far? I’m very pleased. Having to travel and face some adversity in getting prepared made us a stronger team. I was able to earn her trust very quickly that way. I think our camaraderie and chemistry on the floor is why the dances have turned out so well. The passion of two people and what they’re doing together is always going to be powerful. It’s always going to leave an amazing impression. Do you feel like you’ve gone from playing Maks’ younger brother on the show In a sense, to your own person? I do. I’ve gone through a drastic transformation and part of that is confidence. It’s tough because there’s artificial confidence – the ego crying out for help – or, there’s a genuine confidence due to experience and effort. I have more confidence, not because I’m better than anyone else because I don’t believe that at all, but in finally honing in on who I am. If I just stay true to the things that I like and feel, and genuinely hold dear, and choreograph that way, I’ll bring out my best and my partner’s. I joined the show as a sibling and that’s all that people were willing to give me. That’s all that I honestly needed and the rest was up to me. Talk a little more about your journey onto the show and those first few seasons. I came in with a very decorated competitive dance career, so leaving competition in my prime to join the show that has changed so many lives, my brother’s included, was a huge step for me. It was a very quick reality check. An ego check. Here I was thinking, I’m this incredible dancer, one of the most decorated American competitive dancers ever and they’re all out of shape and all Hollywood, and I got a reality check… It’s a very different show and you have to have a very different approach and ultimately pay your dues. It wasn’t an easy journey.
36
INSIDEDANCE.COM MAY 2017
How do think you won over the fan base? In my eyes, the show has two drastically different fan bases. There’s the group that loves my brother and his outspokenness - the Chmerkovskiy fans. And there’s a huge demographic that love the Hough approach – Derek, Julianne, Mark Ballas… and everybody seemed to fall into one of those categories. So, I showed up with those two very strong fan bases. To one group, I was the little brother trying to steal the spotlight and to the other, I was seen as the other version of Maks. Reality is, I’m neither of those things. I’m not here to compete with my brother because I love him dearly. I very much wanted to be heard for the type of person I am. In the process, I found my own lane. When you do that, you build an audience that’s going to watch you for a long time. It might be a smaller audience than someone else has, but you don’t have to pretend to be anything but yourself. Do you think your partners on DWTS feed off of that mentality? For someone like Laurie Hernandez especially, who was 16… mentoring her on the dance floor, but also in life? I look at my success and I attribute that to my parents and the mentors I had. I’m enjoying the fruits of their labor, of their sacrifices. I have such a great deal of gratitude to those people that the only way I could fulfill [what they gave me] is to pass it forward. I am constantly looking for an opportunity to share those words of wisdom that my parents raised me on. Or, share the mechanics learned from my dance mentors, or the musicality or notes and tips I learned from my music mentor. For Laurie, if I teach her strength through humility and pride and honesty… my form just happens to be through the unconventional form of dance. It’s not so much about dance as it is the human element, the person. It’s a minute and a half dance to show you genuinely mean it. It’s sharing all of the wonderful things I know, because people gave me their time and effort, I just want to do the same.
Is Val the person different from Val the dancer? I didn’t think that I was going to be a dancer at all. My violin teacher was pushing me to be the best at violin – I was striving to be a concertmaster, my dance teachers were obviously pushing me to be a dancer. My school teachers were always pushing me to pursue academia. I was too busy to think about what I was missing out on. I always had my parents pushing me to be the best version of myself. I tried to do it all as long as I could. My brother had been dancing his whole life and I think that all played a role. My family was already so invested. I just have this creative spirit, a competitive spirit and an entrepreneurial spirit. The last thing I want to be is Jack of all trades, master of none, but I also don’t want to be boxed in. I am first and foremost, a passionate human being. Maybe in 20 years, I’ll sound completely different and I’ll tell you I realized I was a dancer all along. Do you remember a time early on while competing that you realized dancing, ballroom dancing, was a unique and great thing you were doing? Growing up, was it ever an option to not dance? This is the hardest question to answer. I’m a dancer. I’m on the number one dance show and every time someone asks me, “Did your parents dance?” the answer is a resounding, “No.” They didn’t dance, they had no intention of dancing. Even now, we have a family business of dance studios – my Dad owns 10 dance studios across the United States - he’s been the father on the sidelines, not a stage father but watching way behind everyone else, watching his kids win championship after championship… and you will never see him front row boasting. He’s just back doing everything he can to make sure his kids have whatever they need to realize their dream. I didn’t idolize Michael Jackson or Arthur Murray or Fred Astaire. I had no knowledge of anything outside of ballroom. I didn’t do jazz or hip hop growing up. I just wanted to be great at everything I did and was driven by that.
