A new evolution of dance has arrived! Jon M. Chu (who directed STEP UP 2 and 3D) will lead the **** together to witness the story of seemingly ordinary people turning into heroes. Originally directed by Jon M. Chu as a national YouTube dance talent show to select the most specialized and skilled dancers, LXD has become a cultural phenomenon as the number of participants has exploded and it has become the largest film and television production with the largest number of dancers ever. The final dance troupe to appear in the web series The LXD is made up of many skilled dancers who will use the power of RA to fight the forces of evil, the Ox and the Umbras, in a season that is sure to create a new wave of dance with its jaw-dropping dance sequences!
The LXD web series features three forces: the heroes (The League of Extraordinary Dancers) and the villains (The Alliance of the Dark), and the mysterious new force of the Umbras, who have the power of dance (The Ra), in a timeline that spans hundreds of years, from 1920 to 3000. The timeline of the story spans hundreds of years, from 1920 to the year 3000. The LXD members and other dancers involved are top dancers in many dance styles, including hip-hop, krumping, contemporary, tricking, popping, breaking, jazz, tap, ballet and more.
All the choreography and performances are real, without any special effects or wizards, and not filmed against a green screen.
The LXD web series has completed three seasons so far, the first two of which have already been aired on the network, and the third season will be aired in the early part of 2011. It took eighteen months from the start of filming to the end of the second season***. On April 12, 2011, with the DVD release of Seasons 1-2 of The LXD Web Series, Deadbolt conducted a face-to-face interview with John Chu to learn more about the LXD dancers' passion for dance and superheroes, and how John Chu, who has worked with Justin Bieber and is about to get ready to film Special Forces 2, in the LXD Web Series. Having experimented with filming on multiple dance genres, what does director Chu understand about the concept of adding dance elements to an action movie?
THE DEADBOLT: The LXD web series doesn't rely on dialog to tell the story, is that easier for a director to direct or a challenge?
JON CHU: It's both, it's give and take, and we wanted to push the idea that dance is one of our main forms of communication in these shorts. When you have a complex superhero story you're giving these pieces together and expressing certain episodes can create difficulty. So you would add dialog here or there. In each chapter we've changed the application of the choreography and the amount of plot dialog accordingly.
Some episodes we don't use any plot dialog, while others we use a fair amount of dialog, and other times you'll need to go to the plot credits.
We've put this idea into practice, and for me it's been a kind of experiment to see what kind of level we can push the dance to, and where we're flawed. There are times when certain places don't work and it's a step backward. There were times when it was a long road of discovery, and sometimes we found shortcuts, and it was a process of finding out how to integrate dance and storytelling in an organic way. So it was an opportunity to try all kinds of new approaches and we didn't go all the way.
THE DEADBOLT: The Robot Love Story was a great episode, and I've never seen an episode with a concept like that. What were the elements that made the dance and the story both blend so well?
JON CHU: It was a process, I started out wanting to make a black and white movie, a modern expression of a silent movie. We made a silent movie with Madd Chadd, our robot dancer, and Pandora as Autumn, and their dancing was so intricate and detailed that you couldn't move the camera around to get multiple shots, the camera was just there to record their poetic and beautiful dancing.
The emphasis in this style is on how to tell the story, which is about the love story between the two, or rather the love story they had, and how to use the dance to interpret that story. Each chapter requires the dancers to use a certain type of dance to express the story. Most of the time, we'll bring them into the practice room and say, okay, we want to tell the story of a couple who had a relationship, but now the husband can't remember his wife. How would you express that story in dance?
We put on the music and then we let them talk and dance freely, and from there we record the steps and ideas that make us reach out and touch them, and that's how we shoot it, and so that's how that episode was shot.
THE DEADBOLT: So when you were filming the LXD web series, did you find the passion between superheroes and dance?
CHU: Yeah, it was a really wonderful connection because you don't really combine the two. But there are a lot of similarities between the two, because I find that there's a weird question in the public about what dance really is
The public goes from dance movies, 80 Dance Movies, or the Dance My Life series. You go to dance class, you learn the steps, and that's all you understand about dance. Maybe you get up and dance in your living room and that's about it. The dancers I know, dance is every part of their lives.
