Musa A. Cooper is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 dancer and fitness model

Model (person)

A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 who has had several television appearances, and is best known for being featured on both of the initial two seasons of the popular televised dance competition So You Think You Can Dance.

Life

Cooper was raised in Camden

Camden, New Jersey

The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. He attended Lenape High School

Lenape High School

Lenape High School is a four-year regional public high school located in Medford Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. It is the oldest of the four high schools that comprise the Lenape Regional High School District, which serves students from Evesham Township, Medford Lakes,...

, where he was a track star in the 1990s, and also known for exuberant gymnastic dancing moves, such as doing back-flips at pep rallies. He was a member of the school's first State relay championship team in 1997, and had experience as a hurdler, sprinter, and high jumper.http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-07092006-681192.html A dancer from a young age, Cooper specialized in hip-hop and b-boying

B-boying

B-boying, often called "breakdancing", is a popular style of street dance that was created and developed as part of hip-hop culture among African Americans and Latino youths in New York City. The dance consists of four primary elements: toprock, downrock, power moves and freezes...

 styles, then studying more rhythmic dances when he reached his early teens.

Cooper was a performer for Beyoncé Knowles

Beyoncé Knowles

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...

 at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards

MTV Video Music Awards

An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...

, and has made cameo appearances on other television programs, such as Sex in the City.http://web.mac.com/podworkouts/iWeb/hottieworkouts/musa.html ] In 2005, he appeared in the short film, It's Fun to Help Poor People, Franny Canada.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469923/ (video) Also in 2005, he was one of the first people to audition for the first season of So You Think You Can Dance. He was prominently featured in the first few episodes, and though he impressed the judges with his unique dance style, he did not make the final cut. In 2006, he tried again at the New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 auditions, and had improved so much, and had sufficient quantity of unique moves, that he was passed through to the Las Vegas

Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

 auditions and eventually into the finals. He proceeded to the top 12, but was eliminated on July 13, 2006. His assigned dance partner had been Natalie Fotopoulos, who went on to become one of the top 6 finalists before herself being eliminated.

Cooper is married, and lives in Camden, New Jersey, where he works as a professional dancer.

External links

• Musa Cooper's MySpace
• People watch, Dallas Fort-Worth Star-Telegram, July 14, 2006
• 'Dance' fever, July 2006, Baltimore Sun reporter blog