WEB EXCLUSIVE: Christina Grady—Backup Dancer for Lady Gaga

Grady Goes Ga Ga for Ga Ga

BY: AMANDA WICHERN

    "JUST DANCE" has been 23 year old St. Louis native Christina Grady’s motto since she was two. And that is just what she has done for well-known pop artists like Avril Lavigne, Chris Brown, Cassie and Space Cowboy. But a new curtain soon opened for Grady’s career. Grady worked with the new madam of mistress, music, fashion and eccentric behavior Lady Gaga.

    When Grady began dance lessons at the age of two I’m sure her mother wasn’t planning on having her daughter dance for a woman who has been accused of being a hermaphrodite. But for Christina Grady life was good dancing for the fabulous Lady Gaga and her friends and family still in St. Louis approve.

    The coal black haired beauty has performed with Lady Gaga on three occasions: "Dancing with the Stars" on May 19, 2009, "Saturday Night Live" on Oct. 3, 2009, and filmed the "Bad Romance" music video in Oct. 2009.

    Grady’s success with Lady Gaga built off of auditions and relationships with agents, producers and choreographers. Having relationships in the entertainment industry is key said Grady.

    "Once you get your foot in the door, as long as you execute it well on stage or TV, depending on your performance, you can make relationships in order to be used for future stuff."

    From her crazy fashion to her out-of-this world performances Lady Gaga has become a phenomenon throughout the world. But Christina Grady, like so many others, believes that Lady Gaga is a mastermind genius. The PAPPARAZZI loves her and her backup dancers love her.

    "She is so amazing," Grady said enthusiastically. "I know people think she’s kind of crazy, but she knows exactly what she’s doing and she’s absolutely genius when it comes to every art form. She really knows her stuff and I just have so much respect for her as an artist myself."

    Grady shared that Lady Gaga is known for her perfection of her art and the ability to entertain through the most necessary means—something Grady can relate to. I guess you could say she’s gaga for Gaga.

    Grady reminisced about the night of the filming of "Dancing with the Stars." With everyone wanting a piece of Gaga she was only able to come to the set about two hours before airing live on ABC. But Gaga got right to work and rehearsed for about 30 minutes to learn the routine, the formation of the stage and to practice with the band. When the clock stroke for the group to perform, it was one that impressed the audience, viewers at home and even the panel of judges on the show.

    "She cracks jokes and we have fun and stuff, but at the end of the day she just wants her performance to be perfect." Grady added. "She’s a perfectionist and I love that because so am I, which is why we worked well together."

    As the name of Gaga begins to soar from people’s mouths across the world, Grady claims the FAME has not caused Lady Gaga to become a MONSTER quite yet.

    "She’s really down to earth. She’s very serious about her work and very much a perfectionist. She’s phenomenal," Grady exclaimed.

    When asked about the fashion and the outfits the dancers had to wear for the "Bad Romance" music video, Grady began by giggling. Dancers wore pure latex face masks that had a latex crown to match attached to the top of their heads. The masks covered the top half of the dancers’ faces. Stylists had to poke tiny holes in the masks so the girl’s could see and, more importantly, breathe.

    The claustrophobic back-up dancer was put to the test during the coffin scene of the video. Grady describes how there wasn’t much breathing going on, and for someone who is claustrophobic it wasn’t the glamorous part of the job. To top the claustrophobic part off, the coffin scene was filmed during the 24-hour of production, so needless to say everyone was pretty tired by that time.

    Living in Los Angeles for only three years has begun to pay off for Grady as her own musical career begins to blossom with a girl group, Nikki 16. The girl’s have been working on the success of the group for the past three years and are in high spirits that this year is the year for their group.

    In June 2009 Nikki 16 performed at the LA Pride Festival as the headlining performers to kick off the Saturday festivities. Like Lady Gaga, Nikki 16 strives to gain support and awareness for the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered (LGBT) community.

    "We really love the LGBT community. We want the community to know that we love and support them. Gaga, I think has done a really good job of opening a lot of the world up. Because there is still a lot going on in the world of not accepting, we want to be just like that as far as supporting them."

    Nikki 16 has been working with Missy Elliot, Chris Brown and some of Diddy’s people to establish their future career as artists. The group has just released a FREE mixed tape of their songs on their Myspace and facebook pages. Grady said that the group has some things on the table to be announced later in 2010.

    Grady was offered a position as a backup dancer for Lady Gaga’s current world-wide Monster Ball Tour that visited St. Louis in Jan. Due to a busy schedule with Nikki 16 and dealing with some of the deals that are flowing in for the group, Grady turned down the tour in order to pursue her singing career. But she hasn’t completely let go of her roots with Gaga. She continues to receive offers to perform with Gaga and hopes to be able to find time for future events when time allows.

    Although Grady is not currently dancing with Lady Gaga, she is still running into her past colleague. Grady recently attended the 2010 Grammy Awards with Space Cowboy and was seated directly behind Lady Gaga at the ceremony. Hollywood really is a small town!