Featured in two of the past year’s most viral music videos—Jungle’s “Back On 74” and Ariana Grande’s “yes, and?”—Will West transitions seamlessly, sometimes instantly, from style to style. He can accelerate from total stillness to a full flare in a split second, then downshift to a Fosse frug before coolly strolling out of frame. The young Brit spoke with Dance Magazine while shooting a Verizon commercial in Mexico City before continuing south to another gig, in Santiago, Chile. Part of the live-action remake of Disney’s Alladin in 2019, West returns to the big screen this fall as a dancer and stunt performer in Wicked, which stars Grande as Glinda.

Even a glance at Kyle Hanagami’s resumé is enough to leave you short of breath. The 37-year-old choreographer has worked with everyone from Jennifer Lopez to Alicia Keys to Ariana Grande to BLACKPINK. He created the dances for this year’s box-office smash “Mean Girls.” And he’s amassed nearly 8 million followers and more than a billion video views on his social media accounts.

When Jaxon Willard dances, he soars through the air and glides along the floor, and his transitions are equal parts surprising and seamless. Willard’s flexibility, strength, and raw passion allow him to layer a spectrum of aesthetics, from expansive and powerful to graceful and soft.

Few commercial dancers have had an impact as broad and sudden as Jordan Laza’s. In 2021, her profile skyrocketed after she performed Nicole Kirkland’s choreography to Chris Brown’s “Under the Influence” in a viral class video, moving with such authority as to make Brown, seated, appear a supporting act.

Touring with a major recording artist is at the top of most commercial dancers’ bucket lists. What could be more exciting than getting paid to dance, travel the world and work with mega-talented celebrity musicians? It looks glamorous, but most dancers don’t actually know what the job truly entails until they’ve booked it. Is it as […]

“Choreographers are really the bastard kids of the industry,” he says. “We don’t have the respect that should be on our names based on the value we bring to a project, especially those of us who are Black and brown.” Earning choreographers that respect, he realized, would require forcing the industry to recognize their work’s value. And copyright—the establishment of legal ownership—would be his crowbar. 

Growing up, commercial dancer and choreographer Janelle Ginestra loved watching her Grandma Betty cook. “She’s a 4′ 11″, adorable little Mexican woman, and would always cook us tortas and Mexican food,” Ginestra says. Her favorite of her grandma’s dishes is enchilada pie. “I’m half Italian and half Latin, so I always loved that it was […]

At the last KCON New York, a convention for South Korean pop music and culture, one of the most popular events didn’t include any K-pop stars. Instead, when the music started and the room erupted into ecstatic cheering, it was the fans themselves who stepped forward to perform—swaying their hips, twirling their arms and waving […]