Louis Van Amstel Talks So You Think You Can Dance And Dancing With The Stars
Wetpaint has a great new interview up with Louis Van Amstel. As some of you know, he’s been currently helping to choreograph some routines for So You Think You Can Dance. According to our Heidi in the Emmy post, Louis choreographed “two kickass dances” that were “strict and difficult ballroom”. What’s more, she said his work was “better than anything he’s done on DWTS in YEARS.” Of the experience in the new interview, Louis said….
You also choreographed for So You Think You Can Dance recently. How do you find choreographing for So You Think You Can Dance compared to Dancing With The Stars?
It’s different… This week on So You Think You Can Dance it was very challenging. They had never done Tango, ever. So I thought, you know what, you’re going to have to rise to the challenge. I am not going to make it easier… If you have trained dancers that are out of their comfort zone, it is a completely different challenge than someone who has never danced before, where you have to just teach them how to dance. It’s different, but I love both, I absolutely love both.
Stay tuned because Chelsie Hightower will be helping with So You Think You Can Dance next week for one show.
Louis also talks about Dancing With The Stars. I didn’t realize he had taught many of the current pros on the show.
Before Dancing With the Stars you worked with a lot of the pros who are now on the show as their coach, right?
Yes. ABC doesn’t talk a lot about that, but yes, I couched ninety percent of the dancers on the show right now.What has it been like to watch your pupils become your colleagues and co-stars on DWTS, which is a huge phenomena?
Now it’s great, but in the beginning — let’s say between Season 3 and Season 10 — there were conflicts. You get the dynamic that I had been the coach then [before the show], but now I’m not. And then some [of the pros] feel, in their minds, that they’re more celebrated than others, and others feel that now they want to compete with me. I’m not doing Dancing With the Stars to compete with someone else. My job is to develop, and create a journey for my celebrity, so that I can truly help my partner and make her as good as I can. And when we do group numbers, it’s to create the best number for the show, because we want to entertain. So, there had been conflict…But now, in the last two seasons, the pros have now found their own self, and their own route, and their own niche, and it’s really good. I think people see it, and the celebrities feel it, and the celebrities have more camaraderie, and we all help each other.
A lot of pros have started to branch out into other projects, and seeing success there. Do you think that’s part of why they’re less competitive on the show itself?
If you’re very competitive by nature, in the end, there is some insecurity there. If you’re insecure about yourself, you focus on your product, your dancing, your art. You have to be pretty secure about who you are as a person to be able to say, “I’m not trying to put you down, or beat you, I am just focusing on my heart.” It’s not easy to do, sometimes.
Ineresting. Be sure to read more of this interview >>>>here. Louis also talks of his past partners on Dancing With The Stars. Note: Louis will be on “Drop Dead Diva” with Margaret Cho on Sunday, July 17th at 9:00pm ET on Lifetime if you want to check it out. Below is a hint of what’s to come….
I’m so glad I discovered you few...
The tango he choreographed for SYTYCD this past week was unbelievable! I’m not even the biggest Louis fan, but he sold me on that one. I hope he does more this season because they’re in need of a good ballroom choreographer.
Props to Louis for his incredible tango on SYTYCD, the last lift between the legs was so quick and so awesome, I loved this dance. Great choreography indeed.
“Before Dancing With the Stars you worked with a lot of the pros who are now on the show as their coach, right? Yes. ABC doesn’t talk a lot about that, but yes, I couched ninety percent of the dancers on the show right now. ” Interesting, because I do give him props for “doing the most with the least” many times. Still, time for DWTS to branch out with their stable of pros-recruit some new ones from different backgrounds?
I think “90%” is massive hyperbole – Derek, Mark, and Julianne were trained by Corky and Shirley. Derek had stopped competing, from what I understand, a year or more BEFORE he came to DWTS. He was doing Footloose for a year and was doing Bruno’s dance show in the UK as a choreographer. I can’t imagine that Louis trained Mark and Julianne either, even if they were still competing. That leaves Cheryl, Maks, Tony….I suppose it’s possible he coached them. He lives or has a home in Utah, which means he could have coached Chelsie. Kym? I don’t see it. Karina?? Again – really? I don’t know about Lacey’s ballroom background – I only know about her dad. I just can’t figure which pros he could be talking about.
But then, Louis has been prone to quite a massive ego of his own, hyperbole and outright bitchiness in the past several seasons – a lot of this is probably in his head.
Yeah, that would be my question. Who has Louis coached aside from Dmitry? I thought the Ballases had coached “90%” of the DWTS pros. I know that Louis and Karina were partners before. He MIGHT have taught the Houghs, at least Julianne (maybe when she came back from the UK) because I thought he was the one that recommended her to DWTS. IDK… Louis always so full of himself too.
According to Wikipedia, Louis started coaching Tony, Maks and Karina in 1997. When he was asked to do DWTS in 2005, he was coaching Jonathan, Anna, Alec, Edyta, Maks and Elena. He coached Cheryl after season 1 and then helped her join DWTS.
Louis def coached Karina, Maks, Elena and Tony. Competitive dancers often work with a several different coaches at the same time because they have different expertise and perspective (…and dance politics).
He and Karina were partners. I think he taught Chelsie but not Tony or Mak – and definitely not Mark, Derek, Julianne. Maybe he coached Cheryl, Anna, Jonathan, Dmitry. That’s not 90%
This interview is exactly why I don’t like him.
Heh – just when I start to like him, Jennifer, he opens his mouth again and ruins it.