(Teen People, May 1999)
Who's the biggest mover and shaker in the music video biz? Backstreet Boys, Master P, and Aaliyah pick Fatima, choreographer to the stars
Think it was Aaliyah's idea to spontaneously break into flamenco while making her Are You that Somebody? video? Got it in your head that all five Backstreet Boys were born equally ready to boogie? Well, then Fatima Robinson has done her job.
The choreographer behind Britney Spears's ...Baby One More Time tour and Matchbox 20's Back to Good video, among others, Fatima makes many of today's hottest musicians look quick on their feet. But these days, the diva of dance moves--who, like many of her star clients, goes by first name only--has found herself on the fast track.
It's the week of the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), and Fatima is so busy that she doesn't have time to memorize and acceptance speech in case she wins the award for Best Choreography. (The 27-year-old from Little Rock was nominated for her work on Busta Rhyme's break-through video Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See.) Fatima has two performances to choreograph for the live show--one for Master P, one for the Backstreet Boys--in addition to the Matchbox 20 video to orchestrate later this week. The pressure is mounting by the minute.
"Major players only on the stage!" belows an MTV producer at a VMAs rehearsal at L.A.'s Universal Ampitheatre. A dozen of so female dancers quickly retire backstage, leaving Master P and his crew, the No Limit Soldiers, in the spotlight. Fatima, wearing her trademark cowboy hat and a sparkly bandeau top (all the better to show of her hard-earned washboard abs), has less than an hour to perfect the Make 'Em Say Uhh! routine. Her greatest challenge: getting everyone to concentrate on the moves and forget their pre-show jitters.
"People can feeze up [on stage]," Fatima says. "You look out in the audience and you have Madonna and Lenny Kravitz watching you." And don't forget the millions of fans who'll be viewing it live on MTV.
After a few run-throughs, Fatima decides that she's unhappy with the ending, which leaves the stage looking too empty. There's no time to work up a new routine, so instead, Fatima institutes a quick fix. Beckoning the dancers back onto the stage, she directs them to "freestyle" (make up their own moves) until the music fades out. The result: perfection.
Master P--a commanding presence in a camoflage jersey--explains why he leaves all dance decisions to the petite powerhouse: "Her style is differing, unique," says the rapper. "You have to stay up with the times, and she does. That's what helps you to win."
The following day, Fatima can be found sweating it at Hollywood's Alley Cat studio with another group of dancers and the Backstreet Boys, who arrived in town only hours earlier. But, like Master P, the Boys don't have much time to pull it all together, so they get right to work. Fatima positions herself in front of the wall-length mirror and starts adding moves to the Everybody (Backstreet's Back) routine, which she choreographed for both the video and world tour. Kevin Richardson and Howie Dorough catch on almost immediately, but Nick Carter's having trouble.
"What have you been listening to?" Fatima asks, grabbing Nick by the shoulders to give him a playful shake. Fellow Boy Brian Littrell chimes in with a joke, "AC/DC."
Kevin makes sure the group doesn't get off track. "we might as well send the dancers home," he says. "We need to practice this--do it over and over."
Fatima and the Orlando fivesome go way back. When she began working with them in 1995, they weren't nearly as slick and polished as they appear today. Her proudest professional moment was watching the Backstreet Boys perform a medley with 20 dancers at the 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards in the Netherlands. "We were just the hit of the show," she says. "That was a really touching moment for me, because I had been with them since day one. I had seen them grow up."
Fatima grew up all over California; she attended high school in San Pedro. For the record, she was always a great dancer. As kids, she and her younger sisters Nefertit, now 25, and Khadijah, 21, would spin around the living room, entertaining family and friends. Back then, Fatima, whose mom is a cosmetologist, had dreams of opening her own salon.
But by the time she was a teenager, Fatima wasn't cutting hair--she was cutting it up on the dance floor, entering dance competitions at clubs. One of the contest prizes she won--without ever having taken a dance lesson--was the chance to appear in a rap video. The opportunity was her foot in the door. "From there, people who needed dancers would hear about you and just call you up," she explains.
Fatima's big break came in 1992, when she was just 20. Director John Singleton (Higher Learning, Boyz N the Hood) was looking for someone to choreograph a video for Michael Jackson, and her name kept coming up. John chose Fatima to devise the steps for the King of Pop's Egyptian-themed Remember the Time. Says Fatima, "It was the best thing that could have happened to my career. Michael Jackson is a Virgo, like me...a perfectionist."
These days, Fatima still club-hops to kepp up on the latest trends. "Clubs are my classroom," she says. "I drag Kevin [Richardson] out with me." and with a whirlwind schedule that includes traveling with the Backstreet Boys, such after-hours jaunts are about the only fun she can manage.
For clients with equally crammed calendars, Fatima will make the occasional house call. She says she'll never forget the day she went to Will Smith's large, Spanish-style home outside of L.A. to help choreograph his Men in Black routine for the 1998 Grammy Awards. "When we got there, he was like, 'Are you hungry?'" Fatima recalls. "There was no maid. We just had a really good talk. He's such a humble person. And that was really cool--to see an artist that large be so humble." Will was equally impressed: He requested her again for his new Wild Wild West video.
So, how does she come up with the concept for a video like the expensive Wild Wild West? According to Fatima, it all starts with the song. The moves she creates for Will are different from the ones she'd plan for BSB because each artist's music "moves me in a completely different way." The results: an African dance for Busta Rhymes's Put Your Hand Where my Eyes Could See; that now-famous flamenco for Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody?; and a tango for Dr. Dre's Been There, Done That. While Fatima prefers not to appear in the videos, she's made exceptions for friends Aaliayh and Lenny Kravitz (she's on Aaliyah's left in Are You..., and dancing in a cowboy hat in Lenny's Fly Away).
On the night everyone has been waiting for--the MTV Video Music Awards--Fatima can't sit still. She's running around, making last-minute changes in Master P's routine and showing Backstreet's dancers how to slide across the stage on their knees in their supertight skirts and heels. The only time she pauses for a breath is when she, Backstreet, their musicians, the dancers, and security join hands for a prayer. Then she hurries to her seat to watch the performance, which goes off without a hitch.
Soon after, Backstreet picks up the Best Group Video Award, and Kevin thanks Fatima from the podium. "It's nice to be recognized," she says later. "They all give me love." And they're not the only ones. After the show, as she walks to her car, a BSB fan lets out a scream: "Oooh! That's Fatima, you guys! That's Fatima!"
Fatima's lone VMAs regret: that the Best Choreography trophy went to Madonna for Ray of Light. She surprised, but not bitter. "Ray of Light has no dancing in it!" she says. "I honestly never thought she would have won." Then her determination shines through: "But I don't care. I'll hit 'em again with Aaliyah next year!"
Teen People Main
Articles Main
Main Page
(Note from Elyse: To get more information on Fatima (including the release of her new video) go here--Go Fatima!)
Get your own Free Home Page