A man on the move

"Show your game!" Jennifer Lopez dares Kenny Wormald and his fellow crush of dancers as they start to duel on the dance floor.

For Wormald, it's just another audition in Los Angeles, and he does what he's always done since learning to bust a move in Stoughton.

He glides with the ease of Michael Jackson and pirouettes like a human dreidel before he slyly slips his photo and bio to J.Lo, who is looking for a few good dancers during this MTV-taped audition. The whole time, Wormald wears a black Red Sox cap tilted to the side.

To his friends and former instructors back in the Bay State, it was no surprise that Wormald, a dance wonder since age 6, won the audition as well as a recurring role on the new MTV reality show, "Dancelife ." The documentary-style show, which premiered last month and is produced by Lopez, follows six young dancers as they sweat, struggle, and sometimes succeed in the grueling and competitive world of professional dance.

The eight-episode series shows the dancers auditioning for spots in videos and tours for Nelly Furtado, Mary J. Blige, Ashlee Simpson, Omarion, and Lopez. It's "The Real World" of professional dancers, and Wormald -- with his familiar Boston accent and high-energy ballet-hip-hop steps -- is one of the standouts.

"There is something about dancing and moving and music that I have always loved," says Wormald, catching his breath after auditioning for an upcoming Christina Aguilera video in Los Angeles. "I'm getting to do what I love for a living."

Wormald got the Aguilera job, and he hopes the MTV show will bring more opportunities for a career that got its jump-start when he was still in his childhood bedroom. He recalls learning to imitate the moves of Michael Jackson and New Kids on the Block while watching their videos.

"I was a real hyper kid," says Wormald, who played baseball and football at Stoughton High School. "I would feel the music."

To help focus his competitive energy, his mother enrolled him in Brockton's Sherry Gold Dance Studio at age 6. He learned acrobatics, ballet, tap, jazz, and modern dance during his 10 years there.

"My close friends would give me [grief] when I had to miss football practice because of ballet," he says. "It was a happy medium. I still played sports when I danced."

Dancing took him far, Wormald says, even to the White House. At age 10, he was tapped as one of several local young dancers to perform for President Clinton during the 1995 Easter Egg hunt on the White House lawn. Wormald's moves also won him a gold medal in tap at the World Dance Championships in Riesa, Germany.

He excelled in the various dance styles, from hip-hop to jazz in the Brockton dance studio, and it's a combination he performs with grace and spunk in the MTV series.

"It all comes together in what he does now," says Rennie Gold , Wormald's former dance instructor who is watching him every Monday night on the MTV show "It's what makes him a strong dancer now, the variety of training. We're really proud of him."

After graduating from Stoughton High, Wormald and his fellow dancer buddy Nick Baga of Randolph moved to Los Angeles to try to make it as professional dancers. Wormald immediately landed a role as a dancer for an episode of "The Drew Carey Show." Wormald later found work performing in videos for Madonna's "American Life" and Mariah Carey's "It's Like That." Last year, he danced with Furtado on NBC's "Saturday Night Live." That performance will be featured in an upcoming episode of the MTV dance series. Another episode will feature him dancing with Lopez in New York,

"He's an amazing kid," says Rod Aissa , one of the executive producers of the MTV show who handpicked Wormald for the show, with Lopez's blessing. "Everyone across the board said 'yes' to Kenny. You see Kenny really go for it. Here is this kid from Boston trying to go out there and make it. If you asked him if he would want to do anything else, he wouldn't have another answer for you. You see his passion."

Wormald brings that passion to the stage when he performs with his idol, Justin Timberlake, on the pop star's tour, which comes to the TD Banknorth Garden tomorrow. When he's not dancing or dabbling with producing tracks, Wormald also tries to squeeze in time to spend with girlfriend, Ashley Roberts of the pop group Pussycat Dolls.

But Wormald says he hasn't forgotten where he learned to tap his feet. He took the MTV camera crews to his old Brockton dance studio last year to teach local kids some hip-hop moves. That episode will air next month.

Wormald hopes other young dancers may be inspired by watching him and his five fellow dancers endure the ups and downs of dance life in Los Angeles.

"I want people to enjoy the show and that you can really do what you want to do," he says. "If you put your effort, time , and talent into something, you can go far in life. I've worked my whole life for this."

Johnny Diaz can be reached at jodiaz@globe.com