Yes I can #*!%ing dance
As one of Canada’s most famous dancers, Blake McGrath has busted out with some of the biggest divas on the planet. He tells fab’s Matt Thomas about his plans to take centre stage and make everybody sweaty.

“When you can make people look at you and think they’d like to do a few things to you right now, that’s part of star quality. I love being able to turn people on, I’m a very sexual person,” says Blake McGrath with a devilish grin. Born and raised in Mississauga, McGrath, only 25, is among the most recognizable of Canadian dancers. He’s best known for his charm, blasé attitude and one-of-kind dance moves.

“I started dancing at the age of five and by 10 I was dancing 40 hours a week,” he says with pride. By 17 he found himself touring with Backstreet Boy baby brother Aaron Carter under famed choreographer Brian Friedman. But it was another of Friedman’s clients, McGrath’s favourite blonde pop princess, who changed his life. “Dancing for Britney was all I wanted to do. I thought I could die if I could dance with her, I didn’t want to do anything else,” gushes McGrath. He dropped everything when he found out Friedman was in charge of Britney Spears’ backup dancers. “The day I finished high school I packed my car. I left at seven in the morning in my little 1994 Volkswagen Jetta and drove all the way to LA by myself.” He earned a spot on Spears’ dance crew soon after he arrived.

“Britney is still a child at heart and she hasn’t really been given the time to grow up. She has a lot going on obviously mentally, she’s always under a microscope,” says McGrath, who has taken makeout photos and hit the clubs with the maligned diva. After spending some time as a slave to Spears and chasing down commercial gigs, McGrath was hungry for the next step. When he heard that FOX was auditioning for a new dance competition show, So You Think You Can Dance, he knew he wanted its crown. The show premiered in 2005 and McGrath made it into the top 10. The judges loved him and he seemed poised to take the competition until he let his opinionated side out to play. He accused one of the show’s choreographers of being inept and jealous.

“I kind of put my foot in my mouth but everything happens for a reason,” says McGrath. “It’s reality television, which everybody knows is not real, and at the end of the day they turned me into a character. I kind of just went with that.” Much to his shock and despite stellar performances, America voted him out the fi rst chance it got. “It’s usually not the best person who wins those shows, it’s a popularity contest and I can only take it so seriously,” shrugs McGrath.

Still, he used his newfound notoriety to beat 5,000 other hopefuls out of a spot on tour with Janet Jackson. That in turn led to a gig on MTV’s Dancelife. McGrath helped develop that show from its inception and co-starred with a handful of other aspiring dancers under the mentorship of Jennifer Lopez.

“She came in with her big glasses, million-dollar coat, her hair all looking flawless and her makeup all flawless. She just glowed and Marc whatever-his-name-was [Anthony] just walking behind her. I thought that was kind of weird, I think she wears the pants,” says McGrath. Lopez is just one of the many divas, including Madonna, Pink, Beyoncé and Ashanti, whose strong work ethic and down-to-earth personalities rubbed off on McGrath. But not all divas are created equal, or at least not Mariah Carey.

“I think she’s the biggest diva of them all,” says McGrath. “She taps her throat to get someone to bring her water, she only drinks from a straw, she taps her feet to have her shoes put on and she walks around under a tent. I was like, ‘Jesus, humble yourself a little bit.’ The fame thing is just not real, so when you become all about it you lose yourself.”

Taking a break from backup dancing, McGrath is back as a judge for the second season of the hugely successful So You Think You Can Dance Canada. He’s also prepping his debut solo album, Time to Move. He describes the disc as full of pop-R&B “up-tempo club bangers that are just really sexy and hot.” He says he wants, “to push buttons and get reactions out of people. I’m trying to go for a boy Lady Gaga vibe.”

McGrath doesn’t shy away from talking about the duality of his sex life. “I’ve been attracted to men and attracted to women,” he explains. “My feelings change all the time. One day I can feel like I’m gay, another day like I’m straight. But I’m not just one or the other, I’m Blake McGrath and I’m attracted to somebody on the inside. I don’t want to look for love in half the world. Sexuality has nothing to do with how well you do in the dance industry at all. All the most amazing choreographers are gay; it’s the dance industry, everybody’s a little gay.

“I love nice strong lines, beautiful feet and legs and somebody with a strong style and presence,” says McGrath of what he fi nds most alluring in a male dancer. “If you have all that, it just wins people’s hearts. There’s nothing better than seeing a hot male or female dancer who can turn up their sexuality in front of an audience.”

And McGrath praises the local scene and one of its queens without even being prompted. “Sofonda is a great friend of mine. She’s taken me to a lot of the gay clubs in Toronto which are great. I love drag because I love the art behind it,” says McGrath who adds that he would love a chance to choreograph a big drag spectacle and dance for Sofonda.

Here’s hoping Sofonda holds him to it.


Watch McGrath on So You Think You Can Dance Canada Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8pm on CTV.

For more on McGrath, his moves and his music visit myspace.com/blakemcgrathmusic.

Matt Thomas is a fab associate editor who loves to hit the dancefl oor with anybody willing to get a little sticky.