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Wade Robson
Born	Wade Jeremy William Robson (1982-09-17) 17 September 1982 (age 29) Brisbane, Australia
Occupation	Dancer, choreographer, director, songwriter
Spouse	Amanda Rodriguez (2005-present)[1]
Website
http://www.waderobson.com

Wade Jeremy William Robson (born 17 September 1982) is an Australian dancer, director, producer, songwriter, and award-winning choreographer. He began performing as a dancer at the age of five. He has directed music videos and world tours for numerous music artists such as 'N Sync and Britney Spears. Robson found success not only as a choreographer and tour director but also as the host and executive producer for The Wade Robson Project which aired on MTV in 2003. In 2007, he joined the FOX television dance series, So You Think You Can Dance as both a judge and choreographer.

Early life[link]

Robson was born 17 September 1982,^[2] in Brisbane, Queensland. He has an older brother, Shane, and an older sister, Chantal, also a dancer and choreographer. At the age of three, after watching Michael Jackson's music video "Thriller", he had the entire choreography memorized and perfected.^[3] In 1986, Robson made his first television appearance on a local Australian talent show New Faces 4 where he performed a dance routine to the Michael Jackson hit "Smooth Criminal", complete with a miniature version of the outfit as depicted in the video. In the fall of 1987, Michael Jackson's "Bad" tour had made a stop in Robson's native Australia. It was there that Robson danced away with top honors in a Michael Jackson look and dance alike contest in which the prize was to meet Jackson. So impressed was the King of Pop at the young dancing prodigy that the very next evening, Robson found himself sharing the world stage alongside his idol and entertaining an audience of over 20,000.[1]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Robson was in a talent troupe called Johnny Young's Talent school, and the group did fourteen shows a week, usually at venues like shopping malls. It was a performance, however, at Disneyland at the age of seven that sparked Robson's interest in America. So when he was nine, he, his mother and his sister made the move there. Jackson assisted them in the move and recruited Robson to appear in three of Jackson's music videos: "Black or White," "Jam," and "Heal the World."^[3]

At the age of 11 Robson had an agent. Along with friend DeWayne Turrentine, he formed the hip hop duo Quo and by the end of the year released an album on Michael Jackson's MJJ Music label^[4] through Epic/SME Records. The following year, he was teaching dance classes in Hollywood.^[3] He formed a troupe of dancing children which performed internationally.^[5] He received his first choreography job for the R&B group Immature at fourteen. The job led to others, for artists such as Britney Spears. Being a self-described "short little white kid", his clients were sometimes hesitant to follow his direction.^[3] When Spears first interviewed Robson to choreograph her tour, she exclaimed "He's a friggin' baby!" as she had expected him to be in his 30s or 40s.^[4]

During the late 1990s, while still a teenager, Robson choreographed Spears's Pepsi commercials including one which aired during the 2001 Super Bowl. He choreographed the performance by 'N Sync and Spears at the 1999 Video Music Awards and he co-directed Spears's 1999-2000 world tours as well as 'Nsync's 2000 No Strings Attached Tour. In 2001, he choreographed Spears' I'm a Slave 4 U video and was choreographer and director of 'N Sync's 2001 "Pop Odyssey" tour. In the 'N Sync music video "Pop," Robson had to fill in for 'N Sync member Joey Fatone during several of the dance sequences because of an injury that Fatone sustained at an 'N Sync concert the night before the video shoot. That same year, he directed Spears' Dream Within a Dream Tour.

Adult career[link]

Robson was the creator and host of MTV's The Wade Robson Project, a talent search competition for hip-hop dancers.^[6] The program was sponsored by Juice Batteries.^[7]

In 2002, Robson was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch".

Dance clothing company Power T Dance developed a line of name-brand consumer dance shoes with Robson. The shoes were distributed in the U.S. through the Ralph Libonati Co.^[8]

Robson appeared as himself in the 2004 urban dance film You Got Served, which was co-choreographed by Shane Sparks, and won awards for "Best Dance Sequence."^{[citation needed]}

Robson has joined several other high profile choreographers such as Mia Michaels and Shane Sparks on the PULSE Tour, a series of nationwide weekend workshops designed to give dancers the chance to train under top choreographers.^[9]

Dancers from So You Think You Can Dance (Season 2) performing the Zombie dance or the "Ramalama (Bang Bang)" which won Wade his first Emmy in 2007.

In 2007, Robson began choreographing the American Idols LIVE! Tour. He has also choreographed both group and partner pieces for the second and third seasons of "So You Think You Can Dance".

On 8 September 2007, Robson won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for "Ramalama (Bang Bang)" performed on (Season 2) of So You Think You Can Dance.^[10]

Robson won again in the same category in (Season 3) (2008) for "Humming Bird and the Flower", a jazz dance routine performed by Jaimie Goodwin and Hokuto "Hok" Konishi', set to "Chairman's Waltz" from Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack.,^[11] that was lauded by Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe as "absolutely genius, brilliant, and one of those routines that we will remember on this series for a very long time."^[12]

Robson choreographed the dance routines in Criss Angel Believe, a Cirque du Soleil show that premiered in Las Vegas in 2008.

