Posts tagged Tony

(March 5, 2009—Denver, CO) Taking some time from his busy schedule of working with professional musicians and dancers, choreographer Tony Testa sat down to talk with JigTV.com about his career, which started at the young age of 14. Since then he has performed with the likes of Aaron Carter, Janet Jackson, and Britney Spears.

As part of JigTV’s professional dancer interviews, Tony talked about how first gig was with Tap Kids, an off-Broadway production directed by Lisa Hopkins, during which he made some good friends and had his first experience touring. Tap Kids toured on the weekends, he said, leaving time during the week for school, baseball, and wrestling.

At the age of 16, Tony Testa was taking a dance class with Brian Friedman, another choreographer featured on JigTV, when Brian asked him to perform in a show he was choreographing for Aaron Carter. Shortly after that, he put together a choreography reel before moving to Los Angeles. Tony highly recommends putting together a choreography reel so that people can show studios what they can do, even if choreography isn’t their strongest point. People looking for dancers need to know what they can do, and a choreography reel is the best way to show them.

In addition to taking dance classes, Tony emphasizes the importance of networking and knowing the right people, but says it has to be for the right motives. “If you’re obviously trying to network just for money purposes, people can see through that,” he says, but adds that he has found that as long as you do what you love, are true to yourself, and do what you do best, people will seek you out.

As proof of the success of these efforts, when Tony was 18 he got a call from Janet Jackson’s director, who had seen his choreography reel and wanted him to audition for Janet’s show. He got the position of junior choreographer to work under the director and another professional choreographer. “I was beyond intimidated!” Tony said. He had never worked with other choreographers before, so that job helped him learn a lot.

Recently, Tony performed with Britney during MTV’s Video Music Awards. He and the others dancers rehearsed for three weeks, and he was very satisfied with the performance.

To view the full interview with Tony Testa, visit JigTV.com.