PARRIS GOEBEL TEACHES CREATIVITY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FROM THE TOP routines and her distinctive chore- ography style. One of her videos—an PARRIS, expressive piece set to the song “I’d Rather Go Blind” by 1960s soul diva Etta James—even caught the eye of ’ Jennifer Lopez, who called and asked JE TAIME a then-20-year-old Parris to choreo- graph an upcoming world tour for All hail Parris Goebel, queen of the Palace Dance her. Parris saw her shot and took it. Studio, social media sensation, and pop music’s “After that, it was so surreal: Artist most sought-after choreographer after artist kept calling,” Goebel told DanceSpirit. She went on to choreo- graph live shows for Janet Jackson, t last count, the music didn’t take. It wasn’t until she joined Pitbull, Ariana Grande, and Enrique video for Justin Bieber’s her first hip-hop studio, at the age of Iglesias, and she shot videos with boppy 2015 hit “Sorry” 13, that everything clicked. “I knew stars like SZA and Nicki Minaj. A had more than 3.3 billion that it was something that I wanted to Parris and her various crews (see views on YouTube. It’s do for the rest of my life,” she says. page 9) have redefined the look and the most popular clip from the site’s most popular solo musician. And Bieber isn’t even in it. What the video does have is Parris Goebel, who was responsible for its “ IT’S ABOUT LOOKING AT YOURSELF AND concept, choreography, and direc- tion (three skills she applied to the THINKING, ‘WHAT MAKES ME UNIQUE? videos for every other song off Bie- WHAT MAKES ME DIFFERENT TO EVERYONE ber’s 2015 album, Purpose). By then, Parris had emerged as pop music’s ELSE IN THIS INDUSTRY?’ ” most reliable behind-the-scenes powerhouse, a visionary choreogra- pher and dancer whose fierce style and routines have been seen in sold- Dance consumed Parris’s movement of pop music, on stage out arenas, buzzworthy awards show thoughts. By 15, she was discontent and on camera, around the world. performances, and viral videos. The and struggling in school. Encouraged Her moves have backed massive “Sorry” video only confirmed what by her father, Parris decided to roll cultural moments, from Rihanna’s the industry already knew: Whatev- the dice: She dropped out to focus on innovative Savage x FENTY fashion er Parris touches turns to gold—or dancing, and she started by forming shows (available on Amazon Prime) double platinum. an all-female hip-hop crew called to J.Lo’s 2020 Super Bowl halftime Her backstory is just as remark- ReQuest with four friends. In 2009, performance with Shakira. She’s able. Parris grew up in Auckland, they qualified for the World Hip Hop also scored an Emmy nomination, New Zealand, a Samoan kid ob- competition for the first time and left published an autobiography, fronted sessed with dance and perfor- with a gold medal under their belts. a MAC beauty campaign, and been mance. She would entertain family ReQuest’s success propelled Parris tapped to direct her first feature (and visitors) by forcing them to sit and her father to open the Palace film, Murder on the Dance Floor—all through routine after routine. “I knew Dance Studio, an Auckland-based before her 30th birthday. “Whatever at a really young age that this is what hip-hop company, that same year. you’re curious about,” she says, “dive I was born to do,” she says. Parris was only 17 years old. into it, understand it, then rip it apart. But when her parents enrolled her With the help of YouTube, Parris Dance changes the world. You can in a classical dance class, the lessons was able to document her crew’s change the world.” 1 BY THE NUMBERS A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHOREOGRAPHY For as long as humans have walked, they’ve busted a move—which means dance has a long and storied history. Here’s a quick overview of one of our oldest pastimes The age of the cave paintings at the Bhimbetka rock shelters in India, which feature the oldest-known depiction of dance. The year Martha Graham, the godmother of The median hourly modern dance, wage for choreogra- was born. phers in the U.S. The first time a formal choreography credit was listed in a program billing: George Bal- anchine, for the Broadway show On Your Toes. (Billings previously read "dances staged by.") 3 The decade that break- dancing, the earliest form of hip-hop, became a way for several rival gangs in the The decade when the word choreography first appeared in an American English dictionary, Bronx to settle originating from the Greek words χορεία (circular dance) and γραφή (writing). disputes. The year Thoinot Arbeau, a French cleric and writer, published Or- The number of people who performed “Hard Knock Life” chésographie. This meticulously The year from the musical Annie in order to set a 2013 Guinness detailed instruction book now choreographer World Record for the largest song and dance routine. serves as a major historical record Bob Fosse was Was it serendipity or stellar planning that resulted in the for 16th-century dances. born. Fosse group’s size coinciding with what are likely the four most took what was common numbers in dance? We may never know. perceived as a flaw—his slouch—and made it his en- The number of people who follow tire style, which Parris on Instagram.