I turned 15 in 2001. The first major World Championships that you can go to is in Juniors which is for kids 14 to 16 years old. The United States had never had anybody win the World Championships in Juniors before. I was ranked third the whole year before and the number one couple was from Italy. The Worlds that year were going to be in Turin, Italy on October 28. I’m getting ready for that and 9/11 happens. I grew up in New York as a Ukrainian immigrant with a weird accent and way too long of a last name, but I competed for America and it was kind of weird to me that overseas, I was this American kid and then in America, still this Russian kid. So, where do I belong? After 9/11, there was such a sense of pride that for the first time, I truly felt like an American. This is my country, my place that’s been violated now. It’s my home and I’ve been so grateful to this country. So, I was asking myself how to give back to this country that has embraced my family and given me this opportunity. Two days after 9/11 nothing was moving, but we would be in traffic for three hours each way, Brooklyn to New Jersey to rehearse. We won and my partner and I became the first American couple to win a Junior World Championship. No team from America has won Juniors since. MAY 2017
INSIDEDANCE.COM
39
starsALIGNED shared vision that a s wa er th ge to us t gh ou br lly rea t ha “W people. dance should be so much more accessible to d so do we! “ -JS an , rld wo e th to e nc da ing br to s nt wa y Gar
On March 22, Nashville-headquartered Dance Network announced the online premiere of the new documentary film Dance Family exclusively on its dance-centric digital network at DanceNetwork.tv. Produced by Dance Network in partnership with Star Dance Alliance, Dance Family shares the story of how Star Dance Alliance became one of the world’s largest dance competition circuits, now operating in 16 countries around the globe. “Dancers are incredibly passionate about what they do,” said Dance Network’s Co-founder and CEO Julie Stadler. “But unlike other passion sports, they haven’t had a place to watch it, learn about it or share what they love about it with others.” adds Network co-founder and COO David Medeiros. “Dance Network is more than a dance channel. It’s a dance lifestyle community.”
Inside Dance spoke with Julie Stadler, David Medeiros and Gary Pate about the partnership. Tell us about the first time you met Gary Pate and the Star Dance Alliance family!
Jennifer Brake (Reed PR)
Meeting Gary Pate was like meeting Dick Clark! He’s handsome, has fantastic suits and so much charisma. He makes fun and excitement happen wherever he is – just so much energy. We were introduced to Gary and the Star Dance Alliance family by a mutual friend, Pamela Bolling. We of course, were familiar with Star Dance Alliance competitions, but it wasn’t until we met that we realized just how “in sync” our goals were. What really brought us together was a shared vision that dance should be so much more accessible to people. Gary wants to bring dance to the world, and so do we!
44
INSIDEDANCE.COM MAY 2017
Dance Network and Star Dance Alliance on their partnership, premiere and predictions for the future.
Was your immediate goal to help dancers share their love for dance? Absolutely. One of the many things I realized when I began dancing was how much it changed my life! My teacher and business partner, David Medeiros, said this is true with lots of students. I felt so lucky to have found this passion in my life and I wanted to share it with everyone! I saw so many fantastic dancers who were amazing athletes, but they were unknown to the world. David and I wanted to give these people a platform. Talk a little about your process, those first steps towards launching and building a plan. How has the response been so far? It’s kind of like learning a dance routine. You never quit learning or perfecting what you are working on. So many people have said, “I can’t believe this didn’t exist before,” and we agree! The response from both dancers and general dance enthusiasts has been overwhelmingly positive. Now, we are looking to grow that audience and expose as many people to the world of dance as possible. How many people are involved on your team, managing, producing, etc? We are a small but mighty group of twelve employees – not including all of the third-party vendors that we engage to provide services. Oh, and a couple of dogs that hang around the office, too! We are very dog friendly!
Subscribers look forward to your content daily/ weekly/monthly… how do you plan to keep it fresh for the viewers as a partnership? February through August, there are multiple competitions going on every single weekend. We show these competitions on our livestream for everyone to view and enjoy. Ultimately, we will have other shows and maybe highlights from different years from all of the circuits as well as a Leaderboard type show - ESPN style.
IN GARY’S WORDS… Tell us about the first time you met Julie, Dave and the Dance Network family?! We were blown away! We met Julie and David at the home of Dance Network TV, Skyway Studios in Nashville. This multipurpose TV and Studio facility is astounding: over 125,000 square feet of full service studio space. We were teeming with excitement upon entering! After spending a short amount of time with the Dance Network team, we knew we were with the best. David is a complete gentleman, with an impressive ballroom dance background. Julie, hip fashionista, is a sharp business woman, with a bright personality and great sense of humor. This should not have been a surprise seeing that the woman who introduced us is the infamous Pamela Bolling, premiere dance industrialist of Orlando. Everyone at the table had been profoundly affected by dance in some way. This was our mutual passion, and we knew we could make magic. One of the most important things yourself and Grace Wakefield emphasize to your audience, judges and customers is, “It is our duty to give every dancer their individual moment with all of our attention when they take the stage…” Do you feel this motto separates you from other events? Yes, but the Star Dance Alliance experience is much more. Because Grace Wakefield and I were dance teachers, studio owners, parents and performers, we understand all aspects of the dance competition. It is our goal to create the ultimate performance experience for young dancers. I always wanted more performance opportunities and longed for a professional environment when I took the stage. We hope to make every kid that hits our stage feel special, and that every dance teacher and parent feel like they are family. The Dance Network, with great passion and integrity, reaches the world and unites through dance. A match made in heaven!
