MONDO EXTRAS

Sparks: One of the biggest things that I noticed, is the fact that the first time, the first season, we knew what we were kinda doing, but we didn't. It was a lot of boundaries that we couldn't cross, as far as music, as far as editing music, and as far as dance movement. So I would say it evolved to like, I'm able to be a lot more freer with my edits on the show…if you watch the first episode, in the first episode, my songs, my edits was literally one minute and thirty seconds with no cut, no exit, no intro, no nothing. And if you noticed this year, I have sound effects, I do The Matrix, I did Transformers, you know, I did wind -- they let me do a lot of stuff that I couldn't do the first and second seasons. And as far as the talent, I just think the talent is just so much better every year, and this year was so insane, because we had people like Danny [Tidwell], people like Lacey [Schwimmer], and Lauren [Gottlieb], who -- and Dominic [Sandoval] and Sabra [Johnson] -- who were just like, they were just insane from the audition process. And usually, I can't tell from the audition if they're going to be hot or not. But this year, we were like, "Oh my god, we got, like, we got forty people that could be the top twenty, and twenty people who could be number one," you know what I mean? So it was insane.

Daniel: You said, when you were selecting those dancers, that it was going to be a mistake to put Danny in the top twenty, and then he was in the final four, and by the end of the show you were saying that he was the best dancer that's ever been on the show, so…

Sparks: Yeah, definitely.

Daniel: …Did he evolve, or were you wrong about him at the outset, or --

Sparks: You know what, I'll say I was wrong, but I wasn't wrong. You know how when you first meet somebody, and it's not a good meeting? Your perception of them, that's what you know. So I only knew him from the way he talked, the way he walked, and his attitude. That's what I didn't like. He danced like a king, like, he still outdanced everybody on the show, but his personality, I just knew that we were going to clash. It was going to be somebody that I wasn't going to be able to work with. So that's the point of view I was coming from. Later, as I worked with him, I realized, "Oh my god, he's a beautiful person, he's got a really good heart." Danny is just so good, and his confidence level is so high, there's not too many things you can show him or say to him that he hasn't already done or already learned. So, that's the energy you get from him, and you can mistake it for being arrogant or not, but that's just the energy you get. But once you meet him, he's just a softhearted guy who just loves to do what he does, and wants to, you know, wants to succeed in dance. And once I met him, and started working with him, I realized that, that was all just -- I wouldn't say it was a front, but it was just a misunderstanding of him. And I would tell everybody this: please get to know people before you judge them, because you could be throwing away a diamond, you know what I mean? And not even know it. And he turned out to be a diamond, and he was top two, you know what I mean? He shoulda won that show, you know what I mean? But Sabra won the show, I'm proud of her, but as far as the best dancer in America, it should have been Danny, you know what I mean? But that's just me, coming from a dancer's point of view, you know what I mean?