"It's only the second week and Twitch makes me cry already," Murphy said after the show. "And so does Joshua. For some reason, these two kids have struck an emotional chord inside my own heart."
Her attachment to the dancers is fitting, given that working with promising performers has been the focus of Murphy's career since she won the U.S. Open American Nine Dance, the national ballroom dance championship, in 1996 and then retired.
Murphy came into dancing somewhat accidentally after a high school and college career as a track star. An invitation at 19 to attend the U.S. ballroom championship in Manhattan changed the direction of her life from being a physical education teacher and track coach to becoming a superstar dancer in Europe and later the United States.
"It was almost like I was hit with a lightning bolt," she said. "I was captivated. I saw how these people moved and the athleticism involved in it. I saw the competition aspects of it, which interested me because I had the sports background. And I told myself, 'That's it: I want to be a ballroom dancer.' "
But she never gave up on the idea of mentoring other performers. She opened her dance studio in San Diego in 1990 and later invested in three national dance companies when she retired to help others keep their ballroom dancing dreams alive.
She was beginning to wonder what her next move was when "So You Think You Can Dance" launched three years ago and producers hired her as a ballroom choreographer to work with contestants. When Murphy did her rotation on the judge's table, as choreographers do on the show, something sparked inside Lythgoe. As the "American Idol" show runner, Lythgoe knows too well the value and necessity of reality-show judges in attracting water-cooler and blogosphere buzz. Murphy is to Lythgoe what Paula Abdul is to Simon Cowell, he said with a laugh, noting that Murphy is "very adept at defending herself and standing out."
"She's a great character, which is very important for me," he said. "Whether people like her or hate her, she polarizes an audience, if you like, but she leaves the audience with an impression, which is the most important thing that you need to do as a television character. A very loud impression. Now, people come on the show and if they don't get a Mary Murphy scream, they're disappointed."
This baffles and amuses Murphy.
"The dancers want a scream! People on the street want to be screamed at! Who would have known?" Murphy said. "It's crazy to me! All those years of dancing and it's the screaming. Now, if I had been screaming on the corner of Sunset, what would have happened? I would have been put away!"
The laugh rolls out again, but no scream follows it. The loudest reality TV show judge is saving herself for Wednesday and Thursday nights.
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maria.elena.fernandez @latimes.com
