I'm in shock and so heartbroken about this. I can't believe this. It doesn't feel real.
Dancer Serge Onik has passed away at age 33.
I first got to know Serge through Season 11 of "So You Think You Can Dance." He and his partner Carly Blaney dubbed themselves as Team Jersey, being the two contestants from New Jersey, so I was really thrilled about that. Unfortunately, they and my other favorite contestants of the season, Teddy Coffey and Emily James, were eliminated on the same night RIGHT before the Top 10. Like a year or two later, I had the opportunity to see Serge perform live in "Ballroom With A Twist" at the NJPAC in Newark, NJ and was able to meet him in person.
Here are some more shots with Serge that I tweeted from that night.
Most recently, I was so surprised to see him in the In The Heights film! He approaches Vanessa in the "It Won't Be Long Now" scene. I kinda regret not asking him about it now like I had wanted to. (We're Facebook friends and have briefly corresponded in the past. SYTYCD dancers and fans tended to do that back then.)
I even have/had a Serge Squad (the name of his fans) t-shirt. Proceeds for the shirt went to charity.
Season 11 aired at the height of me trying to build my freelance writing career, so I was just starting out, writing for local news outlets and friend's blogs. I actually interviewed Carly, Teddy, and Emily for these while they were on tour with SYTYCD. Because Serge did not go on tour with SYTYCD, he was left out of my interviews during this time.
So then, I decided to interview Serge as well. My friend Kenny had just started his new company SpoonyVision and created a partner blog for it called "The Grind" and asked me to be his blogger. The blog focused on young artists in New Jersey going through "the grind." I had already interviewed Carly for this blog, so I thought that I'd do the same for Serge. Unfortunately, in the interim of me interviewing Serge, Kenny shut down "The Grind," so then I didn't have an outlet for my Serge Onik interview.
Around this point in my life I had created my own arts blog called "Stef's Views." I was hoping to use this as my own professional publication. I posted my interview with Serge there, so it was kinda cool to have my Serge Onik interview as its debut. However, it was the blog's first and only live blog post. Unfortunately, that blog never really got off the ground, so I eventually decided to delete the site and my Serge interview went with it. I feel like I saved it somewhere though. I searched to see if I could find the article maybe hidden somewhere, but so far I haven't.
Thankfully I was able to go back to my Facebook Messenger conversations with him and found my questions and his responses. These are what is below. I just simply copied and pasted. Because it was my own article on my own website, I have the liberty to repost it.
This is just a short and sweet interview, nothing too in-depth, but I believe that he liked and appreciated it all the same. He shared the original link on his Facebook too.
And now, I thought that I'd share it in a blog post again. Enjoy.
What do you want people to know about you?
That is a fascinating question. I want them to know how organic, and passionate my choices are. I want people to know me for my craft, and ability to make them feel in any media of performance.
When, how, and why did you get started with dance?
I was a regular 12 year old boy, who played all sports. I just finished playing a football game with my friends and was walking away from the field to get ice cream. I heard music coming from the rec room and was curious. When I went inside and saw 2 ballroom couples practicing. I was mesmerized by it and asked where I can learn it. They ending up becoming my trainers. That was Maks and Val Chmerkovskiy.
Tell me about your schooling.
Dancing trained at rising stars dance academy under Maks, and other Various International trainers, and broadway dance center in NYC
Favorite style of dance in general? Favorite style of ballroom? Why?
My favorite style of dance is Contemporary. Because to me, in my mind that genre allows me to blend and fuze genres together. I love the freedom it has in the choices of movement. Add that to beautiful partnering and that is my dream dance. My fav. ballroom dance is not a question I can answer, they are all amazing, that is like asking who is your fav child haha.
Favorite routine you performed on SYTYCD in general? Why?
Sonya’s mini group piece “broken” was my fav dance to perform on the show. Nt only was it a physical challenge to learn it and do it but mentally and emotionally that number demanded a lot from us and until that moment I was not sure if I was capable .
Do you have a DWTS background? If so, tell me about it. (I saw something about you being partners with Kirstie Alley but I’m not sure if that’s right.)
I have danced on DWTS since Season 2 I was 17 yrs old. Since then I have done numerous performances on the show including taylor swift, pamela anderson, huey Lewis, and 2 MJ tributes.
I went on a tour with kirstie around europe performing at charities, after she did her first season on dwts.
Do you have any advice for dancers?
If you love it, do it. Practice it every day. Read about it. See shows. Learn about the firsts and the greats. Get saturated in your craft.
What are your current projects? Are there any future projects you want us to look out for?
SWAY a dance trilogy
Ballroom with a twist
Working with a recording studio in NYC being the creative behind there music videos.
And a Secret show I can’t speak about yet, but will be loads of fun.
_____
Serge was a fun loving, talented, nice guy. I also appreciated that he was one of the contestants closest to my age during Season 11. He was very happy to take photos and videos with me the night we met and he was very kind to my mom and my aunt too. It would have been cool to take dance classes from him. He will be missed greatly and is gone too soon.
RIP Serge Onik (1988 - 2021)
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