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the secret papers Stone Cold Chilling
Stone Cold Chilling
He’s choreographed some of the heaviestrotated
videos on MTV, has danced for
everyone from Michael Jackson to Vanilla
Ice, is in charge of choreographing the Olympic
Games Opening Ceremony in Beijing
this year and was a signed choreographer to
Nike between 1994 and 2002. And this was
after he turned 35…
The fi rst thing which springs to mind
when you meet choreographer, street dancer
and all-round legend Mr Tony Stone is his
simple, down-to-earth demeanour. Here is
a guy whose average week takes him to Germany
on Monday and Tuesday to judge a
televised dance competition, to Barcelona
the next two days to sit in on yet another
“America’s Next Superstar”-type show and
then back to Brussels before the weekend for
his much thought-after dancing classes.
Born and brought up in the Santa Monica
28 — THE THIRD WORD
area of Los Angeles, he has an American
Criminal Law degree and used to be a fl ight
attendant for Delta Airlines. He then decided
to change course entirely and joined
famed Soul hit-makers Motown as a signed
writer and producer, penning hits for everyone
from Tony Braxton to Brandy. Being at
Motown, Tony started noticing that dancing
was increasing in popularity, be it on stage
or in videos. “Michael really got the whole
world dancing with his Thriller video” he
tells us, as a way of justifying his choice. So,
as befi tting his knack for re-invention, at the
age of 35 he became a professional dancer.
When the opportunity came up for his
wife to land a job in the Spanish city of Alicante,
the couple jumped on the occasion,
backed by Tony’s fi rm belief in the potential
of video dancing - a genre mainly inspired
by MTV’s music videos – on the European
continent. Spain, however, didn’t prove to
be as hooked on video dancing as he initial-
Tony Stone 's
Choices
Michael or Prince ?
Michael
Vanilla or Chocolate ?
Vanilla
Sweet or Sour ?
Sweet
Fast Food or Organic ?
Fast Food
East or West ?
West
ly had thought: “I organised a nationwide
talent search to form a group which attracted
all of eight contestants”. Deciding on a
change of scenery, and after considering
Amsterdam, Paris and London, the couple
settled for Brussels.
“Brussels is a fantastic city to live in”
Tony says, “the international community
feeling here is the best in the world and
the city is ideally positioned for my weekly
trips abroad”. Furthermore – and this will
probably come as rather of a shock to most
of you– the couple loves the ‘four-seasonsin-a-day’
climate and the anonymity it provides.
Simply put, as Tony says, “Brussels is
the best little big city in the world”.
We’re glad our illustrious character
thinks so and hope this means he'll be
around for still some time to come. (NL)
www.tony-stone.com