Alfonso Ribeiro Talks Dancing With The Stars

Hollywood Journal

Transcript

00:00With Whitney, how many hours were you actually practicing with her every day?

00:04We would we would practice five hours every day.

00:08So we'd come in, stretch, you know, maybe 15, 20 minutes.

00:11And then we'd start dancing, take short breaks throughout.

00:14Five hours later, you know, I would go home.

00:16And this was basically, you know, six days a week in the seventh day being the show.

00:21And then but I would always go home and I would rehearse for two more hours.

00:26Right. So I would just do it by myself in my mirror, looking at it and trying to learn it myself.

00:31Because the way I look at it is like, teach me, give me, give me the info.

00:35I just want the info. Keep giving me info.

00:37And then I'm going to go take that info and get it into my body.

00:41Right. So it's muscle memory.

00:43Right. And that's and there's only one way to create muscle memory.

00:46And that is time. Repetition over, over, over, over again.

00:51And so that's what I would go home and do and just keep working till I'm not thinking about.

00:56the steps. I'm thinking about the technique and the performance of those steps.

01:01Right. So by time I got to the end of the week to performance time, I had been doing it.

01:05And I use this analogy. If you went to six months of a dance class to learn a style of dance,

01:14do you think you could learn it? Yeah.

01:16Yeah. Right. In six months. In six months. Right.

01:19So I have a week. I have six days in those days would be four hours, five hours a day of learning

01:28the dance. Well, that's the same as six months of taking class.

01:31So each dance would be the same as someone starting and doing six months of learning it.

01:38Wow. So if you miss a day, you just made it five months.

01:43Right. So it was so important to just put the hours in because like, all right, so I made it

01:49eight months because I would go home and do two extra hours. Right. So it's it's it's it's a weird

01:56thing. But like you'll get to Saturday and be like, I don't know what I'm doing. It's like you've got

02:01two months. You've got two months. Don't worry about it. You'll get it. You got two more months

02:08of figuring this out. And that's the way that's the way I looked at it. That's the way I thought

02:12of it. And that's the way I was able to achieve my goals throughout it. You had said that it was

02:17like very different from your typical dancing, even though you have, you know, a past of maybe not

02:21professionally dancing, but you can move. And I know like Normani and a bunch of other people who

02:28have dance careers had said the same thing when they went on the show. What was the most surprising

02:32thing for you? I think it's the it's the idea of technique. Right. Like movement. So let's just

02:39use hip hop. Hip hop has no structure. OK, so it's movement. It's energy. It's a feeling. It's a rhythm.

02:47Right. Ballroom dancing is none of that. It's every it's take away everything you know how to do

02:56and start over. Right. So even if you're a dancer and you're doing ballroom. No, it's day

03:01one because the way the movements are created is from a different place in your body. Most

03:08hip hop or it's it's it's the upper body. It's your chest. It's your gut. Right. Ballroom

03:14dancing is your feet. It's how you position your feet and then how what happens on top of

03:22it. So it's coming from a very different technical place where you're just not used

03:27to doing that. Right. Nobody does toe leads in any portion of their lives. You have never

03:34ever put your toe down first to to move. Yeah. You always put your heel. So an entire dance

03:43of toe leads is incredibly difficult because your body doesn't work that way. It doesn't move

03:50that way. You're not used to doing it. And so everything was different in that where

03:54your arms are, you know, where the body is, how your hips move, your knee over your toe.

04:00All of these things are completely different. And it's so it's starting over. It's like asking

04:04a basketball player to play baseball and saying, why aren't you hitting home runs? Because

04:09even though you're athletic, it doesn't connect. It's not the same thing. Was that shocking

04:14to you? I knew because I was such a fan of the show and I had so many friends that had

04:18already been on the show before me, you know, kind of give me this information. So I wasn't

04:23shocked. I was still surprised by how different it was once I started learning it, because,

04:30you know, no matter how much you, you know, someone tells you something, you don't really

04:34believe it until you experience it for yourself. Right. That's why parents have such a hard time

04:39with kids, because it's like, I'm telling you this is the right way. I don't believe you.

04:42No, no. And then they're like, 25. Yeah, you right. So it's the same. It's the same reality

04:48where it's like, you don't believe it until you actually are doing it. But so I kind of knew,

04:53but I was still surprised by the differences and how much work it took, because don't get

04:58me wrong. I went into it thinking I was going to like, be able to just kind of do it. Right.

