Tammy Fey

She’s been touring with Justin Timberlake, now she’s going solo!!

Find out why Tammy Fey Rocks in her exclusive interview with EM

By K.Kirker (2008)
Entertainment Magazine

Tammy first caught my eye when I did a review for the FutureSex/LoveShow. Tammy was on stage with four other female dancers along with Justin Timberlake and four male dancers.

Even though there were five female dancers, there was just something about Tammy that caught my eye.

Aside from her great dance skills, and her obvious beauty, Tammy just seemed to stand out, like she was waiting to break out on her own.

While doing the concert review, I had some conversation with the Justin Timberlake fans to get their thoughts on all the dancers and we all seemed to agree that Tammy was unforgettable. I decided that I had to interview Tammy to get to know a little more about her and to see what she had planned for the future.

I think that you will agree with me, that Tammy Fey is talented as well as a down to earth girl. Please read the interview below and decide for yourself.

Hi Tammy. How is everything going?

Hi. Everything is going great; we are just on a break right now

Ok, so why don’t you start by telling me a little bit about yourself?

I am from the state Texas. I have been dancing for 19 years. I am technically trained in all types of dance. Three of my main teachers are Kim Mcwain, Marty Kudelka, (who choreographed Justin’s FutureSex/LoveShow), and Roger Lee who has choreographed for many people as well. Those are my 3 main teachers that I grew up with since I was 8. I have been singing since I was 7. I do a little bit of acting about 5 or 6 years. I graduated high school a year early to move out to L.A. and now I live in L.A. I have been living here for 4 years.

I’ve been pursuing dance and singing, and I am trying to get everything together to hopefully get a record deal. I’m on the road right now with Justin Timberlake, as you know and it’s fun. We’re just traveling the world, which I can’t complain about. It’s an amazing job to travel the world and do what I love to do, so I can’t complain about that, that’s for sure.

You were in the movie Roll Bounce?

I wasn’t actually suppose to be in the movie, I went there as assistant choreographer, and then I ended up being in the movie. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the movie, but there are three girls, there’s an Asian, a black girl and a white girl, and the white girl that was hired was way to tall, she was even tall against the main guy so, since I am a dancer it was a lot easier than trying to find a model, that would take  longer to teach them how to not only skate but to learn how to groove on skates and get the music down, so the director Malcolm D. Lee actually asked me to do it. So then I said sure, why not.

So you choreograph as well?

I don’t teach classes, I’m one of those people, as far as I’m concerned if you like to teach you know from when you start dancing, I’ve never personally liked to teach, I do teach, I can teach younger kids things like that, but as far as my age, as far as professional or even advanced kids, I don’t necessarily like to teach, I don’t know why. I guess I’m a big believer in you’re born with that, and you have a passion for teaching and I just don’t have that.

What is better live performance or movie roll?

I would have to say the live performance on stage, because when you do a movie, your doing it over and over and over again, and you have a crowd that is the same crowd for three weeks, or how long the movie is, and they have to make themselves be happy their acting, just like the main actors, but being on a live stage is absolutely incredible because every night you have a different crowd.

There are some circumstances where you do a couple of shows in the same city, for instance we’re doing three shows in LA, which never happens, however you know changing from city to city, it gives you a rush. You don’t know what the crowd is going to be like, the crowd could completely suck, but that doesn’t matter because I’m getting to do what I love to do. I’ll just have fun no matter what, but There are crowds that can be absolutely incredible and these crowds can be so loud, that I have to take my InEar out for me to hear. Inears are used for us to hear the break in the music.

Which of the girls on tour do you hang out with, or get along with the best?

I probably would hang out with all the girls. All of us are totally different and totally different dancers. For me to talk to all of them I get a totally different point of view. If I’m in one situation they’ll all give me something totally different. I have been in a relationship for, it will be two years in January.
Where would you like to be in 5 years?

I would like to be on my own tour, touring the world with an amazing show, with all my favorite dancers. That’s what I can’t wait for, to be able to pick my own dancers. I’m not one of those people, a lot of artist that I know will want all blonds, or all brunettes etc…I’m not necessarily that type of girl. Why do I need to have a specific race of people, why not just have the best of the best? That’s why I look at Justin, because all of the girls are different. You have a blond; we’re all different shapes, sizes, colors, and hair color. Most of the time guy artists are different.

