Dance competition shakes up Paws

Towson’s first So You Think You Can Dance? competition kicked off in Paws Thursday night with a surprise guest judge appearance by Glenn Douglas Packard, famous choreographer and star of the VH1 reality series “Brooke Knows Best.”

Eight student dancers participated in the Campus Activities Board sponsored show, which drew a crowd of nearly 300 people.

Packard took a half-hour in the beginning of the show to tell his life story and hold a question and answer session with the audience.

Packard grew up in the small town of Clare, Mich., on his family farm.

When he was 19 years old he was in an accident that left him with a broken back and had his doctors at one point wanting to amputate his right leg from the knee down.

He had a steel rod put in his leg and spent a year in the hospital.

“I told myself that if God helped me recover and I got out of the hospital, I would fulfill my dream of becoming a dancer,” Packard said. “I enrolled in my first dance class when I was 21 years old.”

Packard went on to work with stars like Whitney Houston, Usher, Missy Elliot, Pink, Destiny’s Child and Liza Minnelli.

“Everybody in their career as a dancer or choreographer dreams of working with one of the greatest artists,” Packard said.

For him, that artist was Michael Jackson. Packard choreographed Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Special at Madison Square Garden in 2001, a show that earned him an Emmy nomination.

Later in his career, Packard was introduced to a 13-year-old Brooke Hogan, daughter of wrestler Hulk Hogan. Packard worked with Brooke on her career and the two became friends, eventually moving in together and starring on “Brooke Knows Best.”

No one knows right now if there will be a third season of “Brooke Knows Best,” due to the Hogan’s family situation.

In the meantime, Packard is working on his own reality show where he will bring aspiring dancers to New York City to live out their dreams.

Packard wants to show young people and aspiring dancers that anything is possible, which is why he gave a scholarship to Broadway Dance Center in New York City to the first place winner of the So You Think You Can Dance? competition.

Sophomore dance major Kasey McCarthy won first place and the scholarship for her contemporary dance to Yael Naim’s cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.”

McCarthy has been dancing for 17 years, and only started practicing her routine a week before the competition. She was shocked at her win.

“I was not expecting it at all because all the dancers were so amazing,” McCarthy said. “I’m in awe and I just can’t believe it.”

Senior Morgan Moultrie, captain of the Black Student Union’s Soul dance team and a judge at the competition, was looking for a dancer with innovation and musicality in their routine.

Moultrie said that she knew McCarthy was a winner as soon as she stepped on stage.

“Her song was original…you could see she was ready to perform,” Moultrie said.

Packard felt the same way about McCarthy’s performance.

“The way she danced with the music, she acted like nobody was in the room,” Packard said. “She was just living and dancing, and she made sure that she drew everybody into that stage with her.”

Both Moultrie and Packard encouraged all of the dancers to take the judges’ constructive criticism and become better.

“I’ve lived this ‘Forrest Gump’-like life.” Packard told the audience at the show. “Instead of ‘Run, Forrest, run,’ I’m like ‘Dance, Glenn, dance!’ People will bring you down during your journey through life, but if you stick to what you love and what your passion is, everything else falls into place.”

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