Israeli trainer and her dancing dog wow US TV talent show
Roni Sagi and border collie Rhythm win standing ovation for two-minute routine on America’s Got Talent; dog ‘dances better than human dancers we’ve had on,’ says judge Simon Cowell
Roni Sagi, an Israeli dog trainer, and her two-and-a-half year old border collie Rhythm earned a standing ovation for their recent audition to America’s Got Talent, the popular televised talent competition that began its nineteenth season last month.
The human-canine duo performed a two-minute routine to the tune of “California Dreamin'” by pop star Sia, receiving raucous applause from both the live audience and the show’s four celebrity judges.
“When you said your dog can dance, he actually dances better than human dancers we’ve had on,” said Simon Cowell, the British personality who created the show and sits as a judge. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The successful audition— which as of Friday sat as the #8 trending video on YouTube, racking up more than half a million views in just two days— came on the heels of a victory last season by Adrian Stoica and Hurricane, another dog-dancing duo hailing from Turin, Italy. The winner of this year’s competition will receive a $1 million cash prize.
“I love Adrian and Hurricane, [but] this was a step up,” said Cowell. “This is better, it’s energetic, it was like ballet,” agreed comedian Howie Mandel, another judge, adding “I love your dog.”
“I love him too,” Sagi replied.
The trainer, who herself danced for nine years before entering the world of dog dancing, has received accolades in Israeli media before, appearing on the public broadcaster Kan in 2021 during a competition in the Czech Republic, with another dancer of hers, Pesach, also a border collie.
“This sport, like all canine sports, is first and foremost about strengthening the connection between the dog and his owners,” Sagi explained at the time.
“Every dog can dance, that’s one of the great things about this sport because there aren’t any obligatory criteria; I don’t need a dog that can jump two meters, or can work from three meters away from me, but rather I build a choreography that’s fitting for the dog and for me,” she said.
Sagi’s social media presence is mostly composed of rehearsal and performance videos of herself and her five dogs, Pesach, Rhythm, Martha, Bailey, and Blondie, as well as advertisements for her dog dance school, Keta Tov.
But the trainer, who proudly competes under the Israeli flag, has occasionally made reference to the situation at home.
On October 8, a day into Hamas’s terror onslaught in southern Israel, during which thousands of terrorists broke through the Gaza border, killed some 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages, triggering the ongoing war there, Sagi posted an image of an Israeli flag on Instagram with the words, “I stand with Israel.”
In May, shortly after the Eurovision Song Contest, Sagi and Rhythm danced to the song “Hurricane,” Israel’s submission to the song contest, at the International Dog Show in Tel Aviv.
“Dancing with Rhythm to the sound of this song created a tornado of emotions in me,” she wrote. “I was thinking about the hostages, the soldiers, the people who had to leave their homes to escape the situation.
“For the first time in my life, I got so caught up in emotion from the music during a routine that I even forgot to tell Rhythm some of the moves we should make. And while our performance was far from perfect on the technical level, I felt like it was one of the most powerful things I have done,” the post went on.
