Meet Hannah Johnson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Johnson.

Hannah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in Chanhassen, Minnesota and I started dancing when I was five years old. When I was young I dabbled in gymnastics and softball but always came back to dance. I didn’t start getting serious about dance until I switched to my home studio Dance Arts Centre. From there I knew I wanted to dance after high school and I thought it was going to be dancing for the University of Minnesota Dance Team. I had it all mapped out, how many seniors were graduating when I was trying out, what skills I needed to master, etc. It wasn’t until my mentor Chelsea Jennings, metaphorically slapped the back of my head and said “Hannah I know you can do so much more, you are going to move out to LA and become a professional dancer.” I went home that night, my head spinning from this major change of course and went right up to my mom and said, “I think I’m going to move out to California after highschool”, she of course brushed it off and said “We will talk about it in the morning”. 

For me that was the moment my eyes opened, I researched the dance community in LA and made having a profession in dance my obsession. It was at that point that I decided to take my high school education online. Junior year I did the second half of my school day online so I could get to the dance studio sooner, and my senior year I was completely online with a community college earning college credits and still getting to the studio in the early afternoon. While I wasn’t very involved with my high school, I was with my dance studio. I captained my dance team, The Xtreme Team, and the studio ballet company, La Danse Fatale, my senior year, as well as assisted at the studio for several years. This wasn’t the traditional high school experience, but for me it was the right one. Switching to online school gave me the independence I needed to flourish as a person. I had grown up as sort of a follower within my social cliques, and not really knowing myself. Stepping out of that and being on my own made me look hard at who I am and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. 

From there I graduated from high school and moved out to LA to attend The American Musical Dramatics Academy in the Dance Theatre Conservatory Program. This is basically a fast-tracked version of the BFA program, 4 packed semesters instead of 8.  My time at AMDA was amazing. I made best friends for life as well as lasting connections with professors, while gaining heaps of knowledge about the industry. When first coming to AMDA I thought I wanted to be a contemporary dancer and be in a contemporary company. I always had a love for musical theatre and jazz, but my main focus at the studio had been in contemporary so it seemed like the logical career move. That quickly changed when I was introduced to heels class. Summer of 2017 I was in Stephanie Landwehr’s heels technique class and I have never loved a class so much. She taught us how walk, bevel, move our hips and so much more. I had never fallen in love with a style so quickly. Dancing in heels makes me feel strong and powerful, and womanly, and my career has definitely thrived because of the confidence I now have while wearing a heel. Once booking the commercial dance show during my final semester at AMDA, which included hiphop, heels, and contemporary jazz I knew that this was my new path. 

I went straight through all four semesters in school including the summer so I finished in just a little over a year. I signed with Bloc a few days after my senior show and have been dancing in LA ever since! I continued my training after school. I was a part of Dana Foglia’s 3-Month Mentorship program the summer of 2018 as well as her 6-Week Training program in spring of 2019, and let me say that is some of the hardest most influential training I have ever had!

Since signing with Bloc I have had the pleasure of being in music videos for The Smashing Pumpkins, Rhye, Kieza, Naomi Wild and Swedish Jam Factory, as well as appearing in the Gucci Spring/Summer 2019 promo and as an assistant choreographer on The Good Place on NBC. It’s not the largest job I’ve ever done but my most influential job thus far has to be Cherry Boom Boom. I started dancing as a swing with Cherry Boom Boom in March of 2019, I came in as the youngest and most green of the cast. Nothing teaches you more about the show and your mental capacity than being a swing. I immediately learned all the numbers when I could and got the opportunity to perform in several shows in LA and was offered to be part of the A cast in their residency in Las Vegas! I performed with Cherry Boom Boom three nights a week for five months straight and continue to work with Lindsley Allen and Cherry Boom Boom today!

Has it been a smooth road?
The road has been mostly smooth! It definitely took some convincing to get my dad on board with me moving out to LA, and school was very strenuous, but in the end, it made me stronger. One of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with is learning to accept that people back home don’t necessarily understand what I do, or think that having a professional dance career is a worthwhile profession. When I decided I wanted to go to school for dance and picked AMDA, a school that nobody knew about, it was hard to smile in the face of the judgment I was receiving. Similarly, when I started dancing with Cherry Boom Boom and other burlesque shows, I got a lot of very judgmental comments thrown my way from people who just don’t understand what we are doing and just see it as scandalous. When in fact we are strong, empowered women who are telling a story through dance. 

