Laurieann Gibson Gets Interviewed

After a stint on MTV’s Making The Band which ended in a full blow out with Diddy, LaurieAnn Gibson is bringing her choreography talents back to television. 
She currently stars in the new E! reality show “Dance Scene” and it was announced today that she has a new dance competition premiering in August on BET titled “Born To Dance”.  Bitchie Life recently caught up with LaurieAnn Gibson for this month’s cover story and she discussed her humble beginnings which eventually was turned into a movie called “Honey”, how she found Lady Gaga and what it is like working with Jessica Alba.  She also dropped words of wisdom for aspiring dancers and those who are looking for overnight success.

On How She Began Working With Lady Gaga
A big turning point was a big fight on national television with Puff Daddy, who is my family, my brother and all those great things.I got a call from one of the record executives that I’d worked with before, Vincent. I did The Dream for him. He told me he found a girl. Then I met her. At the time, everyone wanted me to make another Beyonce. It was so frustrating because when you have a gift, you can’t reproduce what’s already out there, that’s not how it works. So this girl said, “Whatever you tell me, I get it.” I said, “Well, my name is LaurieAnn”. She told me her name was Lady Gaga. She came to rehearsal and I loved the record; it started speaking to me instantly. Then I poured everything into this project. I said if I didn’t make her number one then what are they going to tell me? Danity Kane number one, Puff Daddy..like every time I did it they took it away from me. I said there’s something I’m not doing right and then I said let me make it so obvious. Three and a half years later, Lady Gaga is number one in the world and I’m very proud of that collaboration. That was one of the first times as a creative director that the entire thing- the fashion, the creative process -someone listened and wasn’t afraid of my fearlessness.
On What Made Her Decide To Work With Lady Gaga
It was because I was so free to create as opposed to all these other artists that try to tell me what to do. There was no label there, there was no manager there, it was just me and God. There was no money so I was just doing it because I believed in her and she believed in me and that is probably one of the hardest things in this business to find.
On the movie “Honey”
When I was at Motown, dating Andre Harrell, someone wrote a script about me and brought it to Motown Films when Andre was there. Nothing happened with the script and a little while later, someone called me and they were like “Oh, my God Andre sold the movie Honey!” I’m like, “Really?” All that happened and then they let me choreograph. I played Katrina and I was so happy and we shot it in Toronto, so it was like full circle.
On training Jessica Alba for the movie
I had such a hard time with Jessica Alba because she really couldn’t dance and I was like if I could make her dance, I could make anyone dance. I always thought it wasn’t easy but the challenge trained my gift. How did I get my first dance movie and she can’t dance? That’s total sabotage. Kids were doing Step Up 2 and I had a girl that couldn’t dance. They were judging me so, I had these five moves and I was going to freak them. It was really an experience. I remember training her on the first day of filming. I told her to go full out. She told the director Billie Woodruff to tell me not to talk to her like that on set. I was devastated. I was beyond broken because I thought I had helped her. I just wanted it to be so good. I put my everything into it.
Her Biggest Advice For Those Who Want To Make It In The Business
Sometimes it’s not going to be easy or overnight. I think the most important thing is when you’re young, really understand that it’s going to be hard work. It’s going to test you, you’re going to want to give up, people lie to you, you will be disappointed, you will face adversity but you will always make the choice to go back to your dream in your heart and what you believe you were born to do. Even if you have overnight success like some of my groups, you get thrown into a business that’s about profit and then people attach themselves to your gift and they put you on the hype train. They gas your ego up. You drink the Kool-aid, you will choke. Don’t be so quick to want to be in that place of worldly status because there is always a glitch in the matrix and you have to be built to be number one or you’ll slip. Danity Kane got to number one and they didn’t spend enough time being humble or doing the work so when they got in the ring, they got beat. Now they have to start all over again.
There are no short cuts because even when you think you’ve made it or the world says you’ve made it, there is still more work to do. Making it, is getting up every day and fighting to remain humble, grateful and to find a bigger purpose or another level to why you are who you are.

LaurieAnn also discusses working with Nicki Minaj, how she got her start as a dancer in New York and Naomi Campbell in the full interview.