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The architect behind Janet Jackson's legendary moves from her unforgettable video
for "If," to the celebrated tour for The Velvet Rope, Tina Landon is one of the most iconic
choreographers ever to make her mark on the industry. After getting her start as a featured
dancer in Michael Jackson's music video for "Smooth Criminal," she quickly became a choreographer
who's a brand unto herself. Winner of two MTV Video Music Awards for best choreography
and nominated for seven more, she's worked with an incredible array of artists ranging
from Ricky Martin, Willow Smith and Mya, to Motley Crue and Aerosmith. Tina is the proud
recipient of an ALMA Award for achievement in choreography that was presented to her
by JLo herself. We're thrilled to have her with us on the show today. I am your host
Galen Hooks. Tina, thanks for joining me. TINA: Thank you. It's my pleasure.
So you're somebody that I have never heard the words icon and legend thrown around so
much with somebody's name. You are an icon and a legend, but I wanna talk to you about
you as a person too. So when you were growing up in Lancaster how did dancing come into
the picture? TINA: Actually my mom was the one who put myself, my brother and
sister into dance. I started when I was two, so it wasn't like I had a choice. She probably
just needed an hour of silence in the house. And you know it's really interesting, because
it was just something that became my life after a while. And I remember one time, I
don't know, I was complaining about something. I think I was like in eight grade. And I had
a friend go well why don't you just quit then if you don't wanna do it. And I thought
for a second, like that's not an option. It just wasn't. It was, it was like brushing
your teeth. You can't, you know I complain all the time but I'm not gonna stop brushing
my teeth. And it was just it was like, it was just like a weird thing that kinda clicked
and never left me that why would I ever stop dancing? Interesting. GALEN: Interesting,
yeah. But your family, I mean like so many dancers, their parents just think oh dancing
is a hobby. And of course like when you're a little girl like that it's especially just
a hobby. You're just there for recreational. TINA: Well especially when you've grown up
in Lancaster, California GALEN: Yeah. TINA: that's an hour away from anything.
GALEN: Yeah. TINA : It's just desert in between Lancaster and Los Angeles. So Los Angeles, I may as well
have been going to New York. GALEN: Ah, yeah. TINA: It was a whole different world.
GALEN: What gave you the drive to keep showing your parents this isn t just a hobby, I wanna go
to LA, I wanna do this? TINA: One of my dance teachers at the time, it was like
this weird thing. She heard about this show, and this was the time they were looking for
breakdancers and I'd dabbled in it a little. I was really bad. GALEN: Ohhh, I wanna see
that. TINA: No I was awful. I was awful (LAUGHS). But at the time there weren't girls doing
it. There, you know there were no Beat Freaks, there were no GALEN: Yeah. TINA: really cool
girl groups or crews or any of that. And I ended up getting the job. And it was kind
of like wait, I can get paid for this? I can get paid for doing something that I love that
I just do every year just to dance at the fairgrounds. And so it was something that
I started, I really thought about. And when you come from a family that doesn't understand
that, you know with my dad who was you go to school, you get a degree, you get a job,
I had to put a plan together for my dad before I even approached him when I decided this
is really what I wanna do. I wrote on a piece of paper what it was going to cost
me, what I could afford. I was already working two jobs at two different dance studios, and
what I was going to need as support from him. And knowing my dad, it's like as long as I
had some plan he was always gonna go an extra mile. So when I said six months, he goes okay
well we'll try it for a year. And I went really? GALEN: Wow. TINA: And that's kind of what
catapulted me out on my own, my own apartment and everything. GALEN: Having secured her
family's blessing, Tina moved to Los Angeles and started her career as a professional dancer.
Before long she found herself taking her moves out of the studio and onto the court. It was
her experiences as a Laker girl that led to two of the most influential friendships in
her life. One with Paula Abdul, the other with Janet Jackson. I mean you did, you did
enjoy certain success as a dancer. You were a Laker girl with Paula Abdul. TINA: Yeah.
GALEN: During those times. That's amazing. But that actually led to you working with
Janet, right? TINA: Paula and I met actually before Laker girls. We used to teach summer
camps together. GALEN: Wow. TINA: It should yeah, it was very random and we kind of knew
each other but not really. And then I became a Laker girl and then we became more friends.
And then she ended up calling me for the "What Have You Done For Me Lately" video. GALEN: Wow.
And at that time Janet was, I mean everyone knew the Jacksons, everyone knew
Michael and Janet was still, you know, kind of under the radar, but still like oh my God,
yes. GALEN: Wow. TINA: Thank you. I'll be there when, just you know. GALEN: So that
was that was how you got started working with Janet. Obviously you've done incredible stuff
for her. And I wanna talk to you about The Velvet Rope tour, cause you can't talk to
you without talking about The Velvet Rope tour. I mean when it first aired I
would go to dancer's houses and every place I went it was playing. It was like it was
just looping in everybody's house. And I've heard you say that it's your baby. How so?
