Interview: Travis Wall Talks All The Right Moves and Step Up: Revolution

Two of the world’s most famous choreographers and directors, Rob Marshall and Bob Fosse, have garnered widespread attention for their contributions to dance and films. Travis Wall, an up-and-coming choreographer, is following in their footsteps, and showcasing his talents with several upcoming television and film projects. Wall is set to appear in the upcoming summer Oxygen docu-series ‘All The Right Moves,’ alongside his three friends and roommates, including Teddy Forance, a choreographer with Cirque du Soleil; Nic Lazzarini, the first season winner of the hit FOX reality competition ‘So You Think You Can Dance;’ and Kyle Robinson. The show chronicles the four as they launch a dance company, Shaping Sound. Experienced in jazz, lyrical and contemporary dance, Wall also choreographed all of the contemporary dance numbers in this summer’s ‘Step Up: Revolution.’ Wall, who also appeared as a contestant on the second season of ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ will be returning for the show’s upcoming ninth season, as a resident choreographer. Wall, who has also choreographed for the 82nd Academy Awards and the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), took the time recently to talk with us over the phone about his upcoming projects. The choreographer discussed, among other things, why he decided to chronicle the launch of Shaping Sound on ‘All The Right Moves,’ what it was like working with the cast of ‘Step Up: Revolution’ and why he decided to return to ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ as a choreographer. Written by: Karen Benardello ShockYa (SY): You’re set to appear in Oxygen’s new docu-series ‘All The Right Moves,’ which follows you as launch your dance company, Shaping Sound. What was your motivation in chronicling the start of Shaping Sound on a television series? Travis Wall (TW): It pretty much chronicles the lives of the four guys who live in the house. It’s me and my best friends, and we started a dance company together. It’s really about what it takes to put on a show, and what it takes to be a choreographer in the industry, especially since we’re young choreographers. I’m more established as a choreographer, but my friends are dancers who are branching out to become choreographers. It also exposes our personal careers and our persona lives. It’s interesting, I didn’t know how much it was going to take to actually put into starting a dance company. I just wanted to dance with my best friends, but there was a lot of business stuff that I wasn’t prepared for. It’s been a huge journey. SY: Why did you and your roommates decide to launch Shaping Sound? Did you all always have a desire to be a part of a dance company? TW: Well, I always wanted a dance company, I just didn’t know know when it was actually going to happen. It kind of made sense, we were all kind of working together. I was getting hired for a lot of jobs, and because of all these things, we said, we should really start a dance company. We wanted to create opportunities for our friends to dance. There aren’t many opportunities to dance in what we do, which is contemporary. We wanted to make it as commercial as possible, and open up the opportunity to perform in theaters and on stage and television. SY: How did ‘All The Right Moves’ get started-did you approach Oxygen with the idea, or did the network approach you with the idea for the show? TW: I had a producer come up to me and ask me if I wanted my own reality show. I thought it would be really cool to chronicle my life on ‘So You Think You Can Dance.’ But I said, I don’t know how entertaining I would be by myself, but you should definitely meet me and my best friends. I said, we have an idea to start a dance company, and they said, that’s awesome. So we were picked up by a production company, and met with a bunch of networks. Oxygen was the network we finally chose to go with. To continue reading this interview, please visit Shockya.