The girl artists however are very picky about their girls, because they don’t want someone to out dance them, or to look like them. Say Britney tried to hire me back in the day and if I had a stomach like hers, she’s not going to hire me. She’s scared that someone is going to look at me instead of her, and I’m not like that, if your a star, your star, they’re gonna look at you regardless and it makes you want to dance harder and it makes you want to perform harder then anything. In five years I would definitely like to see myself on my own tour.

I know you are on tour right now with Justin Timberlake, but whom else have you worked with?

I did the ‘boots are made for walking’ video with Jessica Simpson, and I worked with Cypress Hill, I did a K-Swiss commercial, I did ‘Roll Bounce’ and one of the coolest jobs I got to do so far is the ‘Dukes of Hazards’ premiere, you know the ‘Boots Are Made For Walking’ was made for that movie and I got to perform with Willy Nelson and  I got to dance for Willy Nelson.

That was so cool, with being from Texas and him being a legend. I helped choreograph ‘Stick it’ the gymnastic movie, I also did ‘Raise Your Voice’, I did Robin Thick’s song ‘I wanna love you girl’, The original idea for the video was to have white girls boody dancing and I was in the first cut of that and then the record label replaced it with a different idea. I did Mariah Carey ‘It’s Like That’, Blink 182, D12, I went on a promo tour for a Korean artist. I was in Korea for 3 weeks, which was absolutely incredible.

I did the choreographers carnival that happens every month at the Key Club. When I was younger I did Cinderella. I trained with many people, like I said I’m technically trained as well. I was lucky enough to train with all these amazing people.

Whom do you want to work with?

I would love to work for Prince, Tina Turner, I would love to work for Michael if he was you know normal, if he ever was I definitely would. Justin is probably my main thing; I met him when I was 16 at the N’SYNC concert, because Marty Kudelka was choreographing for him at the time. I would have loved to done Britney ‘I’m a slave for you’, But it’s the older people like Tina Turner and Prince, that are just legends that’s for sure.

What would you say is your favorite part about being on tour with Justin?

My favorite part about being on tour, is being in all the different cities. Over in Europe some of my favorite places were, Berlin was really cool, Hamburg was really cool, all of Germany I absolutely loved, I love Paris, I love Milan, London was really cool I never been there before. It’s so hard to keep track, we were there for 3 months but Vienna Austria was very cool. The crowds are different over there. It was completely different

Where do you currently live, and where would you ideal place to live be and why?

I live in Burbank. I could live in Burbank the rest of my life. I would live in California just not L.A. I don’t want to live in Hollywood.  I live in a house, I live in a neighborhood, I have a family on each side of me, I can walk to the grocery store. I can pretty much walk everywhere. I’m very much a homebody.
What is some advice that you could give to anyone out there that wants to get into dancing?
If you want to go for it, go for it. You have to have the drive, don’t go into it because your mom told you too, don’t go into it because someone else told you too. You just have to really want it, if you don’t, then don’t go for it.

This business sucks and it’s absolutely incredible at the same time. When you go to auditions, if your not what they’re looking for, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are a bad dancer, if you get cut you could be an inch too short, it’s a harsh business. You gotta know to be tough and take criticism with a grain of salt. You gotta know that if you get cut tomorrow, you have to pay attention to auditions, and say they are cutting all blondes and I’m blonde obviously they don’t want a blond.

You have to pay attention and if you really want it, you want it. You got to believe in your self and you gotta to keep that fire going. It is a harsh business and you will get your feelings hurt. You will get your feelings hurt no matter what, you just gotta take it with a grain of salt when you get cut. It’s the way of business.

Every business is harsh especially this one, because it’s a lot about how you look, which stinks, But I can’t complain it is an awesome job. Once you get your first job, all your feelings go out the window. This is what I do to perform, this is what I love to do, I love to perform. So that is how it is, it’s a crazy business.

Is there anything that you would like to say to your fans out there reading this?

I just want to say thanks for the support as far as dancing wise, Hopefully they all follow me to my music. I do have a Myspace page www.myspace.com/tammyfey and a new web site, where everyone can hear more of my music and follow me as far as my career goes. After this tour is over I will definitely be pursuing more singing and everything. I have 7 or 8 songs recorded that will go into my press kit and I’m shopping for a record label.

Thank you Tammy and we all wish you the best of luck on going solo. Maybe you will come back and give us a follow up interview on how your solo career is doing. Anyone that would like to hear more from Tammy, go check out her new website www.TammyFeyRocks.com and of course go check out her Myspace page @ www.Myspace.com/TammyFey. Thanks again!!