Tristan MacManus Chats On The Differences Between Dancing With The Stars And Strictly Come Dancing And More

The MaManiac’s posted a new interview with Tristan MacManus. He tells us all about his summer projects so far. He also discusses Dancing With The Stars and Strictly Come Dancing and some of the differences between each show. It’s always good to hear from him. This pro is so missed. Thanks to Andrea for the heads up on this fun interview.

What is one of your favorite moments from SCD 2014?

I really enjoyed my time on Strictly and enjoyed getting to know the pros I hadn’t met before and the crew. Jenny was obviously a highlight to meet and spend time with and I’m glad that her family is now a part of my family. I had always been a fan of Michael Flatley so to meet him and talk with and the cast of Riverdance was amazing for me. I got to meet a number of amazing choreographers each week as well as I had missed the original rehearsal schedule because of Alec and Edyta’s show [Alec Mazo and Edyta Sliwinska’s Dance Temptation, August, 2014]. The whole experience was pretty special for me as I was losing motivation a little bit before I came.

Sometimes the songs chosen for SCD and DWTS don’t seem to be suited to the dance style you are assigned to do. Obviously you make the best of it but do you recall any cases where working with certain music was particularly challenging as you tried to choreograph and/or create a story?

Yeah, you have a lot less influence in a lot of the things on Strictly or at least it seems that way for me but it may just be circumstance and the way the weeks of the show were going. I think Strictly is more about songs that everyone knows and are aware of where I feel you can use any music that’s great on DWTS. I’m usually pretty good at just going with what I got unless I have a real issue with a particular song. I think I made it clear I didn’t wanna dance to ABBA – ha – but what can you do?! Jenny was a huge ABBA fan. Once we got that we just had to go with it. I wanted to use a song by The Beautiful South. Hopefully I can use it on a future season. Movie Week I wanted “Jump In The Line”. I just love that song. Sometimes you get a song you just love but you have no idea after that about what to do – haha – you are just happy you got a great song and then everything is always relative. You should only do what suits your partner and maybe costumes and things like that – dress them for the same reasons. So I let the relevant departments do their job and I focus on my job. On Strictly you teach and try to influence and on DWTS you create more.

Lots more at MacManiacs.Org.