Talk a little about your process, those first steps towards filming, launching and building a network debut plan. How has the response been so far? The process thus far has been inspirational! It is moving to hear stories of great dancers and artists of all ages. The Star Dance Alliance Documentary, Dance Family, is just the beginning of what’s to come. The possibilities are endless. The response has been astounding, and not only from our young dancers, but from their teachers and families too! Do you feel your global reach and growth is valuable to Dance Network TV? The global community of the Star Dance Alliance is of great value to the Dance Network, but the Dance Network is just as valuable to the SDA! We are different platforms, yet we share the same passion: Dance! How proud are you of Dance Family? Is it everything you’d hoped? The SDA Documentary Dance Family is a dream come true! Dance Network TV displays the unique, family-like dynamic that can only be created and experienced by a lifetime in dance. This documentary captures the essence of our life in the dance world: We work together, we laugh together, we cry together, we dance together. If you love dance, and know that your dance friends are more than just friends, then Dance Family is for you.
ABOUT DANCE NETWORK • Dance Network is the first global network devoted entirely to dance. • The Network is comprised of an online “dance lifestyle” community where dancers and dance enthusiasts everywhere gather to interact, engage and enjoy a complete spectrum of original and exciting dance programming from all over the world. • Using the universal language of movement, DanceNetwork.tv takes audiences on new and unexpected journeys through an eclectic mix of dance.
TOGETHER: TOP GOALS FOR THE PARTNERSHIP • If you are a dancer, or dance enthusiast, this platform is for YOU! Practically custom made, and available at any time! 24/7! • Star Dance Alliance Performers are featured! Live events and competitions can be viewed. If you are a Star Dance Alliance performer, you may see yourself on the Dance Network TV! • Reach a broad audience of people from all around the world. • Help kids find a career in dance. • Inspire other children to get involved with dance. After watching content on our platform, someone might think, “I want to do that” and then go and do it!
FIND US! DANCENETWORK.TV
45
Summer dance FASHION By Sarah McAllister
Whether you’re going to class, heating it up at your Summer Intensive or traveling to Nationals, you want to feel fabulous in your threads, just like you do in your body! That’s why the best style is something you feel comfortable in. The trend this summer will be marked by a simple, soft, but laid-back vibe. This season it’s all about mixing girly with a hint of grunge (think early 90’s!). Want to pull it off? Heading from class to the studio is easy with versatile looks like black cut-out leggings, a floral print sundress and a cute pair of Converse! Try a bold color sneaker to really make your outfit pop. And if floral print isn’t your thing, you can always change up the dress for a sporty oversized t-shirt. You can also rock your favorite sun dress with a cute pair of high-waisted shorts so your outfit transitions easily from street to studio.
Etsy, Pinterest, Just For Kix, Macy’s
The best part about this season’s look, is comfort! Move freely in a simple romper and pair it with a light-weight cardigan or a jean jacket. Rompers, leggings and oversized tees are great for everything from hanging with friends, getting your shop on, to rehearsing in class. Another option for hot summer days is a pair of loose flowing harem pants paired with a unique bra top and a light-weight tank or crop. Think fabrics that allow you to breathe and that absorb sweat without weighing you down.
52
The most important thing to remember about fashion and what you choose is that it has to feel good to YOU! We all love how we feel when we’re moving and how we feel one with the music as we dance, and we want to feel that same way in our clothes. What we wear should reflect how strong and confident we feel within ourselves. The rest is just an accessory!
INSIDEDANCE.COM MAY 2017
Get the Look!
Think girly with a hint of 90s grunge!
standout summer trends leggings with unique cut out patterns light weight, oversized tees floral print sun dresses paired with sneakers rompers cozy cardigans loose flowing tanks/crop tops
MAY 2017
INSIDEDANCE.COM
53
DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE ISSUE AND JOIN THE
#INSIDENATION
TODAY! 1. SEARCH “INSIDE DANCE” IN THE APP STORE. 2. DOWNLOAD THE APP! 3. PLACE YOUR ORDER. 4. THE CURRENT ISSUE WILL DOWNLOAD INTO YOUR NEWSSTAND.