‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Creator Discusses New Shows On DanceOn

The man behind the most popular dance show on television is meeting the most popular dance channel on YouTube. Nigel Lythgoe, the co-creator of So You Think You Can Dance, will bring two new web series to DanceOn, the YouTube channel best known for distributing Dance Showdown.

The first of Lythgoe’s two DanceOn productions will debut in June and will be titled Dance School Diaries. It will follow young dancers who are trying to make it through the Youth America Grand Prix, the organization that can be roughly described as the “minor league” of ballet dancing. Dance School Diaries will chronicle a group of dancers who are trying make it through the Grand Prix and get noticed by the most prominent ballet companies in the world. Lythgoe told Tubefilter about what he hopes the show will accomplish:

“It’s something that I think is inspirational for dancers: To see what other dancers are going through going into this competition, and realizing you can’t ever give up with dance. “Don’t ever start it if you’re the type of person who gives up. You have to battle on and battle on through tragedies, home problems, problems with your own injuries, and that entire thing called the nervous system which affects us all, but even moreso when you go up and it’s your one chance to impress…It’s not just about the ballet. We’ve seen so many ballet programs fail. It’s about the people, it’s about finding out about them, what makes them tick, how are they coping with the stresses and the strains of what is demanded of them.”

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The other series Lythgoe will bring to DanceOn is Every Single Step, a competition that will search for the best young choreographers in the dance scene. Lythgoe hopes that the contestants on Every Single Step

will serve as the next generation of choreographers for films, music videos, theatrical productions, and TV shows. He particularly noted that the show’s top talents could find themselves working on So You Think You Can Dance. “We’re constantly looking for new and talented choreographers and that would be terrific,” he said.

Every Single Step, which will debut in the fall, will feature a prize, though Lythgoe noted that most choreographers will be more interested in the exposure they will gain through the show. “We’re giving the opportunity to young up and coming choreographers to show how good they are,” he said, “putting them to the test and introducing them to the dance world.”

DanceOn’s YouTube channel boasts 340,000 subscribers and more than 245 million views. Lythgoe’s two contributions will be strong additions to the channel’s library.