Detailed Biography

Wade Jeremy William Robson is an Australian dancer, choreographer, producer and songwriter. He began performing as a dancer at the age of five, and as a child worked as a back-up dancer for Michael Jackson. He is also an award-winning choreographer and has directed music videos and world tours for music artists, most notably for 'N Sync and Britney Spears. Robson has found success as a competition judge, both for his own MTV show, Wade Robson Project, and the televised competition So You Think You Can Dance. He has won two Emmy awards for his choreography on the latter show in 2007 and 2008. Robson was also one-half of the hip hop group Quo.

Early life

Wade Robson was born September 17, 1982, in Brisbane, Australia, to Joy Robson. He has an older brother named Shane and an older sister named Chantal. Robson began dancing at the age of two, and when he saw the music video to the hugely popular "Thriller" song, he had it memorized by the time he was three. He appeared on the Australian TV talent show New Faces 4 in 198 where he performed a dance routine of the Michael Jackson hit "Smooth Criminal," complete with a miniature version of the outfit as depicted in the video. In the fall of 1987, Michael Jackson's "Bad" tour had made a stop in Robson's native Australia. It was there that Robson danced away with the top honor in a Michael Jackson look and dance alike contest in which the coveted prize was to meet Jackson. So impressed was the King of Pop at the young dancing prodigy that soon, Robson found himself the very next evening sharing the world stage with his idol and entertaining a crowd of 50,000.

Career

Early career

Robson was in a talent troupe called Johnny Young's Talent school, and the group did fourteen shows a week, usually at venues like shopping malls. It was a performance, however, at Disneyland at the age of seven that sparked Robson's interest in America. So when he was nine, he, his mother and his sister made the move there. Jackson assisted them in the move, and recruited Robson to appear in three of Jackson's music videos: "Black or White," "Jam," and "Heal the World."

Before long, and at the age of 11, Robson had an agent. They formed a hip hop group called Quo with DeWayne Turrentine, and by the end of the year, the duo released an album, which was on Jackson's MJJ Music label through Epic/SME Records. The following year, he was teaching dance classes in Hollywood. He formed a troupe of dancing children which performed internationally. He received his first choreography job for the R&B group Immature at fourteen. The job led to others, for artists such as Britney Spears. Being a self-described "short little white kid", his clients were sometimes hesitant to follow his direction. When Spears first interviewed Robson to choreograph her tour, she exclaimed "He's a friggin' baby!", as she had expected him to be in his 30s or 40s.

During the late 1990s, while still a teenager, Robson choreographed Spears's Pepsi commercials, including one which aired during the 2001 Super Bowl. He choreographed the performance by 'N Sync and Spears at the 1999 Video Music Awards, and he co-directed Spears's 1999-2000 world tours as well as 'N Sync's 2000 No Strings Attached Tour. In 2001, he choreographed Spears' I'm a Slave 4 U video, and was choreographer and director of N'Sync's 2001 "Pop Odyssey" tour. In the N'sync music video "Pop," Robson had to fill in for N'sync member Joey Fatone during several of the dance sequences because of an injury that Fatone sustained at an N'Sync concert the night before the video shoot. Wade can be seen throughout the "Pop" music video. That same year, he directed Spears' Dream Within a Dream Tour.

Adult career

Robson is the creator and host of MTV's The Wade Robson Project, a talent search competition for hip hop dancers. The program was sponsored by Juice Batteries.

In 2002, Robson was named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch".

Dance clothing company Power T Dance developed a line of name-brand consumer dance shoes with Robson. The shoes were distributed in the U.S. through the Ralph Libonati Co.

Robson appeared as himself in the 2004 urban dance film You Got Served, which was co-choreographed by Shane Sparks, and won awards for "Best Dance Sequence."

Robson has joined several other high profile choreographers, such as Mia Michaels and Shane Sparks on the PULSE tour, a series of nationwide weekend workshops designed to give rising commercial dancers the chance to train under top choreographers. Robson giving feedback to contestants after a performance on the July 18, 2007 episode of So You Think You Can Dance Dancers from So You Think You Can Dance performing the Zombie dance or the "Ramalama " which won Wade his first Emmy in 2007.

In 2007, Robson began choreographing the American Idols LIVE! Tour. He has also choreographed both group and partner pieces for the second and third seasons of "So You Think You Can Dance".

On September 8, 2007, Robson won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for Ramalama (from the album Ruby Blue by Roisin Murphy]], featured on of So You Think You Can Dance.

Robson won again in the same category in for Humming Bird and the Flower, a jazz dance routine performed by Jaimie Goodwin and Hokuto "Hok" Konishi', set to "Chairman's Waltz" from Memoirs of a Geisha soundtrack., that was lauded by Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe as "absolutely genius, brilliant, and one of those routines that we will remember on this series for a very long time.".

Pop superstar Britney Spears hired Robson once again to choreograph The Circus Starring: Britney Spears, Spears' comeback world tour, but Robson ended up being replaced by Jamie King and Simon Ellis. Robson choreographed the dance routines in Criss Angel Believe, a Cirque du Soleil show that premiered in Las Vegas in 2008.

Robson and N'Sync's Justin Timberlake partnered in 2001, co-writing the hit singles "Pop", "Gone", and "See Right Through You" on 'N Sync's final album Celebrity. Robson had initially written "Celebrity" for his own album, but was persuaded to let 'N Sync record it instead. They also co-wrote Britney Spears' "What It's Like To Be Me" which Timberlake sang back up vocals on Spears' album Britney. The song's copyright is held jointly by Robson and Timberlake's respective companies WaJeRo Sound and Tennman Tunes.

Robson co-wrote the song "Movin' On" for the Backstreet Boys album, Never Gone, with Backstreet member Howie Dorough. The song was released as a bonus track.

Robson has also written songs for the singing groups Dream and Youngstown. He also remixed two of Mandy Moore's songs from her debut album for her second album, I Wanna Be With You.

He will soon be seen on the big screen in the new motion picture Move, directed by Kurt E. Soderling and Melinda Songer. Coming on in 2010, he plays himself in the film along with others like Mia Michaels , Paula Abdul, Tyce Diorio and Nigel Lythgoe.

Routines for So You Think You Can Dance

Personal life

Robson received his GED at age fifteen.

In July 2002, Robson's father, Dennis Robson, died after a long illness.

In 2003, Michael Jackson was arrested on charges of child molestation. Starting from age seven, Robson was invited several times to Jackson's Neverland Ranch, where several boys, including Robson and child actor Macaulay Culkin, would all sleep together in Jackson's bed. A member of Jackson's staff testified that she had seen Jackson behaving inappropriately towards Robson, such as taking showers together. In November 2003, Robson publicly denied any wrongdoing on Jackson's part, and he, along with his mother and sister, testified in Jackson's defense at the People v. Jackson trial in 2005. Jackson was eventually acquitted. In a 2003 interview, Robson said of Jackson, "His heart is so genuine. He has no concept of a normal life." Robson and Jackson remained friends until Jackson's death in June 2009.

Robson was romanticly linked with t.A.T.u. On August 13, 2005, Robson married fashion designer Amanda Rodriguez in Hawaii. Jackson was among those invited to the wedding.

Career credits

Discography

Videography

Filmography

Television