{blackbabes} Canadian hits 'The Dance Scene'

Sale! $7.49 .COM Domains from GoDaddy.com 728x90

Canada's Laurieann Gibson baffled Ryan Seacrest. In a good way.

Gibson is a famous choreographer to the stars, having worked with everyone from Lady Gaga to Katy Perry. But it was Seacrest's fascination with Gibson that led to her new reality-documentary series The Dance Scene, which debuts Sunday, April 10 on E!.

"Ryan had seen me in rehearsal with these people, and evolving American Idol, so he kind of watched me, the creative process, the workload," recalled Gibson, a Toronto native. "I deal with the labels, the managers, I'm designing the clothes. "So (Seacrest) asked me, 'How did you become all that, out of being a dancer? The world really needs to see this.'"

Thus, The Dance Scene - starring Gibson and executive-produced by Seacrest - was born.

"Of course, to me, it feels like the biggest break of my life," Gibson said.

"Because here I was breaking all these artists and the system isn't set up necessarily to give back to a dancer, you know what I mean?"

Well, not really, we don't. But that's the point of The Dance Scene, to shine a light on what goes on and what is required.

Gibson is at the stage of her career now where record labels approach her to help develop and fine-tune artists. But Gibson chuckled when pondering the long and winding road she took to get where she is.

"I danced at Canada's Wonderland (an amusement park north of Toronto), can you believe that?" Gibson said with a laugh. "And now I have my own show.

"I took a Greyhound bus to New York and I was illegal after two weeks. The immigration officer told me, 'You've got two weeks,' and I was like, 'Okay.' And I never went back. It took about seven years to get my paperwork."

Gibson worked her way up the ranks as a dancer and then used her never-quit attitude - along with a Canadian sensibility, which she strongly believes helped set her apart - to keep breaking down doors.

Gibson pointed to Lady Gaga - whose most well-known videos were choreographed by Gibson - as the "most special" artist with whom she has collaborated. The least special?

"We shot Honey (a 2003 film) with Jessica Alba in Toronto," Gibson recalled. "I choreographed that movie and that was very difficult.

"My experience with (Alba) as an actress had completely let me down. I couldn't understand after spending three months teaching her how to dance that when I got to the set she was the meanest thing."

Gibson has been a regular on TV previously, if you knew where to look. But actually having her own show will be a special thing for her family in Canada.

"I missed everybody's birthday, everybody's wedding, surviving and trying to make it," Gibson said. "The family just hears about me. So when I was a judge on Skating with the Stars (a now-cancelled ABC series that aired last year), my older aunts finally got to see me, so now my mother feels a little special.

"But now with my own show on E!, they'll know everything that I missed, they can feel was for a good reason. And for my mom, I think that's the biggest reward."