Michael Jackson picks 12 dancers from X Factor style comp

Michael Jackson's representatives have denied the star has skin cancer and will perform his sell-out London shows as scheduled. Jackson is set to play to 750,000 fans at the O2 Arena during 50 concerts beginning on July 8 and ending on February 24, 2010. Randy Phillips, the president and boss of AEG Live, said: "As usual, Michael Jackson is a magnet for preposterous and unverifiable stories in the media. "He is in great health, working tirelessly on creating the greatest live performance of his career, and does not have skin cancer." Meanwhile, Jackson has whittled down thousands of dancers to just 12 to join him on stage. Of the 5,000 hopefuls who applied, 500 were invited to fly in from around the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and South America for three days of knock-out auditions at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. They were put through their paces on stage, to test their strength, skill, style, creativity, fitness, commitment and execution and Jackson himself selected the final 12 alongside show director Kenny Ortega and associate director and choreographer Travis Payne. Eight of the contestants are from the US - Charles Kapow, Ricardo Reid, Tyne Stecklein, Misha Hamilton, Mekia Cox, Nicholas Base, Danielle Rueda-Watts and Christopher Grant. They will be joined by Germany's Timor Steffens, Australian Shannon Holtzapffel and Canadians Daniel Celbre and Devin Jamieson.

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ITN | May 19, 2009

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