It’s been a while since we’ve posted an interview. It’s hard finding someone to follow up John Drake, but oh what an interview we have here. If you’ve been on Youtube at all looking for Dance Central videos, along with MightyMeCreative, who we’ve also interviewed, you’ve likely run across the name SuicideXSqueeze. As of the writing of this interview post, DWRawlings, known on YouTube as SuicideXSqueeze, has 39 videos posted, over 73,000 channel views and more than 805,000 total upload views. Whew, this lady has been busy!

We had the opportunity to catch up with DWRawlings and interview her for the site. Check out the interview below to learn more about her dance background, why she started making videos, and how she makes her videos.

Full interview after the jump!

Dance Kinection: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your dance background if you have one?

• DWRawlings: My name is Crystal and I am 24 years old. I have a love for dance, animals, and sports. I have been dating my boyfriend Nick since our sophomore year in high school (we met on an airplane, crazy huh?). My YouTube name (SuicideXSqueeze) was something my boyfriend originally created. The term “Suicide Squeeze” is derived from a baseball play, (We are not suicidal, we just love sports, especially baseball). I am not a gamer by all means (the last time I picked up a video game controller was the original Nintendo. I was a boss at Duck Hunt!) however when Nick introduced me to the Kinect, I was instantly hooked. I have been dancing since the age of 3. I’m a trained dancer in many genres of dance, and I have been choreographing for years. I am formally trained in ballet, jazz, contemporary, modern, tap, and I dabble in hip hop. I am currently the dance teacher at a high school, and I own a dance studio…. Yes, dance pretty much consumes my life

DK: How long have you had Dance Central and how much time do you average playing it each week?

• DWR: We got DC and the Kinect about 10 days after it released. For the first week or so, I would play DC for just for fun with Nick. However, when we learned that there was a global leaderboard for DC my experience slightly changed. I consider myself a fairly competitive girl, so I was constantly trying to beat the awesome high scores that some of you have put up! Unfortunately now, I only play DC once or twice a week, due to my job and the studio. I say unfortunately because DC is so fun and addicting!

DK: What made you decide to record and post videos of your Dance Central gameplay on YouTube?

• DWR: The first Dance Central video I ever saw was one of MightyMeCreative‘s (back in the day ). She inspired us to share with the DC community. Originally, I was super nervous to upload videos to YouTube (as you can tell by my first 10 or so videos which are just screen captures of the actual game). However once I started receiving positive feedback and requests to make gameplay videos with a camera on me as well, I had a change of heart. I started out by just putting a small visual of me in the corner of the video. Then I started to receive requests to make full split-screen videos. I figured that my face is already out there so why not? And that’s how the splitscreen story goes…. So, thank you MMC and thanks to all of you that have given me nothing but love

DK: What’s the process you go through to record your videos? (how many takes, camera angles, editing, etc)

• DWR: LOL, I get this question several times a day. Hopefully this helps everyone get a better understanding of how I make my videos….. I use the “Break it down” mode on the songs that have the most intense choreography. Once I have learned the choreo, I take it to “perform it” mode to perform the routine as a whole before I start recording. It usually takes me 1-3 takes to get the finished product that is published to you! Now, onto the good stuff. I capture the gameplay footage using a Dazzle HD capture card that I purchased from Best Buy for 60 bucks. I render the gameplay footage in Pinnacle Studios which came with the Dazzle. Next, I take the rendered gameplay footage and my camera footage and edit/render them with Sony Vegas Pro. This process usually takes us 2-3 hours. I regret using “I” throughout this entire question because Nick is actually the one that handles all of the technical computer stuff…. LOL, I do the fun stuff, he does all the work! He’s awesome!

DK: What’s your favorite video(s) that you’ve posted so far?

• DWR: “I Got You Dancing” and “Teach Me How To Jerk” share the top spot in my heart! “I Got You Dancing” is fun and it relates the closest to my favorite genre of dance. “Teach Me How To Jerk” is just AMAZING!…. And I get to show off some of my gangsta side…..

DK: You recently started posting tutorials for specific moves. What events led up to you doing that and what kind of responses are you getting to those from the DC fan community?

• DWR: I absolutely love making the tutorial videos. It allows me to do the two things I love the most (teach and dance). I started getting numerous requests on Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter to make Dance Central tutorial videos. The community was interested in seeing how an actual human performs a certain dance move as opposed to trying to learn from the on-screen avatar. The tutorials also allow me to give back to the Dance Central community. It truely makes my day to hear that one of my tutorials or videos has helped someone achieve gold stars on a routine. The feedback has been tremendous, not only on my tutorial videos but on my gameplay videos as well. I have alot of work to do though; as soon as I put up the request poll on my channel for move tutorials, it became flooded with requests. I’m going to try my best to do as many of them as I can!

DK: What songs do you plan on working on for your next uploads?

• DWR: Well, I just downloaded the three new DLC routines on 4/19, so those are definitely possibilities. My goal is to ultimately upload every routine on Dance Central. However, keep those request comin’, I try to upload the most requested routines first. I will also continue uploading tutorial videos for as long as people watch them. Who knows what the future holds….

[Actually the future is now. Check out her latest video below!]

DK: Can you talk a little about your involvement with Team Cena and what that entails?

• DWR: Nick has been following David and Team Cena since the beginning. Nick plays Rockband religiously and is in sync with all the rythym gaming communities. A couple months ago, Nick and I were checking our Twitter page and came across a Tweet Tweeted (is that how you say it?) by Team Cena saying that they were accepting applications for a new branch of Team Cena (Dance Central dancers). We immediately jumped on the opportunity. I am honored to be TC’s first Dance Central dancer. Team Cena is a rythym gaming community that has many skilled rythym gamers on the team. Team Cena is also the greatest and most friendly rythym gaming community out there. Check us out and join the forums at www.teamcena.com Awhatup to my TC homies! LOL

DK: What’s your favorite and least favorite songs to dance to in the game?

• DWR: I tend to gravitate more to the routines that have the harder choreography. They seem to be the most fun and I like the challenge. The easier routines such as “Poker Face” or “Hey Mami” are great songs, however the step together choreography just doesn’t do it for me.

DK: Any parting thoughts, comments or shout-outs?

• DWR: This first shout- out I’d like to make is to my biggest fan, my wonderful boyfriend Nick. He is always cheering me on in everything I do. I’d like to thank Tiffany from Dance Kinection for giving me the opportunity to do this interview. I also want to thank Harmonix for creating a game that brings a smile to millions of faces. Thank you to the DC choreographers for putting in the hours to make this game what it is. Most importantly, I want to thank all of you for all of the love and support you have given me. I truely read EVERY YouTube comment, Tweet, and Facebook posting. Dance Central is a blast and I appreciate all of the love I recieve from everyone. Keep on Dancing!!

Special thanks to DWRawlings for her time and agreeing to do an interview with us! Don’t forget to subscribe to her YouTube channel and check her out on Twitter @DWRawlings! Keep on dancing!

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