Here is a crazy story for you! It’s my second show ever with Cherry Boom Boom and we are almost halfway through the show when one of the girls falls doing a trick on the bar. She was alright but, unable to finish the show. My boss/director Lindsley Allen and co-director Lisa Eaton come back during intermission and are trying to work out what to do formation wise with each of the remaining numbers. With only 5 minutes left before the show resumes, one of the girls says “Hannah can do it, I saw her practicing in the back today during rehearsal”, all eyes turn to me, I’m shocked but say “yes I can do it”. At this point my mind is scrambling, I had never actually been taught those numbers, I had just been learning by watching/videoing them earlier that very day. The show starts back up and I am now doing every single number in the second half of the show, excluding a couple solo numbers. I step up to the plate and deliver the numbers without a problem! And the best part is that my best friends were in the audience and they had no idea that I was just thrown into those numbers with no rehearsal. I have to admit that that was the proudest I have ever been in myself.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I would consider myself a diverse performer and a storyteller. I first realized that I loved to tell a story through dance when I was 9 years old and we were practicing our “lyrical faces” in the mirror before our competition the next day. My dance teacher complimented me on my expression and asked me to tell the other girls what I was doing with my face so they could copy. I told her I was simply thinking about the song and what it was saying. That song was “Believe” from The Polar Express, but we all start somewhere right? 

My love for performing and storytelling continued as I became a member in my ballet teacher, Julia Levina’s ballet company, La Danse Fatale. Ms.Julia dedicated her company to train in storytelling. Every year she comes up with a new story to tell through ballet. Ms. Julia took a special interest in the dancers who were just as focused on portraying the story with their emotions as well as their technique. She taught me so much about how to embody the character and really give your emotion to the audience as well as connecting with your partner. My favorite role that I played was my senior year, I was Aphrodite and I had a magical golden apple. I was regal and mature while also being playful and deceitful. That company and training will always hold a special place in my heart. I will never forget Ms. Julia holding me back after rehearsal one day telling me that my future is so bright, and that she is so proud of me and the performer I have become. Also that I should get into acting because “I have the right face for it” hah! Hearing her believe in me so much motivated me and still  motivates me to this day. Thank you, Ms. Julia, for all of your guidance throughout the years, you are truly amazing. 

Currently, during this pandemic 2020, my main focus is on connections. While I continue to dance and train as much as I can, I am finding it really important to strengthen the relationships with my friends and loved ones during this time. So often pre-pandemic I would be so busy or focused on class and auditions that I didn’t have the opportunity to call my distant friends as much, or to connect with acquaintances I wanted to get to know better and this has really given me the time to do that. I am also starting to dabble into creating my own movement and choreography. This is something that is very new to me and it is scary and exciting all at the same time!

Also I am performing with Cherry Boom Boom in virtual live shows! The next one is September 18th! www.Cherryboomboom.com 

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I always had a feeling that I was going to live in California, even at a very early age. Whenever people would ask me where I wanted to live when I grew up I would always say California. There was always an allure there even though I couldn’t place it. Crazy enough, over quarantine my mom and I were looking through old boxes of grade school papers and we found a drawing I had made in 3rd grade, it was a slug bug car in front of the Hollywood sign and it read, “When I grow up I am going to go to college in California!” It came true to the absolute T and that feels like destiny to me. 

I love how beautiful California is. There are so many times when I am stuck in traffic and I am just listening to my music and admiring how beautiful California is. What I love about Los Angeles is just the sheer amount of creative energy that is around. Especially during this pandemic, I have seen my friends who previously, were very very focused on dance, who are now making youtube channels, blogs and small businesses and I think that is the coolest part about the creative community in LA. At this point in time I do belive that I will be in California for the rest of my life. 

What I like least about LA is how crowded it is. Growing up in Minnesota I could go for a walk or go to a park and be alone, but in LA there is hardly a place outdoors to go where you can truly be by yourself. I hope when I am older and have my own little house in LA somewhere and I can create a little backyard sanctuary for myself and have that be the place that grounds me each day. 

Contact Info:

• Email: JohnsonHannahM6@gmail.com
• Instagram: @hanntann6
• Twitter: @hanntann6

Image Credit:
Alyssa Park @aparkgraphics, Garage 26 @garage26la

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