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Wade Robson
Born	September 17, 1982 (age 25) Brisbane, Australia
Occupation	Dancer, choreographer, director, songwriter
Spouse(s)	Amanda Rodriguez (2005-present)[1]
Official website
Awards won Emmy Awards Outstanding Choreography 2007 So You Think You Can Dance

Wade Jeremy William Robson (born September 17, 1982) is an Australian dancer, choreographer, producer and songwriter. He began performing as a dancer at the age of five, and as a child worked as a back-up dancer for Michael Jackson. He is also an award-winning choreographer and has directed music videos and world tours for music artists, most notably for 'N Sync and Britney Spears. Robson has found success as a competition judge, both for his own MTV show, The Wade Robson Project, and the televised competition So You Think You Can Dance. He won an Emmy for his choreography on the latter show in 2007.

Early life

Robson was born on September 17, 1982,^[2] in Brisbane, Australia, to Lynette Joy and Dennis Leslie Robson. He has an older brother, Shane, and an older sister, Chantal. According to his mother, she played Michael Jackson's Thriller non-stop while she was pregnant with him.^[3] Robson began dancing at the age of two, and when he saw the music video to the hugely popular "Thriller" song, he had it memorized by the time he was three.^[4] He appeared on the Australian TV talent show "New Faces4" in 1986. He performed a dance routine of the Jackson hit, "Smooth Criminal", complete with a miniature version of the outfit as depicted in the video. He won the competition, and the prize was a chance to meet Jackson.^[4] When Jackson himself toured Australia the following year for the Bad tour, Robson's routines and costumes came to Jackson's attention. Jackson was so impressed, he invited Robson to perform at his Brisbane concert.^[3]

Career

Early career

Robson was in a talent troupe called Johnny Young's Talent school, and the group did fourteen shows a week, usually at venues like shopping malls. It was a performance, however, at Disneyland at the age of seven that sparked Robson's interest in America. So when he was nine, he, his mother and his sister made the move there. Jackson assisted them in the move, and recruited Robson to appear in three of Jackson's music videos: "Black or White", "Jam" and "Heal the World".^[4]

Before long, and at the tender age of 11, Robson had an agent. They formed a singing group called Quo with another young boy, and by the end of the year put out an album with Sony. The following year, he was teaching dance classes in Hollywood.^[4] He formed a troupe of dancing children which performed internationally.^[5] He received his first choreography job for the R&B group Immature at fourteen. The job led to others, for artists such as Britney Spears. Being a self-described "short little white kid", his clients were sometimes hesitant to follow his direction.^[4] When Spears first interviewed Robson to choreograph her tour, she exclaimed "He's a friggin' baby!", as she had expected him to be in his 30s or 40s. But his talent often won such clients over.^[3]

During the late 1990s, while still a teenager, Robson choreographed Spears's Pepsi commercials, including one which aired during the 2001 Super Bowl. He choreographed the performance by 'N Sync and Spears at the 1999 Video Music Awards, and he co-directed Spears's 1999-2000 world tours as well as 'N Sync's 2000 No Strings Attached Tour. In 2001, he choreographed Spears' I'm a Slave 4 U video, and was choreographer and director of N'Sync's 2001 "Pop Odyssey" tour. In the N'sync music video "Pop," Robson had to fill in for N'sync member Joey Fatone during several of the dance sequences because of an injury that Joey sustained on the set. Wade can be seen throughout the "Pop" music video. That same year, he directed Spears' "Dream Within A Dream" tour. During the tour, rumors began to circulate that he and Spears (who was dating Justin Timberlake at the time) were having an affair. Robson denied all such allegations, saying "Britney and I had such a close creative relationship people always tried to connect us."^[3]

Robson was also a member of the rap duo, "Quo," which was on Jackson's label.^[3]

Adult career

Robson is the creator and host of MTV's The Wade Robson Project, a talent search competition for hip hop dancers.^[6] The program was sponsored by Juice Batteries.^[7]

In 2002, Robson was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch".

Dance clothing company Power T Dance developed a line of name-brand consumer dance shoes with Robson. The shoes were distributed in the U.S. through the Ralph Libonati Co.^[8]

In 2004, Disney commissioned Robson to direct three musical movies for Disney.^[9]

Robson has joined several other high profile choreographers, such as Mia Michaels and Shane Sparks on the PULSE tour, a series of nationwide weekend workshops designed to give rising commercial dancers the chance to train under top choreographers.^[10]

Robson is currently choreogarphing a Las Vegas show called "Criss Angel:Believe" for Cirque Du Soleil.

