Melbourne’s own Sid Mathur, who first came to the attention of the dance world through his two appearances on So You Think You Can Dance (season one and three), has joined the international cast after two days of gruelling auditions in front of dance captain and choreographer, Kendra Horsbugh and So You Think You Can Dance star Demi Sorono. Rehearsals have begun and for the part-time lawyer and now full-time dancer, Mathur cannot get onstage quick enough.
“It’s probably the most intense rehearsals I’ve ever done; picking up intricate choreography in the shortest time but it’s been good and a challenge I’ve been excited for,” Mathur says. “I’m in a weirdly frustrating limbo at the moment. I just want to jump on stage and do it; I’m itching to get up there. It’s one of those shows that everyone’s gonna enjoy but as a dancer, there’s a deeper level of appreciation for the show where I wanna be up there. Come on Melbourne, come on at me.”
While study was the focus of much of Mathur’s youth, dance has also been an ever-present part of his life since he was a child. “I’ve grown up with it really, from those early Bollywood days,” he says. “During school I started doing street dance at parties and stuff. Then in year 11, the school I was at started offering break dancing as a sport and I was like, ‘Yeah let’s do that instead of like, table tennis.’ My parents were against break dancing because they were worried it was dangerous but once it was part of my schoolwork well, they wanted me to do well at school so it was perfect.”
Talent shows can be hit and miss as far as creating genuine, real world opportunities are concerned but Mathurs insists that his time on So You Think You Can Dance has been invaluable to his career, even without a win. “There aren’t too many cons to having done the show,” he says. “The biggest pro is that I’ve started getting the most amount of dance work thanks to the network I’d built through the show. I began as a kid dancing on the street with my crew and that was all I knew of dance. When I came out of the show I was surrounded by people who all they knew was dance. I’ve made friends that have been invaluable; I’m so blessed to have gone through that now I’ve moved into more of the commercial world. A lot of the commercial world is funny, especially with street dancing. Studio dancers and those who come from full time courses dominate it and because I hadn’t done that study, it’s cool that this sort of work has come up for me, especially Blaze. When I saw the audition, I thought, ‘Yeah, I have to do that.’”
But why do SYTYCD twice? “It was just because of the joy of the experience the first time,” he says. “I’d gotten all I could out of the first year I was in it and the only reason I didn’t go back for the second year was that I was overseas.”
Mathurs has been working on various other projects around the Melbourne dance scene and is yet another lover of dance who is attempting to release the medium from its purist shackles and into a broader audience. “What’s helping is the crossover between street culture and the commercial world,” he says. “It’s moving things out of high art and into something that’s grimy and almost secretive. When you’ve got a stage that’s sharing space with freestylers, hip hop, electronic music, ballroomers and classical dancers – that makes for an awesome show to watch and has done wonders for the community. As artists, we’re crossing paths with people we never would have. Three or four years ago, a street dancer never would have shared the stage with a ballet company but now, I think people are so much more open to dance as a whole.”
Blaze is coming to Australia with little in the way of structural change and Mathurs cannot speak highly enough of the show. “I had a chance to see it from an audience perspective the other day and while I’ve seen a lot of dance shows, this is hands down the best dance show I’ve ever seen in terms of energy and music,” he says with genuine excitement. “There’s so much crowd participation and it just feels like, ah man, the whole experience is on another level.”
BY KRISSI WEISS
