Here's episode 3 of our Interviews with professional dancers, names to know series. This Episode see's us interview professional performer and tutor Shaun Paul Smith and current choreographer for Kidz Bop UK, members don't miss this one, read on!
Hosted by Victoria (company director) and myself. These monthly interviews are made to inspire Hip Hop Pop members and any other young dancers, and share experiences and advice from some of the industry's most talented!
You can watch the full interview with Shaun further down in this article
Filmed on Tuesday 5th January 2021 via Zoom, we enjoyed catching up with and interviewing professional dancer/choreographer Shaun Paul Smith. We chatted about Shaun's reasons for taking up dance, where he trained, his biggest take-away's from his training and what his favourite professional dance jobs were, in which he named being choreographer of Kidz Bop UK one of his favourites, amongst others such as dancing with Katy Perry on X-Factor and working with Zoo Nation.
We first met Shaun at our summer workshops in 2018 where Shaun taught some locking foundations and choreography to our members and he was a students favourite! Shaun's been back to teach at Hip Hop Pop since, and we very much enjoy chatting with him as well as learning from him.
Watch Shaun's full interview right here:
Please feel free to share the video with friends and other dance enthusiasts.
Here are our favourite interview questions and answers from our chat with Shaun:
Question: What age did you start dancing?
Shaun's answer in brief:
Age 14, and his first lesson was a private lesson. Without knowing it at the time, Shaun felt his mindset was really strong back then, he knew he had to work hard to catch up with peers who had been dancing since a much younger age.
Question: What advice would you pass on to your younger self or young dancers
Shaun's answer in brief:
Get the right mindset - focus on where you want to go
YET - Do consider a back-up, be focused enough that you work extremely hard on your dance goal, but be clever enough to have something else you could, if you wanted to at a later stage, fall back on.
Question: Any funny stories to tell?
One of Shaun's Answer in brief:
Wearing heal lifts to make himself look taller in the audition for dancing with Katy Perry on The X-Factor. He says he danced terribly, but he still got the job!
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Check out Shaun teaching a routine with the Kidz Bop UK Members; Ashton, Mandy, Max , Mia and Twinkle:
Love Kidz Bop UK? Are you a parent wanting some CLEAN popular music? Check out their 2020 album:
Here's some of Shaun, with the Kidz Bop UK members again, and in many more clips - showcasing his choreography, wow - what a showreel to be proud of!
Big Thanks to Shaun
It was lovely catching up with Shaun, we hope you enjoyed watching and listening as much as we did interviewing. Thank you to Shaun for finding time for our 3rd episode in our series of Interviews with Professional dancers: Names to know
There's plenty more of these to come, next week, Victoria (Director of Hip Hop Pop) interviews.... me! Why not subscribe to our YouTube Channel and follow our Monthly Interview Playlist to be the first to know when a new interview goes live!
Please do feel free to share this article and/or the Youtube Interview with friends and other dance enthusiasts.
Jenny Bater-Sinclair
Director - HIP HOP POP
P.S. get more info on Shaun's Academy here!