Robson giving feedback to contestants after a performance on the July 18, 2007 episode of So You Think You Can Dance

In 2007, Robson began choreographing the American Idols LIVE! Tour. He has also choreographed both group and partner pieces for the second and third seasons of "So You Think You Can Dance". In the third season Robson choreographed a "Hummingbird" routine that was lauded by Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe as "absolutely genius, brilliant, and one of those routines that we will remember on this series for a very long time."^[11] On September 8, 2007, Robson won an Emmy in Outstanding Choreography for the routine "Ramalama (Bang Bang)", a group dance featured on Season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance.^[12] Robson was nominated in the same category in 2008 for Jaimie Goodwin and Hokuto "Hok" Konishi's jazz dance, set to "Chairman's Waltz" from Memoirs of a Geisha.^[13]

Composer

Robson and N'Sync's Justin Timberlake partnered in 2001, co-writing the hit singles "Pop", "Gone", and "See Right Through You" on 'N Sync's final album Celebrity. Robson had initially written "Celebrity" for his own album, but was persuaded to let Timberlake record it instead. They also co-wrote Britney Spears' "What It's Like To Be Me" which she performed as a duet with then-boyfriend Timberlake on the album Britney. The song's copyright is held jointly by Robson and Timberlake's respective companies WaJeRo Sound and Tennman Tunes.

Robson co-wrote the song "Movin' On" for the Backstreet Boys album, Never Gone, with Backstreet member Howie Dorough. The song was released as a bonus track.

Robson has also written songs for the singing groups Dream and Youngstown.^{citation needed} He also remixed two of Mandy Moore's songs from her debut album for her second album, I Wanna Be With You.

Robson recently wrote a new song, "Welcome to Me", with Britney Spears.^{citation needed}

Acting

In 1999, he appeared in a series of Jack in the Box commercials as "TJ", one of the Meaty Cheesy Boys, a spoof of boy bands of the late 1990s. Robson appeared as himself in the 2004 urban dance film You Got Served, which was co-choreographed by Shane Sparks, and won awards for "Best Dance Sequence."^{citation needed}

Personal life

Robson received his GED at age fifteen.^[3]

In July 2002, Robson's father, Dennis Robson, passed away after a long illness.^[3]

In 2003, Michael Jackson was arrested on charges of child molestation. Starting from age seven, Robson was invited several times to Jackson's Neverland Ranch, where several boys, including Robson and child actor Macaulay Culkin, would all sleep together in Jackson's bed. A member of Jackson's staff testified that she had seen Jackson behaving inappropriately towards Robson, such as taking showers together.^[14] In November 2003, Robson publicly denied any wrongdoing on Jackson's part,^[15] and he, along with his mother and sister,^[1] testified in Jackson's defense at the People v. Jackson trial in 2005.^[16] Jackson was eventually acquitted. According to Australian newspaper The Age, Robson and Jackson remain friends.^[1] In a 2003 interview, Robson said of Jackson, "His heart is so genuine. He has no concept of a normal life."^[3]

On August 13, 2005, Robson married fashion designer Amanda Rodriguez in Hawaii. Jackson was among those invited to the wedding.^[1]

Career credits

Videography

• Michael Jackson's "Black or White" (1991) Music video — dancer (uncredited)
• Michael Jackson's Dangerous: The Short Films (1993) (V) — dancer ("Jam"/"Black or White")
• Britney Spears's "Born To Make You Happy" (1999) — choreographer
• Britney Spears's "I'm A Slave 4 U" (2001) — choreographer
• NSync's "Pop" (2001) — choreographer & dancer

Filmography

• EDtv (1999) — teenage boy
• Kazaam (1996) — Elito
• You Got Served (2004) - Himself
• I? (2005) — writer, director

Television

• Pacific Blue, "Users" (1998) — Brandon Jeter
• Picket Fences, "Elective Conduct" (1994) — T.J.
• Nothing Sacred, "House of Rage" (1997) — Garner Cole
• Full House, "Come Fly with Me" (1992) — Terry, traveling choir member

References

External links

• waderobson.com, official website
• Wade Robson at the Internet Movie Database
• Tremaine Dance profile
• MTV biography
• Ask Men profile
• PopGurls interview, "20 Questions with Wade Robson"
• Wade Robson France, French Website.