05:03And boy, was I wrong. Yeah, I think a lot of people, especially athletes or people who have

05:09danced before think that. And I think that when when they announce the cast, there's always some

05:14controversy because there's people who are more athletic or who are gymnasts. Right. And seem like

05:21it would be an easier transition. But you're basically saying for everybody, it's super hard.

05:26The the only difference between someone who's danced and some and an athlete is they have body

05:34awareness. Right. It's not knowing how to dance. It's knowing your body, the awareness, knowing that

05:42when you move your arm, that's where it goes. You can I don't need to look in my arm to know that I

05:47have a slight, slight upward angle because I have body awareness. Right. I know that that the ends of my

05:53finger. So maybe one of the camera will know what this is that is watching. But but like it's holding

05:58the egg. Right. So I know what holding the egg looks like and feels like I don't actually have to see

06:05it to know it. That's body awareness of a football player knows where his arms are. They'll know where

06:12their where their feet are. Whereas there are people who literally we say this jokingly have two left

06:19feet. They don't know where their right foot is. Yeah. You said to them literally move your right

06:26foot. They might not do it. Right. Take your right foot and step on the toe. They might not be able to

06:33do it. And that has nothing to do with. Oh, well, that's not fair because this person has previous

06:38dance experience. It's we're all human beings that have different strengths. Right. Some people

06:44ain't meant to dance. Don't mean that, you know, they shouldn't be on the show. And all we say is

06:53all blessed they heart. Yeah. Now, have you kept up your dancing? Are you not a lot? I dance a little

06:59bit. I I will work on technique every once in a while so that if I ever need to do a specific move,

07:08I know what the technique is and I know what it feels like, you know. So last year, I actually

07:15guest judge. Yeah, I was about to say you've been judging on Strictly Come Dancing, the European,

07:20the English version of the show. And luckily, and I'm pat myself on the back. It was to, you know,

07:26rave reviews. Right. But part of that is because I'm very analytical. So when I went in, I, I didn't

07:32like learn choreography. What is the rumba? What is the cha-cha? What is the samba? Right. The samba

07:42is actually the most difficult dance they do on the show. Really? No question. Oh, I thought it was

07:47the tango. Not even close. And the reason is, is because. Or the four step. Was it that the four step?

07:52The quick step. The quick step. The quick step is just fast. It's just the quick in it. It's not

07:57the steps that are, that are difficult. If you did the quick step slow, it might be the easiest.

08:02Right. But the samba is the opposite of every dance. Everybody steps on the one. Samba, you step on

08:13two. So instead of one, two, three, four, it's one and two and three and four and two and three and

08:24four. And that's where the energy is on the upbeat. So you're doing this downbeat the whole time. And

08:31then all of a sudden you get the samba, you like, it's a car crash because your body wants to go down

08:37when it's supposed to go up. It's really, it's a strange thing. It sounds to me like you've absorbed

08:42a lot of the technique. Well, I'm incredibly analytical and, uh, I have so much useless

08:50information in my brain. Um, it's because I just take everything in. I'm all about learning. How much

08:57can I learn? How much can I know? If I know more than you, I have a better chance of beating you.

09:03Even if you're automatically better than me, I am very competitive. Um, you know, there's a,

09:09there's this guy in history. His name was Napoleon.

09:14You want to go back in time and beat him?

09:18Just saying, listen, I'm a, I'm a Napoleon, Napoleon. Okay. Um, I've got him right in my

09:25crosshairs. The, the, the, but watch out, Napoleon, do not come back. Napoleon, you ain't got a chance.

09:31Go ahead and bring it, bring it back. Um, no, it's like, I'm super competitive, but,

09:36but I'm realistic at the same time. Right. Like, you know, but I'm the, I'm the crazy dude

09:41who would play golf with Tiger Woods and say, I just, I just want to see, I want to see if I can

09:46beat him. Yeah. Now, you know, one side says that the other side says you funny, you ain't got no shot,

09:54but I can't help myself. I'm still going to show up on the day and I'm going to play the best golf I

10:00can play. I'm never going to be Tiger Woods. Well, maybe 99 out of a hundred times. I'm not

10:06going to beat him, but there's that one time, the one chance that I have a great day and he's drunk.

10:15Well, I hope we get to see you judging some other.

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