411 Movies Interview: Shane Sparks of Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew Posted by Tony Farinella on 03.24.2008
411's Tony Farinella sits down with one of the judges from the show for an exclusive interview!
Shane Sparks is one of the most popular hip-hop choreographers in Hollywood. He has worked with such superstars as Lindsay Lohan, Aaliyah, Monica, and many, many more. Currently, he is a judge on Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew along with rapper Lil Mama, and former *NSYNC singer JC Chasez. In my interview with Shane Sparks, we talked about America's Best Dance Crew, his career, hip-hop, and a whole lot more. I hope you enjoy my interview with Shane Sparks.
TONY: How would you describe your judging style on America's Best Dance Crew?
Shane Sparks: When I judge, I usually critique them in a way where it doesn't hurt their feelings, but it makes them step up their game a little more. I always look for the good in their routine, and when I find the bad, I tell them how they should capitalize on it. So I'm coming from a constructive criticism point of view instead of just telling them that they suck, or they're bad, or they're super, super good. If they're really good, I'll let 'em know. If it's bad, I'll let 'em know too, but I'll let 'em know why they're bad so they can capitalize on it next week.
TONY: What separates the dancers on your show from other dancers on other dance shows?
Shane Sparks: The good thing about this show is they're amateur dancers. I won't say amateur, but it's the dancers that don't have all that training from the studios. A lot of dancers that are from the street don't have the money to pay for that, but they have great talent, they have great crews, and they have great hunger. So our show is like an avenue for those dancers, and that's what separates us from shows like So You Think You Can Dance. A lot of the dancers that make it on that show, they're trained dancers, and they've been dancing all their life. And they're just coming on the TV show to learn choreography and show their stuff off. These dancers don't have that training. They just have street training, and they would never get the opportunity to be on a professional show because they lack that training. Now, we're giving them an avenue to show how talented the kids on the streets and the kids that don't have all that school training, how talented they really are.
TONY: Your show is also about team work, because when one person fails, the whole team fails. What's it like having to rely on someone else?
Shane Sparks: It's everything. I don't know if you saw this episode, but I think maybe a week ago, Kaba Modern, they had one girl in there that messed up on the choreography, and Lil Mama made a comment, "You all did great, but you right here messed up." And she broke down crying. And she broke down crying because her love for what she does is so deep, and she felt like she let everybody down. When she messes up, she lets the whole crew down, and that one small mistake could be the difference from them winning or losing, because then you have JabbaWockeeZ, who never makes a mistake coming in there. So that one little mistake makes a difference. And that one person makes a difference, because it's like harmony in music: If you got one note off, it just kills the air. You can have a perfect song but that one note, and people are like, "Oh, my god. That was bad." But then you have another song that's perfect all the way through, and it might not even be a better song, but it sounded good, and they didn't make a mistake. One person is very important, so, as a crew, they have to rehearse, they have to be ready, and they have to be prepared.
TONY: Why do you think dance is so popular here in 2008? It seems like so many different people have so many different theories, but what's your theory on the popularity of dance?
Shane Sparks: I think what it is ... a lot of people are giving it a chance, because all these dances have always been around. Salsa just came up and just took over for a minute, and it was one of those dances that's been going on for years. Hip-Hop has been going on forever, and finally somebody gave it a chance. And that's why I love So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew, because they're finally giving it a chance. And because hip-hop is so powerful and it's so sexy and it's so beautiful and it's so fun, everybody in the world can relate to it. It's something that everybody wants to do, but they're afraid of it, because they're not used to seeing it. And now that they're getting used to seeing it, it's taking over. It's like a disease. It's a good disease, and everybody's catching on to this disease, and pretty soon we're gonna contaminate the whole world. (laughs) It's gonna be the universe of hip-hop. Planet hip-hop. That's what we're planning on doing.
TONY: How involved is Randy Jackson with the show?
