Biografía

1.78 m

The challenge in reaching the iPad generation is just getting them in the door. Once [they are] we do our job. They're loving life and tweeting about us. It's about getting them to take a chance. You can't get them to see 'Swan Lake' if they don't know about dance, and how exciting it can be.

[on performing with the 'Bad Boys of Dance' company, which he founded] We want to make dance popular and exciting for the Facebook generation, the iPad generation. Sex sells. I'm not going to lie. I see us as a dancer version of so many boy bands. If it worked for the 'Rolling Stones' why not for the ballet?

[on his ballet training] Dance was punishment for being rude and disrespectful in martial-arts class. For a little boy of seven, that's a fearful thought. But my first teacher offered me a full scholarship. I'm not sure my dad thought it would be a profession, but once I started to get job offers, he was supportive.

It used to be that you were either a contemporary dancer or a ballet dancer, but now to have a career you have to do both. Even the Kirov Ballet is doing [Jiri] Kylian and [William] Forsythe. Most purist companies are now doing contemporary work. I dreamed of touring early one, and so I choose music that the whole world knows. It's not necessarily my favorite music, but it's what you hear at Starbucks or on the radio. In our next show we're thinking of using 'Gangnam Style' as a comedy number.