“So You Think You Can Dance” season 12 top 10 finalists Eddie “Neptune” Eskridge and Jessica “JJ” Rapone’s careers have taken off since the closing of show. They are currently on tour with the rest of the top 10 for the “SYTYCD” Season 12 Tour. The next city on their schedule is Atlanta at the Cobb Energy Center on Oct. 31. They spoke with rolling out to share their journeys to becoming professionals and talk about life on tour.
R: Can each of you talk about your journey to becoming a professional dancer and what or who has inspired you to turn your love of dance into your career?
Eddie: What jumpstarted my career was being connected to Phoenix and Farside, I’ve known them for years and I was a part of their crew, AOV, since 2008 and that helped out a lot as far as my structure when it comes to being a free style dancer and plus picking up hip hop choreo. It was them and then there was another person named Corey from the bay area that helped me out a lot. That helped build me up they mainly were my inspiration as far as with my career. Then I have different friends who are well known in the Krump world and the freestyle world, one named Krush, he’s a really great dancer and a veteran when it comes to Krump, travelling all over the world, overseas and that helped out with my style of dance that I do personally to release energy and become one with myself within and express myself. And that pretty much is what helped me with being on the show and then being on the show helped me out a lot because it allowed me to grow in different areas that I never have before so I was able to tap into different energies and different styles that I never have before. I also gained a level of respect for other styles of dance that I never had before
JJ: My story is I was born and raised in Japan and I started dancing when I was 17 years old just making classes and doing little gigs here and there in Japan but when i was 21 I met this american choreographer, Showtime, he was out there for a job, and then I was inspired by him. His performance and his skill and everything. So i decided to move to LA the same year at 21 years old in 2006. I just started taking all the classes, locking, popping, jazz, hip horn like everything that I could stand to. I just took classes all day every day which was 120 classes a month just to keep training so that one day I could be better at everything, that was my goal. So he was my inspiration from the start he trained me for 8 years in the industry and in the underground world for battles and stuff and Tony Bazo also was a big influence for me. Then I started going to auditions and started working as an industry dancer I started with the “Groovaloos” it was a hip hop theatre company I toured with them and did shows with them and that was a big start for me and then all this stuff just came along working with different artists. music videos and commercials.
R: Who are your top 3 favorite dancers from the show?
JJ: Comfort, Robert, and Twitch
Eddie: Twitch and Jasmine
R: Are you guys enjoying life on tour?
JJ: I love it. Its going really great, my favorite part is sleeping on the bunkbed on the bus after the show or like getting in the bus going to sleep and then they’ve been driving through the night so you’re in a new city in the morning and it just feels so good like your in a new city its a new show with new people so that’s my favorite part. People are doing great we get along really well so we’re always chatting through the day taking funny pictures and I think its a really good group.
Eddie: Yeah its going really great and also just like going to different cities where people are from and we get to meet their families.
R: What’s been your favorite city so far and If you haven’t visited it yet which ones are you most excited to visit?
JJ: New York
Eddie: I’ve actually been enjoying everywhere we’ve been because I’ve never been on tour before so for me everything is exciting. I can also say that I’m really looking forward to Canada and being somewhere completely different where the cultures different.
-ryann a. tucker
