Travis Wall On 'So You Think You Can Dance'

It's a way of releasing emotion. Especially if it comes from some place, it requires a certain movement. Sometimes it can require a story, sometimes I'™ll make up a story. I try to do a little bit of everything where I'™ll make, or write a story, and I'll really portray what's happening and it's more real that way. It'€™s something that's really happened and that's really true.

It was great! Sometimes you'€™re really nervous about, you know, if your partner's doing your routine correctly, or, if you're watching it, if the man's going to do something correctly. So it was nice to just look at her and say, '€˜Listen, I got you!' So I had a blast doing it.

I guess my relationships and my character traits changed over the seasons. I'€™m a very personal person. When we have experience of working together, I'm very friendly in the room. I know what kind of pressure they're under; I know what they'€™re trying to do. I know when it's time to put pressure and I know when it's time to crack the whip. And the minute you put fear in their eyes or they fear you any way, I don't get results. I've worked with many people where I was nervous. I felt like I was so intimidated and felt like I was going to get screamed at. I just remembered my answer myself as a dancer at that point, and how much I hated it and how I knew that when I would become a choreographer and would be instructing things, how I would never make anyone feel like that.

Yeah I think so. They ask for advice, like, 'What do I do after the show?'™ I think the contestants are excited to get to work with me because of the experience I've had on the show... I've worked so hard for it and I have not stopped. Since the day I got on the show, I have not stopped and it's been eight years. Now I'm finally here. And a lot of these kids take my class, and now that they're so young, and I've been teaching for so long that a lot of these kids have taken my class since they were like 12 years old now. So a lot of them I know, and I'™ve seen them grow.

Yeah, I mean hopefully we're picked up for another season. There are really unbelievable kids coming up right now. I mean I've watched Ricky [Ubeda] now for a long time and I knew he was an up-and-coming person, and I'm just like crying to him right now because there are kids like 15, 16, 17 that are just completely unbelievable. I mean they'™re getting better and better and better.

Yeah, I definitely wanted to do it. I wanted to do it season 9, but I never got the chance to. So when they told me I had Jacque [LeWarne] and Chehon I was like, 'Alright, I've done so many contemporary numbers this year, what other story am I gonna tell?...I have two ballet dancers, I can probably put her on point.' ... Ok, I want to put myself out there in this way, and have America see it as well. America had never seen a contemporary ballet on this show before.

No, you just pick your own music. You come across music that you like all year and then you're like, 'Okay I think I'm going to do this this year.' I have a playlist of about like 20 songs that I use to kind of pick when I'™m should do certain things. You have to get them cleared which kind of sucks.

I don'™t know, it's hard to pick a favorite. I really do love "Wicked Games" but then I also love the "Fix You" piece I did for my mother. ["Fix You"] is so personal to me, and I was so young when I choreographed that. I was 23 and that got me nominated for my first Emmy, it'™s really hard to pick that, you know? I also love some of the stuff I'™ve done this year. I loved the "Wave" with the seven boys. It's hard because you look back and you're like, '˜Oh my god, I was so young when I choreographed that. Oh my god, my choices during that year!' It's awesome to see my catalogue. How much I've grown from when I first choreographed for the show to now.

I have to try to slow down. And there are moments when I need to come back down to one and regroup and chill. My boyfriend is the perfect person to help me be a normal person for a second because between ['So You Think You Can Dance'] and my dance company, Shaping Sound, and all the other jobs and commercial opportunities that I get, it's a crazy busy life plus all the vacation-taking I do, like I'™m always traveling. So the minute I get to be at home and sit on my couch and watch DVR with my boyfriend is the best thing in the world.

No. [laughing] It'™s more like, 'I admire your work. Thank you so much, you made me cry! Blah, blah, blah.' It's very sweet.

I do actually. People are very vulnerable when they watch dance, which is great because I guess that means we're doing a good job. It's so beautiful that you can be affected by something by just watching somebody. That's really beautiful.

We are beginning rehearsal in September, and we are going back on the road. [We start in] Los Angeles at the Montalban Theater on October 11 and 12, and then we head out on the road for like four weeks in a row and then we have a break for Christmas and then we have another four weeks in the winter. We'™re going to about 40 cities and you definitely want to see us on the road. The cast is ridiculous. It'™s going to be spectacular, and it'™s going to be the best one yet, so we are so excited to perform.