Napoleon D'umo

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Napoleon D'umo and his wife Tabitha.

Napoleon D'umo (born October 17, 1968) is a Filipino American dance teacher, choreographer, and creative director who, along with his wife Tabitha D'umo, is often credited with developing the new strand of hip-hop dance, known as lyrical hip-hop. He is a talent scout for MTV's America's Best Dance Crew. With his wife he is also a hip-hop choreographer on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance.

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[edit] Sourced

  • I'm hoping, as a choreographer, that [ABDC's] going to bring it to the next level again, just like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly when they were the stars of the screen. Where you can go somewhere, and it's not 'backup' dancing. You're the actual show.
    • Palocek, Karl (February 7, 2008). MTV Puts More Than Four on the Floor. Zap2it.com. Tribune Media Services. Accessed 2009-04-23.
    • Talking about "America's Best Dance Crew"'s potential to bring dancers to the forefront.
  • In the dance community we think about steps. We think about how hard is this step or how hard is that or how different can I do this from somebody else and they forget that that's a small percentage of people watching the show. The rest of the people just want to feel something... That's really what it takes. They're the stars of the show so they have to make that come out to the people that don't dance and make them feel something.
  • You can’t do this because you want to be famous or make money. You’ll have bad times and good times, and you have to do it because you’re passionate about it.
  • Communication is the secret. We tell each other everything. Whenever one of us is mad, we say it. We don't hold back.
    • Cheng, Peter (October 2008). Secret to a successful marriage GlossMag.ca. Gloss:The Fashion Magazine. Accessed 2009-04-04.
    • Talking about the "secret" to a successful marriage.
  • We've been on projects separately quite a few times but we never enjoy [it] as much, and the work from me, from my side is, never as satisfying as it is when I work with her.
  • I think they're all equally hard. They all have their own techniques and when you don't train in that technique then it's difficult. Y'know, especially for somebody in a ballroom who's use to stepping heal to toe and they get into a jazz routine and there up on relevé the whole time. So everything has it's own technique and when you get use to one way, it's difficult to switch.
    • Nancy T (interviewer). (June 2009). Interview with ABDC Audition Judge Napoleon D'umo [Adobe Flash]. New York City: BloggingBestDanceCrew.com. Accessed 2009-07-24.
    • In response to a question about whether it's easier for a hip-hop person do technical/Latin styles or is it easier for someone with the more traditional training to do hip-hop.

[edit] Pacific Rim Video

  • We see people who dance really well and can't perform all the time. It's in our community, our dance community. It's like that because we've been doing back-up dancing for so long. We're always in the background of the movies and we're always behind the artist so our job is not to outshine the artist. Well now with all these dance television shows we're getting a chance to be the artist. We're on the forefront. We're the Gene Kellys and the Fred Astaires of this generation and it's our job to make people feel something and to really perform.
  • Finding different kinds of crews is getting harder because the top crews auditioned season one and season two, really. Now the flip side of that is the show is so successful that it's making people create more crews.
  • Five years ago there weren't this many crews at least hip-hop crews in America, or any type of crew. There was studio based people, and the few crews from around the country, and a couple b-boy crews some well know b-boy crews.
  • This time in dance, this era, is probably one of the most entertaining times. It's got this whole new style of hip-hop which encompasses 20 different styles within it. There's no boundaries to it so people are taking it to the next level. And I think as an audience, everyone is saying Whoa, that is energetic. That is gymnastics, that is dancing, and that's entertainment combined in one. And that's a beautiful thing.
    • Peter Gonzaga (interviewer). (October 2008). ABDC SEASON 3 AUDITIONS - NAPOLEON D'UMO [Adobe Flash]. Los Angeles: Pacific Rim Video. Accessed 2009-07-25.
    • In an interview with Pacific Rim about the auditions for season three of "America's Best Dance Crew".

[edit] Answers4Dancers

  • Somewhere in the world of dance, we started thinking about steps way too much: technique, steps, technique, steps. You can do all the technique you want, the regular public doesn't know. All they know is how you perform and what you tell them and what you make them feel; and when you make somebody feel something, it is undeniable.
  • There's a life to dance that has to happen and it was seen years ago with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and the life and the feeling they had in a performance. And when you watch them and you see them and you start to sway with them and you start to move with them and you miss that sometimes and that's what needs to happen with dance again.
  • Why would you want to be backup dancer when you could be the actual star. Let's show the world that we're stars, let's perform like stars.
  • When you can tell the story of the song through your movement, it's brilliant. It comes across as so honest and not fake.

[edit] SYTYCDism

  • Dance from your heart. If you dance from your heart, you'll always love it.
  • You have to have tough skin in this industry. You're going to get turned down over and over and over. It happens on [So You Think You Can Dance] and it happens in real life for dancers.
  • Somehow you have to be able to match the music, tell the story of the music, and put life in it. Make people feel something.

[edit] About

  • The great thing about this show is that we've really explored a totally new thing which is lyrical hip-hop and [Tabitha and Napoleon] nail it. This show has shown that hip-hop is just a completely legitimate beautiful genre in and of its own and you can tell such beautiful and heart breaking stories.
    • "The Top 16 Perform". Guest Judge: Adam Shankman. So You Think You Can Dance (FOX). June 25, 2008. No. 10, season 4.
    • Comment Adam Shankman made as a guest judge about a routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon.
  • I am crazier about him than ever... We have been working together for so long. We know how one another operate and have such a good rhythm. If we are apart, I miss him because I need his feedback. I welcome his input even if it is different than mine because it always gives us a better product.
  • Yes. I love the So You Think You Can Dance show. I love it. I think it’s some of the best hours on TV. I think those dancers are extraordinary and, more so, I think those choreographers are uniformly amazing[...] And so I got two of who I think are the best choreographers on SYTYCD — Tabitha and Napoleon — to be involved in some movement elements. Because I think when dance is mediocre, it’s painful. But when dance is really impressive, it destroys.

[edit] External links

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