ETonline EXCLUSIVE: Travis Wall Talks Competing With Choreographers Derek Hough & Mandy Moore at
Travis Wall isn’t sweating the Emmys.
Wall is not being modest or evasive when he says “getting nominated is basically winning”; he’s just got a lot going on right now. The seven-time Emmy-nominated dancer and choreographer simply has TWO dances to focus on for this week’s episode of So You Think You Can Dance, so he has a lot going on. ET spoke to the 29-year-old over the phone in the midst of a whirlwind day of choreographing his pieces for the hit dance series -- where Wall began his rise to stardom as a contestant.
“There's just no time to prep anything and, you know, you're finding out your couple at the last second and -- then it's like ‘Oh my gosh, is my music cleared?’ There are so many components,” Wall explained. “I think in other shows you might be brought in to choreograph the piece, but [on SYTYCD] you come up with the concept and you create the creative for what the hair, the makeup, the wardrobe, the lighting and the music and everything about it, how it comes together. And then you work with the director on how you want to shoot it so you're coming up with these ideas, not just choreographing something that already exists. And that’s why I love So You Think You Can Dance so much. It's just such original content every single week.”
Wall has proven to be a master at creating that content, leading to Emmy nominations for his work each year since 2011. In 2015, Wall won the award in a tie with fellow dance superstars Derek & Julianne Hough and Tessandra Chavez. This year, Wall is nominated for creating three routines -- "The Mirror," "Send in the Clowns," and "She Used to Be Mine" -- and is again in competition with Hough for the trophy this year.
Joining Wall and Hough as nominees in the Outstanding Choreography category are Fred Tallaksen (The Real O’Neals) and Mandy Moore (who is nominated twice, for her work on Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance). 2017 has already been a big year for Moore, who choreographed the Oscar-favorite La La Land and whose fame exploded around her involvement.
So, could there be another tie in 2017? Wall opens up about why he welcomes the possibility, competing against his friends, where he keeps his Emmy statue and more at ETonline.com.
