"Left Shark" reveals himself, revisits Katy Perry’s Super Bowl performance
The man behind "Left Shark," the breakout star of 2015's Super Bowl, has revealed himself. In a column in the Washington Post, Bryan Gaw, who was Katy Perry's backup dancer for five years, opened up about his "moment" and confessed that Left Shark's rogue moves were not missteps.
Gaw, who has since quit dancing and is now a hair stylist, said he and his fellow dancers rehearsed the moves for Perry's halftime show for "a month, five or six days a week, eight to 10 hours a day." But he also added that a little improvisation was part of the gig, calling the moves that made him famous "nothing unusual."
Gaw also said that Perry enjoyed the "Left Shark" moment, and he continued to dance for her through the rest of 2015.
In his column in the Post, Gaw explained, "Improvisation is part our job: We perform the choreography, but we're also supposed to fill in the gaps. If I'm instructed to go from one side of the stage to the other, I don't just walk across like I'm shopping at the mall. I was a big shark. I had to be a big shark. That's what separates a dancer and a performing artist — the ability to fill in those gaps and to interpret the work."
He told NPR that he was playing a character: "I'm in a 7-foot blue shark costume. There's no cool in that. So what's the other option? Well, I'm gonna play a different character."
He added that he only improvised those moves for "four or five counts." He called the performance "a gift."
Gaw also told NPR that he lists "Left Shark" on his resume.