Emily Carr, who calls a dance studio in Springfield her second home, was recently accepted to the Juilliard School and will study dance at the University of Southern California. Her New York audition for 'SYTYCD' will be featured in the show. Watch video
Dancer Emily Carr will appear on Monday’s episode of “So You Think You Can Dance.” But she hasn’t exactly been following every twist and turn of the show.
“With my dance schedule, I don’t really have time to watch TV,” says Carr, 18, of Springfield. Her New York audition for the Fox reality competition will be featured in the episode.
A teaser shows judge Vanessa Hudgens praising Carr’s dancing. (Cat Deeley hosts the show, and Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy are the other judges. Stephen “tWitch” Boss, a runner up in the fourth season, serves as a guest judge.)
“There’s something about you that just shines,” she tells Carr.
A graduate of the Academy for Performing Arts at Union County Vocational High Schools in Scotch Plains, Carr was recently accepted to the Juilliard School and has decided to attend the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California.
“I’m beyond happy with my decision,” she says, still basking in the afterglow of being accepted to both schools. “I never thought that I’d be able to say that.”
Carr dances up to 24 hours a week. On a typical school day, she had two classes, then danced the rest of the day before going to her local dance studio, Turning Pointe Dance Center, where she danced some more. She’s been dancing there since she was 2 years old.
“They’ve taught me everything that I have now,” she says. “They’re my second family. When I’m not home sleeping, I’m there dancing.”
This will be Carr’s first TV appearance, but she’s performed at big shows before, including Amateur Night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater when she was 16.
“I was competing with kids up until the age of 17,” she says. “I ended up finishing in second.”
Carr embraces dance styles from concert to commercial and modern, ballet and jazz.
“I personally like to dance and move in the style of contemporary, which is a fusion of all the styles,” she says.
A passion for dance runs in the Carr family. Her sister Ashley, 21, a graduate of Montclair State University, dances professionally.
Carr has spent up to 24 hours per week dancing. (Courtesy Emily Carr)“I can’t help but to dance,” Carr says. Misty Copeland, who in 2015 became the first African American woman to become a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, has been an icon for Carr in ballet, which she calls “the foundation of everything.”
Now in its 15th season, “So You Think You Can Dance” debuted in 2005, when Carr was 5.
“It’s been inspiring,” she says of the dancers that have emerged from the show. “Melanie Moore has really impacted me as well as Travis (Wall).” Moore won the eighth season of the show and Wall was a runner up in the second season, later becoming a choreographer for the series.
“It was beyond amazing,” Carr says of her audition. “To see the raw talent and to see other people following their dreams the same way you are, all coming from different backgrounds … we all end up on that same stage doing the same thing, expressing our love and our passion for dance. It was just so uplifting and inspiring and it just makes you wanna work harder.”
For now, Carr is looking forward to starting her dance studies in Los Angeles.
When she was 16, Carr performed on Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater. (Courtesy Emily Carr)“Once I was out there, I knew,” she says. “That’s where I needed to be.”
“The program is just so elite and I feel that it’s everything and more of what a smart dancer would want and need to be successful in the dance world in this day and age,” she says.
Carr’s ultimate goal is to make an impression on the world through her art, even if she’s not sure what form that may take.
“I just want to be a public figure and through dance, become that. I want to inspire other people,” she says. “I want to really hone in on my dancing and make sure that I really work hard these next four years so that at the end of it all, I’ll be something amazing.”
Carr can’t say whether or not she advanced past the audition stage of the series, but she has a message for any dancers out there thinking about trying out for the show.
“Go for it, because you never know what could happen,” she says. “It’s better to just take your dreams off the bat than to say, ‘what if?'”
“So You Think You Can Dance” airs 8 p.m. Monday on Fox.
Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.