We continue with these little pieces on the personalities that form a huge chunk of So You Think You Can Dance: the judges, the choreographers, and of course, the host.  This time, it's the Queen of Scream herself, Mary Murphy.

I was watching the So You Think You Can Dance auditions and I realized I can't get used to seeing Mary Murphy sounding calm.  Listening to her, you sense that giggle wanting to break free.  Or her scream.  When I began watching last season, I honestly thought she was the crazy Paula Abdul figure--not that she doesn't know anything about dance, but if you come in as clueless as I am, you'd definitely think that way.  I should've known that beneath all those screams is a ballroom champion and a renowned dance teacher.

Born on March 9, 1958 in Lancaster, Ohio, she was what we'd call a tomboy at a young age.  Being the only daughter meant sharing the same interests as your brothers.  Initially attracted towards athletics, she graduated with a degree in physical education from Ohio University.  But she also minored in modern dance; little did she know it'd get her places.

It all boiled down to a need for a summer job, and she ended up working as a dance instructor in Washington, D.C.  Watching the US Ballroom Championships at the time, she realized she wanted to dance ballroom, and began training for competitions.  It took a while for her to find a partner, though: her most known dancing partnership is with Manfred Sigletz, and the two went on to become two-time Austrian National Champions, and represented the country in international competitions.

Austria.  Who would've thought?

But she had to call off the partnership when she realized she had too much on her plate.  In 1990, she established Champion Ballroom Academy, her very own dance studio, in San Diego.  She was hesitant to leave all that behind and move to England to continue the partnership, so despite being one of the top couples in dance, the Mary-Manfred pair-up came to an end.  She continued competing in the first half of the 90s, however, going on to win the US Open American Nine Dance in 1996 with partner Jim Desmond.


And then she retired, focusing on her dance studio, cultivating talents in ballroom and other styles.  Currently, other SYTYCD choreographers such as Ron Montez and Dmitry Chaplin also teach at the CBA.

Mary found her way to SYTYCD through another television show: Dancing with the Stars.  She was being screen-tested for the ABC show when the producers of SYTYCD approached her to be part of the rotating judge and choreographer panel.  I didn't know she choreographed early routines of the show, but watching Melody and Nick dance the paso doble made me imagine Mary dance the paso doble.  And we all know what happened afterwards: she began to judge more often in the second season, we began to have this opinion of her, and she became a permanent judge by the third season, in 2007.  Cue the hot tamale train and all those screams.

In between SYTYCD, she still judges in several major ballroom competitions in the country, and also organizes the Holiday Dance Classic competition, based in Las Vegas.  I never thought she did so much, but then again, so were most of my impressions.


Other pocket guides:
Adam Shankman
Cat Deeley
Nigel Lythgoe


- Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Images courtesy of PR Photos and Mary Murphy's MySpace page)