The Oxygen Channel's All the Right Moves has launched with an eight-episode run. The new series surrounds the lives of four dancerstwo straight and two gayas they learn to build a business and life together.
Emmy-nominated Travis Wall and Nick Lazzarini from So You Think You Can Dance, along with Teddy Forance and Kyle Robinson from Dancing With the Stars, make up the cast.
Watch out for drama as the boys launch Shaping Sound and learn the ins and outs of running their own dance company.
Windy City Times: Hi, guys. Congrats on the exciting project.
All: Thank you.
WCT: Travis, can you talk about some of the challenges with starting your own business?
Travis Wall: When I thought I wanted to dance with my friends, I thought that was pretty much it. I thought I was just starting a dance company and didn't really realize I was actually starting a business with my friends. I did not understand that there is so much that goes into that.
We started with this $20,000 budget and we actually ended up spending, like, 300 times that. We were very naive walking in the situation, but I think we've all learned a hell of a lot through the process.
WCT: What did you learn after living with each other?
Nick Lazzarini: Well, there's not much more I could learn about Travis. We pretty much know each other like the back of our hand because we've known each other for so long. With Kyle, I learned that he's quite the ladies' man and he's very clean and handy. The first week he moved into our house, he literally fixed everything that was wrong in it. It was incredible. It was awesome. It was like having Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor [from the '90s show Home Improvement] in our house.
WCT: What did you learn about each other in terms of dancing?
Teddy Forance: I've just been inspired by Travis' vision and his persistence in a single piece, all the way to his full career. With Kyle he's just a stoic dancer. I remember seeing him do a performance at Juilliard and he just stood there for two minutes before he even started dancing and I felt so much from that. So his power in subtlety, I think, is really loud in the group.
With Nick, he's just an all-around amazing entertainer and person as well as a friend. So I've learned so much from all of them, it's really incredible.
Kyle Robinson: Just moving into the house and living with Nick, Teddy and Travis, I've just learned to just trust in what we do. It's been an anxious process for me moving out to L.A. I'm kind of new to the L.A. scene. So moving in with these guys, I've learned that I can really rely on them. I know that we're going to get the work done and it's going to be good, even when we're under the gun and pressed for time.
Nick Lazzarini: Which is most of the time!
WCT: It was interesting the dynamic of two straight men and two gay men living and working together.
Travis Wall: We don't even think about it because it's our life and it's been our lives. I guess if you're just putting it out there in public, people are like, "Wow. Two gay and two straight living together," but our sexuality has never ever been a factor in our relationship.
I think it's cool that Nick and I are so comfortable about it to open up about my relationship and the boys he likes and stuff like that. I never thought to ever hide myself. We are who are and you get to see all of that.
WCT: Do you find that most dancers are straight?
Travis Wall: They say they are all straight until they meet me and Nick!
Kyle Robinson: Yes, I would say in my experience. In my class at school there were like 12 guys and maybe three of us were straight. I've danced with a lot of gay men. I have an amazing number of friends that are gay men. They know that I'm straight and they respect that. Do they make jokes and crack jokes and everything? Yes, all the time. They grab at me but you fend them off and then you're like, "All right, come on."
Nick Lazzarini: Kyle. I've never grabbed you before.
Kyle Robinson: No, never, but I am comfortable with my sexuality. It's not anything that I ever am concerned with or have any problems with living with Nick and the cast. Actually they're hilarious and I'm laughing, like, 100 percent of the time that I'm at my house.
WCT: What are some difficult things about making this series?
Nick Lazzarini: I think, for me, the most difficult was definitely the time crunch of the choreography and some of the dance performances that we were doing. Also music clearance is really hard, too.
WCT: How about the best part?
Teddy Forance: I think one of the best parts of the process is being in the studio. Any second that I could get them in the studio with me, I cherish it. I see a piece as they're seeing a piece. At the same time I think we're starting to really join together our ideas and our forces of movement and it's really powerful.
WCT: In the first episode when you had to audition, Kyle, what was going through your head?
Kyle Robinson: I was a little surprised for sure, and I think that you can see that in my face. I think it was just because of the way that the whole thing was presented to me.
Ted called me up and asked me to more to L.A. I came out here because I believed in the passion and the drive and their artistic integrity fully and because they're my friends. I wanted to make this thing be the best that it could be. If that meant that I had to get my audition uniform on I was willing to do that. Because I love and respect them so much that I really just wanted to make this as good as it could possibly be.
WCT: What advice would you give to aspiring dancers?
Travis Wall: Train, train, train. Train your bodies. Take your ballet seriously. Take everything technically that you can do to make your body better.
We love really strong technical dancers, but we also look for that really special thing. And I think all the girls that dance in our company especially, they all technical dancers, but there's something about them too that's special. They sparkle. They're really cool girls. They're really nice girls. So I think that really comes across in their dancing.
Teddy Forance: I also think having your own voice as a dancer in the studio as well. I think each of our dancers could do a solo, take the stage and be amazing.
WCT: Have you had a special moment from this whole process?
Teddy Forance: When we were on stage and we were all holding hands doing a bow and there was a standing ovation, just a thousand people screaming our name it L.A. It was like unbelievable. Nick was crying for the first time I've ever seen him cry. So that was cool.
Travis Wall: That was our premiere show in May and it was definitely the most rewarding. I think what also is going to be really rewarding is that people are going to be watching our lives and our dance company as a TV show. It really has consumed our lives in the past five months.
We were in the middle of Times Square this past month and our huge billboard went up to promote the TV show. We're just so proud of each other and we are so proud of the process. So we're very excited for all this.
WCT: Well, come visit Chicago.
Travis Wall: We will. We are supposed to go on tour there!
All the Right Moves runs every Tuesday on the Oxygen Channel. Visit www.oxygen.com for details and listings.