by Jeroslyn JoVonn
April 15, 2024
He is labored with everybody from Cardi B. to Lil Nas X.
The seven-time VMA-nominated choreographer Sean Bankhead stopped by BLACK ENTERPRISE‘s The Tradition Shift to share how he’s reshaping the pop music trade one dance routine at a time.
Celebrated amongst at present’s pop music fanatics because the mastermind behind viral music movies like Normani’s “Wild Aspect,” Cardi B’s “Up,” Lil Nas X’s “Business Child,” and Victoria Monet’s “On My Mama,” Bankhead has been busy behind the scenes serving to to convey out the most effective in a few of at present’s largest musical acts.
Born in Philadelphia, however raised in Atlanta, Bankhead credit his father’s job relocation to “the A” for serving to to introduce him to a metropolis whose tradition set the groundwork for his thriving leisure profession. From “emulating” the dance routines in music movies as a toddler, dancing at Atlanta’s famed Dance 411 Studios, and receiving mentorship from the famend Fatima Robinson, Bankhead was destined to make it as a dancer/choreographer, even when he didn’t suppose it was attainable.
“There was by no means a second after I was like, ‘I wish to be a dancer, I’m going to be a choreographer,’” he tells BLACK ENTERPRISE. “I simply saved getting extra alternatives to bop and choreograph.
“I feel after I bought to Atlanta and began working at Dance 411 Studios, I feel there turned a imaginative and prescient and like a transparent pathway that I might do that. I might make cash. I might make a reputation for myself.”
He began as a background dancer in Tiffany Evans’ “Promise Ring” and the moved on to dancing with Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Missy Elliott. By 2014, Bankhead earned his first VMA nomination when he choreographed Fifth Concord’s “Down.” His work with the group led him to satisfy his “muse” Normani with whom he helmed viral dances for her singles Motivation,” “Dancing with a Stranger” (with Sam Smith), and “Wild Aspect” (that includes Cardi B).
Bankhead mentioned being nominated for a number of VMAs however not successful one, the significance of artist improvement for reside performances, and the way “humbling” it was to take off his choreographer hat to function one of many dancers in Usher’s 2024 Tremendous Bowl halftime present.
“I feel loads of instances individuals are afraid to dream huge as a result of they don’t actually know the way they’re going to get there,” he mentioned. “However have that dream and God will care for the remaining.”
Performing with Usher on the Tremendous Bowl was a “full circle” second for Bankhead, “as a result of after I was about 19, 20 years outdated I got here this near happening tour with him,” he shares. He ended up getting reduce and it crushed him on the time.
“God’s timing is all the things and I really know being nearly on this trade for 20 years. Keep targeted, have imaginative and prescient, be diligent, work onerous, and all the things that’s imagined to occur for you’ll,” Bankhead says.
Press play under for the total interview and to study Sean Bankhead’s favourite dance routine and what he has deliberate for the remainder of 2024.
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