Dancing into the spotlight

For those who've ever wondered why Britney Spears suddenly got more raunchy in her videos, or how Victoria Beckham managed to dance in high heels in the video for the last Spice Girls single, the questions can finally be answered.

It's down to one man - choreographer extraordinaire Darrin Henson. And with a new dance video out, this body-popping, funk-driven, walking force of energy is now spilling the beans on his work with the stars.

Not only can fans now learn the moves of pop stars such as Britney Spears, *NSync and former New Kid On The Block Jordan Knight from Darrin's Dance Grooves but Henson himself is happy to wax lyrical about how good, or how bad, the stars he's worked with are at dancing.

It seems the worst offender is that petite pop star with the big voice Christina Aguilera. Henson was on hand to help the former child star make the move into pop stardom by choreographing the video for her hit debut single Genie In A Bottle. But she wasn't an easy one to move.

"Everybody sees her and thinks she's great but she couldn't dance when I met her," grins Henson.

"It took me about five hours to teach her two moves, she just couldn't pick it up. I don't know if it was because she was bashful, shy or just uncoordinated but it took a while. It's funny for people to hear it because now she's such a firecracker, now she's got the confidence but when I first met her she had two left feet."

Britney fans will be pleased to hear 30-year-old Henson found Aguilera's pop rival a lot better to work with. But at first even Britney wasn't the fluid mover you see in her sexy videos.

"The thing with Britney is she's quite technical so I had to funk her up a bit," explains Henson. "She came from training and I didn't so I had to bring her down to a street level performance and make her hardcore and funky. That was my challenge but she was very co-operative and I brought it out of her."

Henson's lack of formal training has never been a hindrance to the endlessly enthusiastic dancer. Brought up in the Bronx in New York, he fell in love with dancing while watching film musicals and his idol Michael Jackson perform on television.

"I used to dance in the hallways when I was at high school. I'd get in trouble because I'd cut class and they used to find me in the cafeteria or school yard dancing with my friends. I was never a person who followed authority, I just did what I wanted to do."

He fell into the profession by pestering the crews of film and video sets around Manhattan, eventually getting work as a dancer. His reputation soon spread through word of mouth, usually his own.

"I was always going to clubs and I'd talk a lot, telling people how I felt about their stuff. If I saw something wasn't up to standard I'd say that's whack, check this out. I hate to brag but I love to boast."

Since becoming a highly sought after choreographer Henson has worked with Jennifer Lopez. But he had no diva-like problems from her as she's a childhood friend from the Bronx.

"Jennifer danced in a lot of the videos I choreographed early on. She's just rough, raw and rugged, she's not scared of anything. Everybody's always talking about how big she is and stuff and she uses that to her advantage. She's got a butt on her but, like they say, she's got a future behind her and she's knows how to use it," laughs Henson.

A more difficult challenge for Henson is working with boy and girl bands as he has to make them look and move exactly the same - not easy with a group of people who have different ways of moving and different levels of ability.

Henson won an MTV award for his work on *NSync's Bye Bye Bye video and the band became "like brothers" to him while they worked together. He found working with our very own Spice Girls on their tour and the video for Holler a lot of fun as well.

"It was great working with them because they have very different personalities. Mel B used to get bored real quick because she learned so fast. Half the time I had to go around looking for her because she'd either walk off or go 'C'mon, teach me the next bit' and I was like 'I got to finish teaching the others!'

"Emma's name Baby Spice is perfect because you always have to pamper her. She didn't pick it up as fast. Victoria had dance training so she learnt very quickly but she always wore high heels and I had to break things down for her to get her looking like everybody else. Mel C was just quiet and very focused."

The highlight of Henson's career has been working with superstars Michael Jackson and Prince. He choreographed Prince's performance at the Brit Awards a few years ago and sneaked onto the set of Michael Jackson's video for History.

"I had to pretend to be taller than I was as all the soldiers had to be six feet tall but I'm only 5ft 10ins. So I put lifts in my shoes to make the audition. They only found out later when I took the boots off but by then it was too late."

Now Henson has no need to employ such tactics to get work and people are queuing up to be taught by him. He runs popular all day dance seminars around the US which he's bringing over to the UK this month.

"They're cool because I challenge anyone to come up with the same dance style as I do," boasts Henson. "You look at Usher and Sisqo (cor) - I dance circles around all of them. I invite everyone to come along as it's the biggest event you could come to as a performer."