Today we’d like to introduce you to James Matthew Johnson.
James Matthew, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in Sammamish, Washington, a small town east of Seattle. I spent a lot of my childhood playing soccer and video games until I found myself attending an alternative art school where I discovered dance. The school kinda just let me dip my toes in the water and from there, I searched out a local studio before moving on to a bigger studio in Seattle.
After graduating high school, I took a couple of years to try being an adult, partially by dancing in a Drag Show in Seattle, and partially taking all the classes and creative opportunities I could as a means of therapy. On my 20th birthday, I reached out on a limb and auditioned for a performing arts college (and wrote my essay on a drag queen) and surprised myself by making it in. I never actually had the faith that I could make a career in the arts until I found that out.
So I moved to LA and trained hard while working enough to be able to afford food and gas for my car. After graduation, I’ve continued training while teaching with one of my best friends as well as choreographing for my roommate’s production company. Though, to be honest, I really feel like I haven’t started my career yet and I’m working on changing that once public performances and dance studios open back up.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Everything I said in the first question of my interview is entirely true, however, it doesn’t cover a lot of the story. Everything good I’ve found in my life has been a direct result of a challenge I’ve had to overcome.
I began being bullied for being feminine at a young age. The only definition I knew of being gay was “to be happy in a bad way” and had to have it explained to me what people meant when they were calling me a faggot. Once I hit junior high, the bullying got bad enough that I decided to switch to my only other option: the art school where I discovered dance.
Things looked brighter for the next couple of years until I hit my junior year of high school. I started fighting with the reality of my sexual identity at the same time that my parents began a really ugly divorce. My grades suffered and as a result, I went from being one of the brightest students to not being accepted into any of the schools I had hoped and planned for. I spent the next two years in a very deep depression, at one point being hospitalized because my body just kinda gave up for a bit and couldn’t fight off an infection that only affects babies and the elderly. However, through all of this I got the message from my parents “We don’t care what school you go to, just go to college.” So I auditioned for a performing arts school in Los Angeles and somehow made it in.
My dreams of what college was going to be was quickly dampened. Once I got there, it was very clear that I was a talented hip hop dancer in a program that viewed my talents as a sideshow and valued anything that came from ballet as true art. Everyone around me had been dancing since they were three and I had only been at it for five years. I trained hard, but the crushing feeling of inadequacy eventually led me to begin a meth addiction. For the last year of college, I lived a double life. All of my struggles during the day fed the meth filled adventures I would have at night to try and forget the pain I felt during the day. Each life fueled the other, the more meth and less sleep I got directly related to the difficulty I’d have the next day which gave me more pain I needed to cover up the next night. I’m not entirely sure how I made it to graduation. On my last day of school, I sobbed uncontrollably because I felt like I had ruined the opportunity I had been looking forward to my entire life. I hid in empty classrooms to try and hide it. I walked at graduation, but I’ve kept it a secret from most everyone that I’m about three credits away from actually achieving a degree.
I had plans to go back to school, take one class, and finish up, but during my family’s trip down to visit they dug through my room and discovered my meth addiction. As a result, they cut off all financial help and I was homeless before the week was over. I spent three years hopping from the streets to living in drug dens to staying at some incredibly abusive sober homes. It wasn’t until a couple of my old friends from college offered me a place to stay on their couch did I ever really start finding stability. While getting my life together on their couch, they trusted me to be the choreographer for their production company.
Fast forward to today, one of my roommates moved out so I have my own room, I have a stable job, and I still teach dance once a week with one of my best friends. I’m waiting for the world to reopen so that I can finally start my career in dance, but I’m trying my best to prepare for that day while honing my self-care routine to make sure I keep the progress I’ve made for myself.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
As someone who started late in the dance world, I had to quickly find out what my strengths are and what makes me valid as a professional artist. After a few years of searching, I’ve found out what that is.
Most of my experience is in Hip Hop though I’m decently well versed in most all styles. I may not always be the best dancer in the room, but I always make sure that I’m the smartest dancer in the room. I understand how dance exists as a form of applied anatomy and physics as well as how our brains learn movement and translate it to memory. I’m quick to understand what a choreographer wants from me and from college, I’ve learned that I’m good at helping translate between different worlds of dance. Feeling like I existed between two worlds for most of my dance career actually turned out to be one of my best strengths later on.
As a choreographer, most of my experience has been as an assistant. I work with a choreographer who very often has a large vision of what he wants and it’s my job to help him make it happen. Similarly, as lead choreographer on musicals, I’ve learned that I love to be given many restrictions and parameters and figure out how to best make it work. It’s like MacGyver-ing art from a paper clip, a piece of string, and a wad of bubble gum.
Though with all of that said, what I’m most proud of in my career is my students. I genuinely don’t experience excitement in my life like I do when I see a true moment of realization when a student understands a new concept and I can see the wheels start turning in their heads.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success is just having a chance to actually do what I love. I don’t feel like I need to be the best in the industry or the more adored, I just want to be able to make a living either dancing or creating dance.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @JamesMattJohn
Image Credit:
Tony Zimbardi
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