BWW Interviews: Dancer Jaymz Tuaileva for Donny and Marie Shares His Experiences Working with Them and Dancing with the Stars

When Donny and Marie Osmond planned their Christmas tour, they knew they needed to work on new choreography for the shows. And when they were deciding who to choose to help them, they knew they could turn to their dancer Jaymz Tuaileva. Jaymz has worked with Donny and Marie off and on since 2009 and has appeared in some "Dancing with the Stars" episodes. Dancing is his life and Jaymz loves every minute of it. As I had a chance to chat with him recently, it was fun to find out how he got interested in dancing and how he started to dance with Donny and Marie Osmond.

How did you get started performing? Did you go to school for dance?

My sister was a dancer back when I was really young, about 12, and I remember I went and saw a dance class of hers and there was a cute girl in it so I was like, "Sis, you gotta get me into your class." Then, I ended up falling in love with dance instead of the girl. I didn't go to school for it. I went to public school and I would go and train at a dance studio after school. It was a performing arts studio after hours. Then I was lucky to start working professionally at the age of 15.

Where are you originally from?

I'm originally from Orem, Utah.

How did you get involved in the Donny and Marie show?

I was doing a show in Vegas with Cher. I was dancing for Cher there. I wanted to stay in Vegas so I got a hold of Marie because she actually taught me in Sunday School when I was younger. I was like, "Hey you have any openings for your dancers?" And she was like, "Yeah, actually, we just had one guy leave the show. We could totally use you." So that's where it all started back in 2009 with them and I've been working with them ever since. I've been working with them off and on ever since. And then I became their choreographer. I did the choreography for their Christmas show.

Tell us about this particular Christmas show. How does it all come together?

We had rehearsals for 2 weeks before we came out. We've all done this show before. We have 3 dancers who haven't done the Christmas show before. Donny and Marie came in on the second week. We taught the 3 new dancers the numbers for the Christmas show, but there's still numbers from the Vegas show also in this. They already knew those numbers so we just taught them all the Christmas stuff that they didn't know yet. Of course, we brushed up on cleanliness and it turned out to be a good show.

What is it like to work with Donny and Marie?

Awesome. I love working with them. They're so professional. Donny is just on his A Game and Marie too. They're amazing. I love working with both of them. It's always a pleasure sharing the stage with them. Being in the business this long is like second nature to them so I definitely trust any criticism they have and they also trust what I bring to them as well. It's a good relationship.

Are there ever any major flub ups that happen onstage? How do you cover them up?

A technical thing might go awry and something will malfunction and they'll just take the show and they'll make it seem seamless like nothing has gone wrong. You know, it happens and it's always gonna happen. It's always interesting because it makes the dynamic of the show change. I'm not gonna lie, I enjoy it when that happens because it's always fun to change it up a little bit. There's definitely been times when someone gets injured and we have to respace, midshow. Or one of the singers might get sick and we have to change up a whole show as well. We're all professionals so we are used to it. It definitely happens and the audience will never know. That's why we are paid to do this.

Do you have plans professionally after this tour is over?

I'm not in the Vegas show anymore. I did "Dancing with the Stars" as well. So I do that TV show. My daughter's in LA so I want to be there as much as I can. The dancers, they love doing this show. I'm glad to be working in this industry and consistently. We all love what we do. It's like they say when you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life. It's always nice to be able to do what we love. I just want to continue to do that.

Catch Jaymz on tour with Donny and Marie as they share their Christmas music all over the U.S. Go to donnyandmarietour.com to find out where they will be performing in the next couple of weeks.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kathy Strain

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