* completely changed how Parris saw dance. Fosse went on to cre- The year Raoul-Auger Feuillet, a French dancing master ate smashes and choreographer, published Chorégraphie ou l’art de like Damn Yan- décrire la danse. The landmark text uses written symbols, kees, Chicago, otherwise known as dance notation, as a way to describe Pippin, and various movements. Cabaret. The number of gold medals Parris’s The number of YouTube views for dance crews have won at the World Justin Bieber’s 2015 hit “Sorry.”* Hip Hop Dance Championship. *As of this publication 4 CENTER STAGE Pearl Primus WOMEN A New Yorker by way of of Rivers” by Langston Trinidad, Pearl Primus Hughes, and she devel- studied under Martha oped a piece based on Graham and other nota- “Strange Fruit,” the famed OF THE ble modern dance teach- Lewis Allen poem about ers of the era. In 1946, she a lynching. Extensive founded her own dance studies in Central and company, staging perfor- West Africa and the Ca- HOUR mances that incorporated ribbean helped earn her a Parris is part of a long lineage traditional African move- doctorate from New York of female choreographers. ments. Her work often University in 1978, and Get to know some of her most commented on racial she taught at numerous prolific predecessors injustice: Primus’s Broad- universities later in her way debut was a choreo- life. She was bestowed a graphed performance National Medal of the Arts set to “The Negro Speaks in 1991. ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES BARON/HULTON 5 Katherine Dunham Katherine Dunham has been called “the matri- arch and queen moth- er of Black dance” by Debbie scholars. The Chicago Allen Martha native began dancing as a Pina Graham teenager and studied the Bausch In 1964, Texas-raised anthropology of dance Debbie Allen became One of the most influen- in college; during that After studying ballet the first Black dancer tial choreographers in time, she did extensive as a child, Pina Bausch admitted to the Houston history and an avant- fieldwork in Jamaica and entered the realm of Foundation for Ballet. She garde icon of contempo- trained in ballet. She later modern dance when went on to work on Broad- rary dance, Martha Gra- entered into the perfor- she moved to New York way and eventually star in ham aimed to “reveal the mance space, and in the in 1958 to attend the the NBC series Fame, for inner man” through her early 1930s, she formed Juilliard School. She rose which she won a Golden routines. Born in Pitts- Ballets Nègres—one of to prominence during Globe for Best Actress burgh and raised in Santa the earliest Black ballet the 1970s, becoming a in a Musical or Comedy Barbara, she founded her companies in Ameri- leading exponent of the Television Series (the first own company in 1926, ca—which went on to German style Tanztheater Black woman to do so). at the age of 34, in New garner acclaim in the U.S. (“dance theater”). As an Allen won a pair of Emmys York. Her teaching style, and abroad. She also ran artistic director for the for her work on the show, the Graham Technique, the Katherine Dunham Wuppertal Opera ballet, too, and was nominated is now a cornerstone of Dance Company, the only her ambitious, esoter- more than a dozen times American modern dance; self-supported Black ic, and multi-sensory during her run as cho- for 70 years, she used it dance troupe of its time, choreographed pieces— reographer of the Acad- to create artistic motion and choreographed more which combined music, emy Awards televised that spanned the breadth than 90 individual dances, dialogue, and elaborate ceremony. Under Pres- of the culture. In 1976, blending traditions from set designs—became ident George W. Bush, she became the first ballet, Caribbean, and known worldwide. Allen acted as a Cultural choreographer to receive modern dance. Dunham Intrigued? Check out Ambassador of Dance, the Presidential Medal performed on Broadway, Pina (2011), director Wim and since 2001, she’s run of Freedom, and she was in Hollywood, and all over Wenders’s Oscar-nom- the Debbie Allen Dance named “Dancer of the the globe.