Shane Sparks: Randy is very involved. A lot of decisions are not made unless he's around and unless he's there. So when we do certain things, Randy's there telling us, "Let's do this, Let's do that." The only thing he's not involved in is the choreography and the judging. He lets us have our own opinion. And if we're all bumping heads on something, he might come in and Howard might come in and they might say, "OK, well, let's do this. Look at this group and judge it from this point of view." And it will help us figure out, "OK, well, now this group should be the winner. Or now this crew is." But other than that, he's behind-the-scenes helping with everything else, except for the most important part, and that's our part, and that's the judging. And we respect him for that.
TONY: Do you think we'll ever see a reality show that allows rap artists to find record deals?
Shane Sparks: You know what? That's a good question, and I know a couple of people who tried it, but it didn't work. It's like with the dance world: It's gonna take a minute for them to actually accept a show like that. I really think, in the future, there's gonna be a show like that, because when it does happen, it's gonna take over just like rap took over the radio. It's just you gotta find the right person at the right time to take a chance on it. And I think the reason it's so hard is because most rappers are ghetto, or they think they're ghetto, and that's the perception that most people have of rappers. So to put together a show with a bunch of people that are like that, it's kind of scary. But they don't understand that a lot of these rappers are born in the suburbs. A lot of these rappers might be born in the hood, but they have good hearts, and they just want a chance. And once we can get a show that shows that they're not all hood and all ghetto, then people would take more chances on it. But I think it's the fear of what the rappers talk about: They kind of got people like, "Oh, I dunno if I want to have to deal with that for ten weeks. We don't know if we're gonna have to deal with a lot of drama." So it's up to the rappers to say, "We love this just as much as you all love dance. So we're not gonna come on TV and try and bring you drama ... we wanna come on TV and show you our love and succeed and be able to take care of our families just like you do." But until that happens, I think people are gonna be afraid to bring that type of rap into the mainstream of TV. It's a lot to deal with dancers when you're dealing with the behind-the-scenes world. When you see it on TV, it's all good, but when you go behind-the-scenes, it's a lot of pain, people getting hurt, a lot of family problems, and a lot of personal issues. Now, imagine people from the street coming on with those same issues. It gets a little deeper, you know what I mean? I think people are still kind of skeptical, but I do think in the future there will be something like that. I think we just gotta wait a little more time with the rappers, and they gotta clean it up a little bit more.
TONY: What is the difference between an instinctive dancer and a dancer who has to work at it?
Shane Sparks: Well, the difference is ... an instinctive dancer, like me, I never really had to take a class. If you put music on, I would dance to it. I might see something that I like, and it will inspire me, but I would never take what they do. A person that's not experienced in dance, they have to take classes, they have to be taught how to dance on the one, on the two, on the three, they have to learn how to move certain parts of their body, and if you ask them to freestyle, nine times out of ten, they can't just dance without them being told what to do. And an instinctive dancer, all you gotta do is put on the music. They might not blow your mind, but they will actually groove, and they will dance, and they will show you some stuff that will make you go, "Oh, yeah, he can dance." But the one that's less instinctive, you gotta tell them what to do from A to B. But that changes after a while and eventually they will be able to be an instinctive dancer once they start to come into themselves and learn their body and get familiar with how to move certain parts and get familiar with music and how to put dance to music. And, eventually, they will become that instinctive dancer and be able to freestyle and do what they want to do without having someone tell them how to do it.
TONY: When you're working with a celebrity, is it sometimes hard to treat them like everybody else and go into it with an open mind?
Shane Sparks: I treat them like everybody else, because as soon as you meet them, all the fame, all the glory, all of that disappears. As soon as you get into a groove and start talking, all of a sudden they just become another person. Then once we get over that point, then it's time to work. And another thing that's special about the way I work is I cater to the artist. I find their strength, I find their weakness, and then I go right in between and find something that makes them shine. Instead of having them doing something that they can't do, you know what I mean? Or making it too simple for 'em, where they can't shine the way that they would have shined. And that's another thing about instinctive dancers: Because I am an instinctive dancer and I can just go with the flow and create on the spot, I can mold them into what I want them to be and make them shine. And a lot of people that aren't instinctive dancers, they can't do that. They can only teach what they've been taught. And that's why artists have to be careful about who they choose to make their career and do their performances, because they'll just be doing whatever everybody else is doing.
