The Five Question Challenge with Freckled Sky

By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com

It is a privilege to welcome Freckled Sky to Jake’s Take.

Freckled Sky is the brainchild of Val Syganevich, Natasha Syganevich, and Katya Korobko. They lead a team of multimedia creators and technology experts. Freckled Sky blends projection, lighting, interactive solutions, and special effects to create new forms of entertainment.  

Freckled Sky’s spotlight expanded once they appeared on America’s Got Talent: Season 10. Their spectacular first audition earned Howard Stern’s final Golden Buzzer. Sadly, their luck changed at Radio City Music Hall as their performance failed to win over the audience and were eliminated at the Judges’ Choice round during the Quarterfinals.

Once the group left AGT, they began to create various campaigns for numerous companies such as AT&T and Mercedes-Benz and performed around the world. In this edition of The Five Question Challenge, Freckled Sky revisited their Golden Buzzer moment and previewed their America’s Got Talent: The Champions return. 

Jacob Elyachar: It has been five years since you have auditioned for America’s Got Talent. How has Freckled Sky grown since you appeared on the Radio City Music Hall stage?

Freckled Sky: In 2015, our core team consists of seven people, and we invited two dancers to collaborate with us. Today, our core team consists of 15 people, and depending on the difficulty of the project; it can grow to 60 people. Since our performance on AGT in 2015, live shows by Freckled Sky have been seen on five continents, in tens of countries around the world. We opened the new Panama Canal, did P!nk’s show at the Brit Awards, participated in creating Paula Abdul’s tour, created shows for James Arthur and Lil Yachty. We have worked on several musicals and developed a full ballet show.

Jacob Elyachar: What was your reaction when then judge Howard Stern pressed the Golden Buzzer during your first audition?

Freckled Sky: The number “Another World” that we created for the Season 10 audition was extremely technically challenging. Nobody in the world had done an interactive performance with projection onto a water screen before us. A thousand nuances had to be taken into consideration, and each was critical. We needed to correctly calibrate the projection on the water screen to create the effect of a hologram and heat the water to the required temperature with the help of a water heating system we had just developed. We also had to polish up choreography in a slippery dancing pool, nail all the interactive effects, etc. The night before our performance, about a hundred stage crew workers set up our entire complicated water system for several hours, under the leadership of our technical director and Val in the Dolby Theatre. We worried terribly about everything working out as we had planned and whether we would have enough time to debug and rehearse everything.

When the set up was finished, it was almost 1:00 AM. We had several minutes left until the Dolby Theatre closed to run through our number, with full setup, just once. The lights went down in the house. All 100 members of the stage crew took their seats in the audience. It got tranquil – everyone held their breath. Because this was the exact moment when it would become clear whether all this would work or not. As soon as our two-minute number finished, the stage crew stood up as one and loudly applauded us for several minutes. These people worked for years in the Dolby Theatre. At this moment, we understood that everything had operated and that we had created something extraordinary. During the actual performance, Val and an America’s Got Talent producer stood in the wings and counted the dancers’ steps with their breaths held, trying not to make a sound. When Val came out on stage, and Howard pressed the buzzer – we understood that we had created something extraordinary that nobody had done before us.

Jacob Elyachar: What are some of the challenges that you faced creating the choreography? How did the Freckled Sky team overcome those obstacles? 

Freckled Sky: The first most challenging moment in staging the choreography was that the dancers would have to dance in a slippery pool, in water. We tried about 20 different types of shoes, put anything we could find on the soles that would lessen slipping and prevent them from falling. However, Val saw some shoes in a kiosk at the airport, and bought a pair to try on! We ended up using those shoes! The second difficulty was that we needed to stage particular choreography, nail every effect, and all this in the water in a slippery pool. The dancers rehearsed many times in cold water. We realized that something had to be done about this and developed an exclusive water heating system. Dancing got warmer. (Smiles)

Jacob Elyachar: What can my readers expect from your performance on America’s Got Talent: The Champions?

Freckled Sky: We can for sure say that it will be an emotional, inspirational story and that it will have lots of magic!

Jacob Elyachar: If Freckled Sky had the opportunity to meet with aspiring dance troupes who want to audition for America’s Got Talent, what advice would you share with them? 

Freckled Sky: We are not a dance collective. We are a creative team that creates new forms of entertainment using modern technologies. We would recommend to all participants, including dancers, to try and look at their new pieces from a new angle to create something never before seen.

 For more information about Freckled Sky, visit their website.

You can also connect with them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube channels.

Freckled Sky is not the only America’s Got Talent: The Champions-Season Two participants I interviewed. Check out my conversations with Ryan Niemiller, Jack Vidgen, and Hans!