Jordan lands on his feet

Who says the TV industry is fickle? At just 16 Jordan Rodrigues went from a Logie nomination as Best New Talent to being out of work actor, when his role as ‘Jai’ finished on Home and Away.

The night when he was up for the award, host Gretel Killeen threw some awkward questions about his personal life live on national television. Even now it’s all a bit of a blur to him.

“I was actually thinking about it last night. I was going over it in my head thinking ‘What happened?'” he said.

“All I remember is me sweating in my shirt, drenched and trying to put this fake smile on and I thought ‘What is going on?’

“I still haven’t even seen it, I still don’t know what I said.  I got off the camera and I’m like ‘What did I just say?'”

Today he is one of the six young principals on ABC’s new teen drama, Dance Academy.

As he explained to TV Tonight, he’s finally landed on his feet even if it didn’t quite happen by his own design.

“I guess they (Home and Away) kind of gave me the boot, but it was kind of mutual in a sense. They told me why they wanted ‘Jai’ to leave the show and I said, ‘Probably best for the character, best for myself…’

“I probably would have stayed if I had a choice. But I’m glad I didn’t because I got to that point where there was nothing much more to learn. And my ‘Jai’ storylines and character just weren’t going anywhere. So I guess it was kind of a good thing for me.”

Rodrigues, 17, who started out as a child performer in the stage production of The Lion King, had been dancing before his role in the Seven soap. It set him up perfectly for the role as the rebellious Christian in the ABC drama.

“When I heard Dance Academy was holding auditions I just started my dancing back up again. It was fun getting back to my roots and stuff. And I was reading ‘Christian’s’ bio I just thought with this character I can relate to so much through his personality and dance styles, because it’s more hip hop and contemporary and that’s where I am,” he said.

“I did a lot of jazz, tap, ballet, hip hop, musical theatre, acrobatics, contemporary.”

More recently he has returned to training, undertaking a fulltime performing arts course at Brent Street Theatre in Sydney.

“If it wasn’t for Brent Street fulltime I’d just be at home watching telly or Facebook or something. It’s keeping me busy. It’s keeping me fit and healthy.”

Joining him in Dance Academy are Alicia Banit, Tim Pocock, Dena Kaplan, Tom Green, Abigail Armstrong and Tara Morice. Rodrigues relishes the approach to filming that differs markedly from the speedy turnaround of the Summer Bay soap.

“Home and Away is obviously a lot quicker. They’ve got three cameras at the same time. Dance Academy has only got two hand held cameras. The filming on Home and Away is great, but I think the filming on Dance Academy is a lot more intricate. Every little detail is actually a big deal. You’re not just thinking about the acting but you’re actually thinking about the shots.”

Like Blue Water High, the show is a co-production with Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF. If it proves as successful it could graduate to a second season and maybe even land Rodrigues back at the Logie Awards.

Rodrigues almost got his chance to tackle Killeen on her embarrassing exchange when she coincidentally stumbled onto a location shoot for the new ABC series.

“We were filming outside Blue Hotel in Woollomooloo and she walked into the shot,” he said.

“We were filming indoors and I don’t think she knew that we were actually rolling and she walked in the background. And I was just like ‘Hey!’ but she didn’t recognise me at all. She did not even know who I was. That’s embarrassing.

“I wanted her to apologise. If I see her next time I’m going to make her apologise.”

Dance Academy premieres 5:20pm Monday on ABC1.