TONY: How do you keep everything in perspective and keep it real? From talking to you right now and from reading previous interviews with you, you seem like such a straight shooter.
Shane Sparks: I been in the game all my life, but, professionally, I got in here at a later age. What happened was because I struggled so much, I went through all the things that you can possibly go through to become who I am right now, so I appreciate every second of it. What happens is a lot of people get this fame at sixteen or twenty, and they haven't really struggled yet, so they don't know themselves yet. So they don't know themselves yet, and when they go out there and just go with the flow, they're easily influenced. I can't be influenced because I know who I am, I know what I'm supposed to do, and hopefully I inspire the world to be better. In this dance world, I feel like this was my gift, and I was sent here to change the world. And if you know that and you feel that and you think that, you can't be distracted. So when I give my opinion on something, it's based off of years of experience and what I believe, not off of what someone told me or what they expect me to say. I can only say what I am, and I can only do what I do. And that's it. You either like it or you don't. Most people tend to like it, because I'm not here to hurt nobody ...I'm just here to help 'em, and sometimes the truth will hurt 'em, but in the end, they will call me up, I have people call me up ten years later like, "Oh, my god, when I worked with you, that was the best time of my life, because you were the only person who gave me the truth." I still use that today when I'm working. And that's really all you need to have when you work with people, and that's all you need to give 'em. Everything else is just bull. Just be honest and tell 'em how you feel. And I just thank god that it took me this long to get where I'm at, because I think if I had done it earlier, I wouldn't be the person that I am in this business.
TONY: What have you learned about the path to success? It seems like there's more than one way to skin a cat.
Shane Sparks: The thing that's important to me that I think got me to where I am right now is the fact that I am very, very loyal to whatever I'm doing. I'm very, very loyal, very, very honest, and I respect anybody and everybody that I meet, and that goes further than any singing, any dancing, or any acting. It goes beyond that, because nine times out of ten, you can find somebody and teach 'em how to act, teach 'em how to dance, because TV is not based on how talented you are .... it's based on how much money you can make off of this person. If this person is beautiful but can't act and they're still making millions, that person will be on TV for ten years. I don't deal with that. I want people to look at me and say, "He was honest when I worked with him, he treated us with respect, he looked at us like equals, and he's very talented on top of it."
TONY: I'm sure it's hard to put into words, but why is dance so important to you? What does it mean to you?
Shane Sparks: It is my life. I got this slogan now that I say dancing saved my life. I lived in the hood, I grew up with my cousins that smoked weed, sold weed, and everybody drank. I mean, I grew up around that, and I chose not to smoke, I chose not to drink, and I chose not to sell dope, because I had this inner light in me. And my light was driven through dance, so dance is everything to me. And that's why I will never hold it ...I will always be giving it out and sharing it. When I travel around the world, I'm just giving my heart out. I'm showing love, and when I show love, it's through my dance, and people see that and they notice it. And I think that's why I'm at where I am today. It has nothing to do with my dancing ability ...it's just how I approach it and where it's coming from.
TONY: Finally, what are some of your long-term goals in this business?
Shane Sparks: Basically, my main goal in this dance world is I wanna change the rules. I want dancers to be paid like singers and actors, I want dancers to be respected like singers and actors, and I want us to be able to retire and take care of our families. That is one of my main goals. There's a lot of things that I wanna do, but I think my main priority is for all the dancers that are coming up right now that look at me and say, "he's successful," I want them to know that they can be just like me, they can have more than what I have, and they can take care of their families and make this a life career. I want people who are in control of this business to respect us and know that we work harder than any artist, any singer, any athlete. We work harder than all of 'em, and we get paid the least. That needs to change. And if I can do anything to change that, I've done my job.
