Nigel Lythgoe
Nigel Lythgoe
Nigel Lythgoe is an English television and film director and producer, television dance competition judge, former dancer in the Young Generation and choreographer. He is noted for being the producer of the shows Pop Idol and American Idol and creator and executive producer of, and a regular judge on So You Think You Can Dance. He also created the 2009 competition Superstars of Dance...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionTV Producer
Date of Birth9 July 1949
came saw
I saw 'The Godfather' in London when it came out in 1972 and loved it. I've seen it probably 20 times - I always find something new.
adam love
Adam Shankman has got such love and passion for dance.
alive best came programs suddenly
The dance community suddenly came alive with programs like 'So You Think You Can Dance,' 'America's Best Dance Crew' and 'Dancing With The Stars.'
angst anguish cannot change reaching run somebody stage stretching teenage
We put too much on contemporary dancers. A lot of them cannot change styles; a lot of them can't do anything else other than run around the stage reaching and stretching in anguish to somebody off camera that I never understand who it is. But it's the teenage angst they have to live with.
ballet base bit choose classical dancer dancers jazz people report sort throwing true
So many people report to be contemporary dancers, and they're not. They are sort of jazz dancers that feel like they're throwing a bit of classical in there. I mean, a true contemporary dancer has got ballet as their base and classical ballet, and that is their base. And then they choose to extemporize on that and go into a contemporary world.
bad days died later nearly people realising shouting weeks
I nearly died with the peritonitis, but not the heart attack. The heart attack was like bad indigestion and two weeks later I was back in shouting at people. I was shouting at people during the heart attack. I had it for three days without realising what it was.
everybody
We've had nothing but support from everybody in the dance world for a National Dance Day.
dancer form tap trained
I trained in every form of dance - started as a tap dancer when I was a kid, then contemporary, ballet, ballroom, everything. Russian, Swedish.
accustomed
I think British audiences are accustomed to the 'boo' factor and pantomimes.
I put the heart attack down to 66 cigarettes a day.
genre life truth
Hip-hop is a way of life. It isn't a genre in truth in 'American Idol.'
Dancing is my passion. I started as a dancer.
became home
'American Idol' became a juggernaut of epic proportions, but to me it was always like home.
I don't go into my dentist and say, 'Are you gay?' I don't say to contestants on 'So You Think You Can Dance,' 'Are you gay?' What does it got to do with me? What does it got to do with anybody?