seemefemale asked: I wanted to ask about Take the Lead, because this was the second thing after your playing of Rufio that i ever saw and it was such a change in character, for a while i didn't believe it at all. I wanted to know if you had to learn how to dance ballroom for the film or if they cast you because of a love and experience of dancing... and if you still dance now? :) thanks
I loved filming “Take the Lead,” because I finally got to dance in a film. See, I grew up a dancer, I started my career as a street performer, a breakdancer actually in the streets of San Francisco, so I always refer to dance as my first love. From there, my brothers and I got scholarships to the San Francisco Ballet Company and we we’re dancers, we somehow made our way to LA. Cut to, me finally getting to dance in a movie. Flew into Toronto, where we shot the flick a month early just to learn ballroom dancing. It was amazing learning the Rumba, Salsa, the Fox Trot, Swing and my favorite, the Waltz. There’s something magical about dance, being able to communicate without talking, connecting with someone in that different way. Actually while filming my big dance scene, the the Tango Threesome with Elijah Kelly and Jenna Dewan, I told them this is like my “Grease.” (a film I grew up watching nearly everyday)
I still love to dance, sadly I don’t get to boogie as much as I would like, but ironically I’ll be back on the dance floor tomorrow night… Salsa with some friends.
