BJ ROURKESo You Think You Can Dance Australia“I’ve always just wanted to dance, that’s my main aim, inspire people, and to get on the stage and do what I love doing.” 
Talent Development High School (TDHS) graduate BJ Rourke took hold of our hearts in series one of So You Think You Can Dance Australia, and prior to auditioning for series 2 he was playing the character of Tumblebrutus in CATS the musical in Korea and starting his own production Company A-Live Entertainment here in Australia. 
Dani Brown chats with him about series 2 of So You Think You Can Dance Australia, how he prepared, what he wanted to do differently and what his ambitions are for the future.
In your last year at TDHS did you have in your mind’s eye where you wanted your career to go?  I had the image of working in the corporate world in Australia for a few years and at the same time pushing my choreography and eventually getting my name out there as a choreographer. Musicals weren’t really in my plan, but I always had the thought in my mind that I’d like to do one one day. After doing Cats, I really enjoyed it, and I’d love to do more.
How much of last year’s experience of So You Think You Can Dance prompted you to go this year or hindered you from going this year? Doing So You Think You Can Dance last year at first made me think there’s no way I would want do it again. I felt it wasn’t about my dancing. I had the impression that it was taking away from dance’s passion. When I actually thought about it looking at all the positives and negatives, there was hardly any negatives, so I thought why not give it a go again? 
Why do you think you were cut last year?  Last year when I was cut from the top 40, I felt I deserved to be cut, because what I’d done in the top 100 week wasn’t really up to a high standard. I wasn’t performing, I just concentrated on doing the steps and getting the styles right. I wasn’t treating the experience as if I was on stage, I was treating it as if I was learning a class. Knowing now that it is actually a show, I am going to perform for the audience at home, not just for myself, and not just for the judges.
What prompted you to create your own company.  Hilton (SYTYCD Australia top 20), Sean Robinson (Tap Dogs, The Next Step), Stephen Tanos (Cats – Korea Tour) and I have been best friends forever, we all have the same ideas and we are all on the same wavelength. It just seemed like the right thing to do. We want to be the first Australia’s entertainment one stop shop, providing everything that anyone would want for entertainment on a big or small scale. We want to give work to people out there.
If you had to define yourself as a dancer what would be at the top?I don’t like choreographing a jazz routine or a hip hop routine, or a contemporary routine unless it’s absolutely necessary. I like to choreograph to the music piece that I have. I like to listen to it, and whatever it calls for, that’s the movement I like to put across. I like to blend hip-hop with jazz and hip hop with lyrical.
What do you like about the hip-hop?  The thing I like about hip-hop is the musicality of it, and how you can swap from the beat to the strings to the vocals so quickly, and just take the audience on a journey through musicality as well as visually.
Have you ever questioned that this industry is for you?I’ve never, ever, ever doubted the fact that I’m supposed to be in this industry, ever. There’s nothing else I want to do.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever heard?Don’t worry so much about technique and getting the steps right, think about getting the message across. That applies to choreography as well. It can be easy to get wrapped up in intricate and different steps to a particular phrase of music. But sometimes the audience don’t understand, you’ve got to go with the flow of the music. Same with dancing, you can’t just worry about getting five turns into that jump, because if you always think about the step that you’re doing, you’re blocking the audience off. It took me a long time to figure that out.