Today we’d like to introduce you to Joya Jackson.
Joya, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been dancing since I came out of the womb. Performing has always been my thing. Every holiday my family would get together and I would just always have to perform for them. Finally at the age of 8 or 9, my mother put me in a dance studio. I was technically trained up until the age of 13 and that’s when I discovered the dance industry via Simrin Player dancing in Justin Bieber’s “Somebody to Love” video. That’s when I found out about dance agents, major choreographers working in the industry, and so on. My mom & dad then took me to several cities where dance conventions such as The Pulse, Monsters of Hip Hop, and others would take place so I could learn from these major choreographers.
At 15, my parents and I packed up our home in Michigan and moved to LA. I started my first semester as a sophomore at Burbank High, but due to my career I had to homeschool second semester & for the rest of my high school life. I would be taking classes up and down at Millennium, Movement Lifestyle, and the Edge. Spring of 2017, I saw a tweet from Khalid and he was looking for dancers/cheerleaders to go on his first tour, American Teen. There are SO many people on twitter that I already had set in my mind he wasn’t going to see me. Tweeted him a video of me dancing in class and went about my day. The next day he liked my tweet, followed me, and dm’d me “You’re so dope”. That led to me landing my first big job, touring with Khalid at the age of 17. Touring with Khalid allowed me to see the world for a year and a half.
Within that time I also worked with Cardi B, Hollister, and Paramount’s “Lip Sync Battle”. Top of 2019, I began touring with Normani as an opener for Ariana Grande’s “Sweetener Tour” which then led to doing numerous shows with Normani throughout the year. Worked for Rihanna in her second Savage X Fenty show. Landed my first commercial end of 2019 with Pepsi for the SuperBowl and was blessed enough to work with Ariana for my second Grammy’s in January of 2020. And in the midst of this pandemic, I’ve been so so blessed to still work with artists such as Snoh Aalegra, Josh Levi, Grouptherapy., and SZA. So thankful for the many choreographers that have taken care of me, looked out for me, and pushed me to level up such as Tanisha Scott, Sean Bankhead, Ava Bernstein-Mitchell, Parris Goebel, Soraya Lundy, Charm, Brian & Scott Nicholson, and more.
Has it been a smooth road?
Working in this industry and growing up in it was so hard for me. My body was fully developed by the time I was 16. I couldn’t work as an adult because I was 16, but I couldn’t work as a kid because my body was so developed. And being black makes everything 10x harder. I was bullied at Burbank High from being on the dance team, some of those girls were not nice at all. That made the transition hard, I was so used to my hometown friends and everyone being cool with each other.
What do you specialize in?
Professional dancer, creator.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What I like most about LA is there’s always something to do, always somewhere to go. You can do something new everyday here. What I like the least about LA is the traffic and some of the food here is not top tier.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 8185090121
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @joyajacks0n
Image Credit:
Blair Caldwell, onehispanic
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