This Is What Inspires Tap Guru Nick Young's Choreo
Nick Young has been making music with his feet his whole life. Young grew up at his mother’s studio, Young Dance Academy, in Oak Creek, WI, and at competitions like New York City Dance Alliance. He caught his big break with “So You Think You Can Dance,” making it to the Top 20 on Season 8. That led to three viral tap videos, teaching gigs at 24 Seven Dance Convention and NYCDA, and two appearances by himself and his company, Rhythmatic, at the Capezio A.C.E. Awards—where they won second runner-up in 2017. Catch his latest full-length work when it hits film festivals later this year, and read on to find out how Young gets inspired to create. —Helen Rolfe
Young, center, with Rhythmatic on “World of Dance” (courtesy “World of Dance”)
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{“product_info”: {“caption”: “Buy Now”, “product_price”: 0, “product_vendor”: false, “linkout_url”: false, “product_compare_at_price”: 0}, “headline”: “”, “credit”: “”, “description”: “u003cpu003eu003cstrongu003eu003c/strongu003e”One time, u003ca href=”https://www.dancespirit.com/tag/andy-blankenbuehler” target=”_blank”u003eAndy Blankenbuehleru003c/au003e was teaching at u003ca href=”https://www.dancespirit.com/tag/nycda” target=”_blank”u003eNYCDAu003c/au003e Nationals, and he said, u003cemu003e’u003c/emu003eThe music plays because you are dancing. The music is being produced u003cemu003ebecauseu003c/emu003e you are dancing.’ Normally, we think about it the other way around, like we’re just dancing to this song. What he said changed the game for me in terms of what I wanted to make and what I think about when choreographing.”u003c/pu003e”, “caption”: “u003cpu003eAndy Blankenbuehler teaching at New York City Dance Alliance (Evolve Photo, courtesy NYCDA)u003c/pu003e”}
{“product_info”: {“caption”: “Buy Now”, “product_price”: 0, “product_vendor”: false, “linkout_url”: false, “product_compare_at_price”: 0}, “headline”: “”, “credit”: “”, “description”: “u003cpu003e”u003cstrongu003eI’m a perfectionist u003c/strongu003eto a T. I played sports growing up, so I’m my biggest competitor. I can’t move on until I feel comfortable with a phrase. Of course, things change as the rehearsal process goes on. I just don’t want to ever put out anything that I’m not personally happy with, and the only way to do that is to take care of every single detail. As I’m getting older, I’m trying to not be as hard on myself. It’s really great to have people in your life who will say, ‘Nick, it’s great. You’re overthinking it.’ “u003c/pu003e”, “caption”: “u003cpu003ePlaying soccer as a teen (courtesy Young)u003c/pu003e”}
{“product_info”: {“caption”: “Buy Now”, “product_price”: 0, “product_vendor”: false, “linkout_url”: false, “product_compare_at_price”: 0}, “headline”: “”, “credit”: “”, “description”: “u003cpu003e”Spotify Discover has me listening to artists I’d never heard of, like Lake Street Dive. u003cstrongu003eI like music that isn’t a single time signature,u003c/strongu003e so a friend sent me a live acoustic version of ‘Heavy,’ by Birdtalker. I saved it to Spotify, and a week later got an amazing song called ‘Blue Healer’ in Discover. I knew I wanted to choreograph to it the second I heard it. Birdtalker’s stuff is deep, with really smart lyrics.”u003c/pu003e”, “caption”: “u003cpu003ecourtesy Birdtalkeru003c/pu003e”}
{“product_info”: {“caption”: “Buy Now”, “product_price”: 0, “product_vendor”: false, “linkout_url”: false, “product_compare_at_price”: 0}, “headline”: “”, “credit”: “”, “description”: “u003cpu003e”For Rhythmatic’s current full-length piece u003cemu003eOn Top of the Worldu003c/emu003e, we created a world that asks, ‘What happens when you die? What do you go through before you move on or don’t?’ It’s a crazy concept for a tap show. But u003cstrongu003eI just love creating so much that I’m not worried about criticism.u003c/strongu003eu003cstrongu003e u003c/strongu003ePeople aren’t going to like it. That’s just a fact. If you don’t worry about that, the information doesn’t even really get to you. There’s so much positive energy with this show, because everyone loves being in it. We’re not just out there doing tap steps. It’s a story the dancers interpret with their own intellects, to play their own characters.”u003cspanu003eu003c/spanu003eu003c/pu003e”, “caption”: “u003cpu003eYoung in “On Top of the World” (Mac Jaehnert, courtesy Young)u003c/pu003e”}
A version of this story appeared in the February 2019 issue of
Dance Spirit with the title “Choreographer’s Collage: Nick Young.”
