It’s a good thing Travis Wall’s energy matches his artistic ambitions, because on his latest Shaping Sound tour, the Emmy Award-winning choreographer is wearing a lot of hats.
On Tuesday, he is bringing a cast of 11 dancers and his newest Shaping Sound show, “After the Curtain,” to Salt Lake City’s Eccles Theater.
Wall conceived and wrote “After the Curtain,” collaborated on the score with composer Son Lux, and dances a lead part in the two-hour production that stops in 32 cities in three months — Salt Lake is third on the tour.
He and Shaping Sound co-founders and fellow “So You Think You Can Dance” stars Nick Lazzarini and Teddy Forance agree that of the five tours they’ve done as a company, “After the Curtain” is the most rewarding and demanding.
“Sometimes we do six shows in a row,” Wall said. “It is so much fun to perform, yet it is so mentally and physically exhausting to do it every single night.”
The show tells the story of a writer in the 1940s who is trying to get his creative juices flowing again after the devastating death of his beloved.
“There is a bit of magic in the show to reveal what is going on in the writer’s head,” Wall said, “so I get to live out my childhood fantasy of flying” — something he loves, except for the “extra preshow tech time to make sure the rigging is correct for those numbers.”
Wall describes another moment of stage magic when pages are being ripped from the writer’s typewriter in frustration, “and one by one the pages peel back up from the floor and come to life as dancers — a little like the Disney animation in ‘Fantasia.’ ”
The first Shaping Sound tour in 2014-15 followed the typical SYTYCD format, with a collection of short pieces set to familiar pop songs. This time, Wall took on a narrative-based structure with a serious topic — a tragic love story between two men set in the socially oppressed 1940s.
“This is a bold and brave story,” Wall said. “I wanted to artistically use some of my inner turmoil growing up, because it no longer inspired me to make a story about something that isn’t authentic to my experience.”
He has been exploring socially relevant themes in his choreography recently, even on SYTYCD. After the turbulence in Charlottesville, Va., Wall ended the SYTYCD season in August with choreography for the All-Star performance to Nina Simone’s recording of “Strange Fruit” that commented on racial tensions.
“I’m at a point in my career that I’m up for the conversation,” he said. “I want to create something that matters. For me, creating something that is just beautiful isn’t inspiring to me anymore. With everything that is going on in the word, I’m riled up. I have to do something with that energy and that frustration. And I hope my choreography sparks conversation and opinions — these are things we need to talk about.”
‘After the Curtain’<br>When • Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.<br>Where • Eccles Theater, 131 Main St., Salt Lake City<br>Tickets • $35-$65; artsaltlake.org, 801-355-ARTS or the Eccles box office<br>A history of Shaping Sound<br>Shaping Sound was established in Los Angeles in 2012 by the 2015 Emmy Award winner (and six-time Emmy nominee) for Outstanding Choreography, Travis Wall, along with partners Nick Lazzarini, Teddy Forance and Kyle Robinson. Shaping Sound is a fusion of jazz, modern and hip-hop choreography. The four young dancers broke into the public eye with the debut of their reality television series, “All the Right Moves” on the Oxygen channel. Since that time, they have been showcased on all of America’s popular prime-time dance, awards, entertainment and music shows, including “So You Think You Can Dance,” “Dancing With the Stars,”“Glee” and the 2013 Prime Time Emmy Awards.<br>Current active co-founders of Shaping Sound<br>Teddy Forance • Performed with Lady Gaga, Usher and Celine Dion; toured with Cirque du Soleil and works on “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing With the Stars.” Said Forance: “As an artist, especially in this new show, I feel like I’ve grown the most. We did 100 shows of our last show but this new show, ‘After the Curtain,’ has awakened the acting and deeper performance quality we have inside us.”<br>Nick Lazzarini •Toured Europe with RAW founded by choreographer Mia Michaels; on the cover of Dance Spirit magazine twice; competed on “Hot Under the Collar”; appeared on CBS’ “Star Search” remake and on “Dancing With the Stars.” He is a founding member of the Evolution Dance Company. Said Lazzarini: “I think people are going to be taken aback by how theatrical this show is. After touring the show initially at the beginning of the year, I think that people were really affected by just the emotional gravity of the show.”