Checking in with MARY MURPHY
Growing up in small-town Ohio, Mary Murphy didn’t have much use for dance.
In high school, she competed in track, played drums in the marching band and hung out with her three brothers, telling people she was her parents’ “fourth boy.” Her career objective was to become a physical education teacher.
But it was while studying PE at Ohio University that she took a modern dance course and fell in love. After graduation she worked in a dance studio, but it wasn’t until a fateful trip to the U.S. Championships at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York that her destiny would reveal itself to her.
“It was like something out of a movie scene with the two big double doors, they opened them and I walked in ...,” recalls Murphy, who rejoins the judging panel of “So You Think You Can Dance” when it opens its 14th season Monday, June 12, on Fox. “I saw all these couples just like floating across the floor and the rhinestones, the feathers, the hair, the makeup – everything that I actually wasn’t. And it hit me like something out of a movie on a cellular level, like a lightning bolt. Electric went through my entire body ... and I said out loud, ‘I’m gonna become a professional ballroom dancer and I’m gonna be the United States champion.’ ”
She’s done that and more, counting U.S. and Austrian national titles, ownership of a dance studio and competition, and judging duties at various events among her career accomplishments. She’s proud that shows like “SYTYCD” and “Dancing With the Stars” have raised the profile of the art form in the national consciousness, and thinks the world would be a better place if more people danced.
“There wouldn’t be too many wars ,” she says, “if everybody was doing the West Coast swing or the mambo or something like that, I can assure you.” Full name: Mary Ann Murphy Birth date: March 9, 1958 Birthplace: Lancaster, Ohio Education: Bachelor’s degree in physical education from Ohio University Family ties: single after three marriages; father was an educator, mother a homemaker; three brothers
TV credits include: “Dancelife,” “America’s Ballroom Challenge,” “So You Think You Can Dance Australia,” “American Idol,” “Running Russell Simmons,” “So You Think You Can Dance Canada,” “Bones,” “Hell’s Kitchen” Awards: Austrian 10-Dance and Ballroom champion (1990, 1991), U.S. National Nine-Dance champion (1996), Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007 Heritage Dance Classic Business concerns: choreography and coaching; Champion Ballroom Academy, San Diego; Holiday Dance Classic, Las Vegas Favorite book: “That’s a hard one. It’s a sad one, too: ‘The Notebook.’ My mother has Alzheimer’s ... . I used to really be into the John Grisham novels, like all the lawyer novels and things like that.” Favorite movie: “My favorite movie is probably – you might not even have heard of it, but I watch it every year during the holidays and actually a few times during the year, too. I love the movie ‘Love Actually.’ For me, it’s entertaining, it’s romantic. There’s some sad parts to it, too. It just has the whole thing for me. I make people watch it that come to my home. ‘Bridesmaids’ is probably my favorite comedy.” Favorite musical artist: “I love Beyonce. For me, she’s just the all-around superstar. I love her music. I love how she can stay up there at the top. I used to feel the same way about Madonna in her time. I have kind of a superstitious thing that I do before I go out and do a show. And I have a little playlist and I certainly go with Beyonce or Madonna right before I go out onto the stage. But I start the morning with Barry White and Earth, Wind & Fire.”