Robson and 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake partnered in 2001, co-writing the hit singles "Pop", "Gone", and "See Right Through You" on 'N Sync's final album Celebrity. Robson had initially written "Celebrity" for his own album but was persuaded to let 'N Sync record it instead. They also co-wrote Britney Spears' "What It's Like To Be Me" which Timberlake sang back up vocals on. The song's copyright is held jointly by Robson and Timberlake's respective companies: WaJeRo Sound and Tennman Tunes.

Robson co-wrote the song "Movin' On" for the Backstreet Boys album, Never Gone, with Backstreet member Howie Dorough. The song was released as a bonus track.

Robson has also written songs for the singing groups Dream and Youngstown.^{[citation needed]} He also remixed two of Mandy Moore's songs from her album I Wanna Be With You.

Robson appeared in the 2010 documentary Move, directed by Kurt E. Soderling and Melinda Songer. Mia Michaels, Paula Abdul, Tyce Diorio and Nigel Lythgoe will also appear in the film.^[13] Robson will be lending his choreographing talents to the animated feature film "Happy Feet 2" (in 3D) due out this November. He was originally set to direct the fourth installment of the uber popular dance feature, "Step Up 4ever", (for release in 2012), but later dropped out of the project for personal reasons (he was replaced by Scott Speer) ^[14]

Robson is currently the creative director for Demi Lovato.

[edit] Routines for So You Think You Can Dance

Personal life[link]

Robson received his GED at age fifteen.^[4]

In July 2002, Robson's father, Dennis Robson, died after a long illness.^[4]

In 2003, Michael Jackson was arrested on charges of child molestation. Starting from age seven, Robson was invited several times to Jackson's Neverland Ranch where several boys, including Robson and child actor Macaulay Culkin, would all sleep together in Jackson's bed. A member of Jackson's staff testified that she had seen Jackson behaving inappropriately towards Robson such as taking showers together.^[16] In November 2003, Robson publicly denied any wrongdoing on Jackson's part^[17] and he, along with his mother and sister,^[1] testified in Jackson's defense at the People v. Jackson trial in 2005.^[18] Jackson was eventually acquitted. In a 2003 interview, Robson said of Jackson "His heart is so genuine. He has no concept of a normal life."^[4] Robson and Jackson remained friends until Jackson's death in June 2009.^[1][15]

In August 2005, Robson married fashion designer, Amanda Rodriguez, in her native Maui, Hawaii. Since then, the couple have united their creative talents and collaborated on numerous stage, television, and film projects. In November 2010, the couple welcomed their first child, son Koa. They live in Los Angeles.

Career credits[link]

Discography[link]

• 1994: Quo
• 2006: Wade Robson's Project: Dance Beats Vol. 1

Videography[link]

• Michael Jackson's "Black or White" (1991) Music video — dancer (uncredited)
• Michael Jackson's Dangerous: The Short Films (1993) (V) — dancer ("Jam"/"Black or White")
• Britney Spears's "Born To Make You Happy" (1999) — choreographer
• A*Teens' Upside Down, choreographer (2000/2001)
• Britney Spears's "Oops... I Did It Again" (2000) — choreographer
• Britney Spears's "I'm A Slave 4 U" (2001) — choreographer
• Britney Spears's "Overprotected" (Worldwide Version) (2001) — choreographer
• NSync's "Pop" (2001) — choreographer & dancer

Filmography[link]

• Kazaam (1996) — Elito
• EDtv (1999) — teenage boy
• You Got Served (2004) - Himself
• I? (2005) — writer, director

Television[link]

• Full House, "Come Fly with Me" (1992) — Terry, traveling choir member
• Picket Fences, "Elective Conduct" (1994) — T.J.
• Nothing Sacred, "House of Rage" (1997) — Garner Cole
• Pacific Blue, "Users" (1998) — Brandon Jeter
• So You Think You Can Dance, U.S. TV series (2006-?) — Himself

References[link]

External links[link]

• waderobson.com, official website
• Wade Robson at the Internet Movie Database
• Tremaine Dance profile
• MTV biography
• Ask Men profile
• PopGurls interview, "20 Questions with Wade Robson"
• Wade Robson France, French Website.

'Video link

• Wade Robson Videos

Dance portal

Michael Jackson
Jackson at the White House in 1984
Background information
Birth name	Michael Joseph Jackson[1]
Also known as	King of Pop, MJ
Born	(1958-08-29)August 29, 1958 Gary, Indiana, U.S.
Died	June 25, 2009(2009-06-25) (aged 50) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres	R&B, pop, rock, soul, dance, funk, disco, new jack swing
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, composer, dancer, choreographer, record producer, actor, businessman, philanthropist
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1964–2009
Labels	Motown, Epic, Legacy, MJJ Productions
Associated acts	The Jackson 5 Michael Jackson's Signature
Website	www.michaeljackson.com

Michael Joseph Jackson^[1] (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ,^[2] Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.