When you're in an elevator and the music comes on they can't help but dance, when they're angry they dance to release their feelings. It's all very real, and the dance is in their bones. That's what we're trying to say in the web series. That's also how we shot the episodes, showing the dancers dancing for real and expressing it in the best way we know how.
THE DEADBOLT: Which episodes were the most challenging to shoot?
Chu:The episode with the western scene was very difficult because we had a very large number of dancers and again different dance styles. For each section, we shot a day and a half because we didn't have a lot of money and at the same time we wanted to make a quality production. So we had the best company, extraordinary dancers, and we just needed to do it as fast as possible. The western was very difficult because we had a lot of people and a lot to interpret and we had to do it as fast as we could.
Robot Love Story was difficult because we needed to capture the little details and it was very hard to define which moves were the best and whether we got them or not, and that was a very difficult day of shooting because we wanted to make a stunning dance in this old, beautiful hospital.
I didn't direct that episode of The Duet, Scott Speer directed that episode, which required us to do the same thing in two different places, two interpretations of the same choreography. I know that's a nightmare to use logically, you need to calculate all the movements beforehand and cut to manipulate them. But so all of that and why everyone loves it is because all of us love dance. We see the opportunity to express our favorite stories and dance in a better way.
(Last paragraph) Have people seen LXD? I don't know, that's why I'm excited about the DVD release, because more people are going to discover LXD, and I want to speak with my work, and when it comes out, I want people to enjoy it as much as I did creating this stuff, because it's really, really fun and wonderful. Those dance steps are real. For me, it takes you through come a saga of friends, family and dating. Talk to your friends about this and bring the story into your life and bring you joy. That's the ****ing same thing with all my work, it's all about bringing joy. Season 1 focuses on the backstory of LXD, these heroes. Each chapter individually introduces each character's backstory and their special dancing abilities. Chapter Role (Introduced) Dance Type Premiere Time The Tale of Trevor Drift
(The Tale of Trevor Drift) Trevor Drift
The Observers
The Illister
Alice Wondershaw B- boying July 7, 2010 AntiGravity Heroes
(AntiGravity Heroes) Jimmy Angel
Justin Starr
Cole Waters Tricking July 7, 2010 Robot Lovestory
(Robot Lovestory) Sp3cimen
The Dark Doctor
Autumn
The Dark Nurse (Ro)boting
Popping
Ballet
Tutting July 14, 2010 2010 Duet
Ninjato
Katana Contemporary July 28, 2010 The Dark Doctor Deal
(Dark Doctor Popping July 28, 2010 Elliot) 's Shoes
(Elliot's Magic Shoes) Elliot Hoo Hip-hop August 11, 2010 Fanboyz
(Wannabe) Stereo
Phono
Minijack Krumping
Popping
Hip-hop
Boogaloo August 18, 2010 I Seen a Man
(There is such a thing as a man) Copeland Tap dance August 18, 2010 Season 2 focuses on the backstory of LXD and the evil force The OX, as well as the mysterious force The Umbras make an appearance.
Chapter Role (Introduced) Dance Type Premiere The Legion
(Legion) The Kidd B-boying
Popping October 26, 2010 Lessons
(Lessons) LXD Stepping
Tap
Popping
B-boying October 26, 2010 The Rising
(Uprising) The Eaters
Fangz Flexing
B-boying October 28, 2010 Mark Of The Ox
Karey
The Wave
Achilles
Waru
Dreads
Stakka Tricking
Popping
Fire dancing
B- Boying November 2, 2010 Tails of War
(Tails of War) Scales
Teethe
Gills
Finns (Ro)boting
Jazz
Jazz Funk
(Evil Meat, Evil Food) The Umbras Jazz
Free running
Krumping
Tricking
Jazz Funk November 16, 2010 Origins
(Origins) Dark Doctor(Child) Hip-hop
Waving
B-boying December 1, 2010 Experiments
(Experiments) Experiment 2A2
Experiment 4K8
Experiment J4E
Experiment 9S2
The Exterminator Ballet
Popping
B-boying December 8, 2010 The Good, the Bad and the Ra, Part 1
(The Good, the Bad and the RA Part 1) Gibspark Tumbling (gymnastics)
B-boying
Krumping
Tricking
Popping December 15, 2010 The Good, the Bad and the Ra, Part 2
(The Good, the Bad and the RA Part 2) The LXD Elders (Ro) boting
Popping
Tutting December 15, 2010