I think because you know I'd worked with Janet for so long, it was finally one
of those things that I knew her so well, I just pulled out all the stops, she just
let me kind of have free rein and and we had that relationship. And oh Janet, you know
for you this is, I have this idea, this is what we should do. And, cause I got to
be there from the very first note of the song being developed. I was in Minneapolis with
her. And for someone like me, like I love to live with it. I don't like to do things
on the fly, I don't like to do things quickly. I like to listen over and over and over until
the song kind of gives me the story that I'm looking for so that I know this is the feeling
of it, this is what I wanna do, this is the way the song looks in my head and this is
how I wanna present it. GALEN: What are some of the things that you're most proud of in
that show? TINA: It was probably the way that everything just kind of all came together.
You know being able to not only be there at the birth of the record, but to also have
the right dancers to make everything come to life and dancers that I could count on,
because we had we had such a variety that I could, you know we had really strong hip
hop, we had really strong technical dancers. So for me it was like there were,
I had no restraints or I could do anything I wanted creatively. So I felt like everything
flowed and I just also loved probably every song on that record, which anyone knows
as a choreographer, it's like your dream to be in love with the music first, because then
it all that's where everything comes from. GALEN: Yeah, those are all elements that just
you must have been in heaven. TINA: At the time I, no I wasn't in heaven, because it's
a different thing you know when you when you're in it. TINA: And you've got X amount
of time to get things done, so no. At that time in the process I was not in heaven. And
it probably wasn't for until the tour was over and I watched it actually for the first
time on video and I kinda went oh, okay. GALEN: Having learned the value of perspective following
The Velvet Rope tour, Tina discovered an entirely new approach to her craft. She put
her experience with Janet to work, creating a philosophy based around choreographing an
artist as opposed to choreographing moves. I mean your approach to choreography
in general is you like to customize things to the artist and make sure nobody looks the
same. It's all about what they're trying to say with their music. How do you prep for
just when you're choreographing for somebody, how do you prep so that you have that customized
product that you're putting on them? TINA: I really just try to get the gist of who the
artist is. And they're all different, they're all different people with different beliefs,
different backgrounds. And I think they all speak that through their music. So there's
no way on earth that I would try to choreograph something for Rhianna that I choreographed
for Janet. One, just physically it doesn't work. I mean you know one is 5'3" and
one is 5'9". Janet is laid back but she's a fire cracker on stage. Rihanna is laid
back and she's laid back on stage. So you kind of have to take all that into it. And
and when they're really great artists it's all present in their music. You just have
to listen. GALEN: It's the time and the organization that's gone that goes into performances nowadays
is such a fraction of what it used to be. So how do you deal with that having come from
an era where you had ample time to really develop something? TINA: It's beyond frustrating,
it really is. Because you've got high caliber artists on a high caliber show and you want,
you know and it's not even a ego thing. It's not about your work, you want the best performance
you can for the person that's paying you. Unfortunately, I think that people are getting
used to seeing crap. GALEN: Yeah. TINA: And you know until you, and 'til they see
one amazing performance and they go oh my God, and then everybody wants that and then
you go okay, well guess what? That artist rehearsed for five days with their dancers,
with the band, with the costumes, with everything. It's just unfortunate in one way where it's
going, because it's happening so fast that people aren't taking the time to actually
create you know tailored pieces for their artists. GALEN: Yeah. Fortunately
Tina has been passing along her knowledge and experience to up and coming choreographers.
She's dedicating herself to educating all of those who are hoping to follow in her footsteps
in the hopes that choreography can continue moving forward as a respected art form. On
this show we talk a lot about the new generation of choreographers. And every master that we've
had has had the same concerns about the new generation not having any training and
just having so many skills that are lacking that you guys have. But you're kind of,
kind of taking action on that, right? You have a new web show that's coming out where
you find and develop choreographers. Tell me about your show. TINA: Yeah, we're gonna,
I want to kind of bring light to some of these choreographers that are, you know they don't
may not have the upbringing that I had or some or the upbringing that other choreographers
have had, some training and some understanding of the business. They're just looking at things
on TV and like I wanna do that and they learn it and they might get picked just because
they came up with the new trendy dance or the new fad. But then they have no idea how
to handle the business side of it. They have no idea how to hone their skills and what
else they should be learning. So on our show I wanna give choreographers that opportunity.
I wanna find some you know new blood out there and hopefully you know through a
competitive type of thing we'll find that winner, we'll find that one. And we're
not quite sure how we're going to do it, but I do wanna be able to give back and to
teach them and to groom them and show them at least what they should be looking for and
and training on their own, so that when they are offered and opportunity that they're just
not, you know a hit it and quit it or a you know one hit wonder where they're just
in and out because they got a taste of it and didn't know how to hang on to it.
Well when it all comes down to it what do you love about dance? TINA: Oh gosh. I just
think it's, there's nothing like it, you know. And it's such a freedom of expression that
you can't explain. It's almost like you know a drug in a sense that you can't
put a name or words to what it feels like to be able to marry your body with sound.
I know that there are people at home that wish that they could get their body to move
a certain way or hear the music. They see it but they can't hear it. And to have that
gift and or that blessing I should say, it's like it's just something that you
you can't put words to. It's just something that you just go it, you're like thank
you, God. Thank you for this. GALEN: Wow. That's amazing. Thank you for this, for talking
with me. That was amazing. TINA: Oh it's my pleasure. GALEN: Thank you so much, Tina.
TINA: Thank you. GALEN: As always we'd love to hear what you guys think. Make sure you
post your comments and questions below. Thanks for watching. See you next time.