Biography of Martijn Sedgfield
Martijn Sedgfield is a professional dancer, choreographer and instructor from Melbourne, Australia now based in Los Angeles. He has over ten years of dance experience behind him and has worked in many different aspects of the entertainment industry both nationally and internationally including, television, corporate, commercial and stage. At the age of 17, Martijn began his training in the style of Hip-hop dance under the guidance of one of Melbourne’s pioneers of hip-hop dance, Arch Illias (Wicked Force). Illias gave Martijn the foundations to build his career and soon enough he was teaching his own classes as well as directing two dance crews which were both recipients of various awards. Most notable of which were, the “World Supremacy Battlegrounds 2009” competition where Martijn’s first crew, Alpha Delinkwentz, placed 1st nationally and 5th internationally, and more recently the “2011 Australian Hip-hop Championships” where his latest crew, The Collektive, took out the competition earning them the title of Australia’s Hip-hop Champions. In 2009 Martijn was also asked to be a part of the team that would represent Australia in the “Hip-hop International” dance competition in Las Vegas. The prestigious competition has been running since 2002 and each year 50 countries hold national preliminaries where the winners from each country come together to compete in the world finals. Still quite early on in his career, Martijn auditioned for the hit TV series “So You Think You Can Dance Australia” where he made the top 60 finalists, beating out thousands of hopeful competitors along the way and scoring him his debut television appearance on network 10.
Following the success of his directorial roles in his crews, Martijn moved on to become a more autonomous entity. Acquiring his own Australian Business Number (ABN), Martijn’s journey as a sole trader began with a year’s study of dance at “The Space Dance & Arts Centre” where he trained full time in different genres of dance and performing arts including, ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, acting, production, nutrition, choreography, acrobatics and more. Also, as part of his study, students were required to produce a full length dance production to market and sell to the general public where the exhibition was to be organised, funded, produced, choreographed, staged, marketed and dance solely by the students. Throughout his studies, Martijn not only improved his dance abilities, but learnt important business and sustainability skills that would help him pursue and prolong his career as a professional artist. Martijn is also well travelled and has been lucky enough to train around the globe at top studios such as Debbie Reynolds, Movement Lifestyle, The Edge and Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles and also Studio 68 and Pineapple Dance Studio in London.
Armed with such solid training and knowledge of the dance industry, Martijn soon became one of the most recognised and sought after dancers and teachers in Australia. Consequently, he has worked with many big named artists on most of Australia’s primetime television networks such as American superstar and multi-platinum selling artist, Jason Derulo. Martijn worked closely with Derulo on his performance on Australian television series “Everybody Dance Now” acting as a lead dancer, assistant choreographer and movement coach to Derulo on the production which was broadcast to over 59,000 viewers on Network 10. Derulo himself even exclaimed that “he wished he could dance like Martijn”. Martijn also worked with Grammy nominee, Meghan Trainor, on her performance at the prestigious Australian Logie Awards. The 57th annual awards night hosted Australia’s best of the best in television and was televised to over 950 thousand viewers on Channel 9, with Trainor being a special guest performer and Martijn, sharing the stage with her as a leading dancer. He’s also performed on the Australian version of the world wide phenomenon, “Dancing with the Stars” as special guest performer with UK pop sensation, Aston Merrygold, who performed his certified platinum-selling hit, “Get Stupid”. The episode, aired on the 7 network, reached over 700 thousand avid viewers across the nation. His on screen appearances have reached wider audiences than just that of the Australian population, with appearances on the immensely popular US TV series “Dance Moms”, where he played himself as a lead back-up dancer for Dance Moms star, Nia Sioux. Sioux made her debut performance of her new single “Star in Your Own Life” and the episode was televised to over 1 million US fans on the Lifetime Television Network. Martijn was selected as one of only four male dancers from across Australia by renowned choreographer, Mikey Minden, who has worked with countless stars in the American entertainment industry such as Pink, Mya, Paris Hilton, Hilary Duff and Usher.
Other than appearing on popular television shows, Martijn has joined the cast of several full length stage productions. Worth mentioning in particular, are the works by acclaimed choreographer, Erica Sobol. Sobol first hired Martijn as an assistant on her Italian Workshop tour where the two travelled throughout Italy, teaching packed out classes in the different cities. Sobol’s popularity in Australia, led her to create her first international production titled “Wallow: Then Run Gyspsy, Run”. Martijn played a pivotal cast member in the production that toured major Australian cities, Melbourne and Sydney. Following the success of her Australian production, Sobol kept a close work relationship with Martijn, inviting him to compete in the esteemed Capezio A.C.E. Awards at the Dance Teacher Summit in New York. Out of hundreds of contenders, Sobol and cast secured a win taking home the grand prize of $15,000 to go towards the winner’s next show. In turn, Sobol approached Martijn to perform in her following production titled “RUNAWAY!” in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The Hollywood dance production was attended by the creatives behind iconic US spectacles of the entertainment sector such as, Melrose Place, Mad Men, High School Musical, Beyoncé, Madonna, Janet Jackson and Britney Spears. Martijn is definitely no stranger to performing if front of large audiences on big scale events. Examples include Stereosonic music festival 2012 (45,000 attendees), Australian Open Tennis 2013 (over 600,000 roaming fans) and Melbourne’s White Night Festival (over 500,000 attendees).
His hard work has not gone unrecognised by the Australian dance industry with his talents being sourced for work with multi- platinum selling Australian artists Jessica Mauboy and Ricki-Lee, both of whom he’s worked closely with on several performances. His talent has also been acknowledged by means of his work as a teacher and adjudicator at Australia’s biggest dance convention, “The Australian Dance Festival”. Martijn joined the esteemed panel of judges alongside industry great Kelly Abbey (Ricky Martin, Fame the Musical) and editor and chief of DanceLife Magazine, Chris Duncan. His choreography for budding Australian artist Oscar Key Sung’s music video “Brush” has received over 500,000 views on YouTube and won a Stoney Roads Award for Best Australian Dance Music Video of the Year. He has also received international recognition, having been invited to teach workshops in San Francisco, London, Italy, Poland, Spain and The Phillippines.
At only 29 years of age, Martijn has already achieved national and international success and with his sights now set on Los Angeles, he is fast becoming a person to watch out for in the future.