Beyonce’ Choreographer Jeffrey Page Signs on as Judge for Nigeria’s Maltina Dance All
MTV Video Music Award Winner & Emmy Nominated Choreographer/Dancer Jeffrey Page has shared his talents with Beyonce’ Knowles, Solange Knowles, Cirque du Soleil, FELA! Alvin Ailey, Fatima Robinson, Debbie Allen, Bill T. Jones and FOX’s SYTYCD – now he’s lending his choreographic material to The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour and signs on as a judge for Maltina Dance All, Nigeria’s version of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ set to air September 2nd.
(Los Angeles, California – July 29, 2013) Jeffrey Page’s talents as a dancer and choreographer have taken him everywhere from Hollywood awards shows to West African villages, producing collaborations with the biggest names in modern dance as well as superstars of pop music. Page received an Emmy nod for his 2005 NAACP Image Award choreography, he took home the 2011 MTV Video Music Award in the category “Best Choreography” for constructing the finale of Beyonce’s internationally inspired epic music video “Run the World (Girls)” and is often credited with giving the multi-platinum diva her African dance flair. Page was recruited as a resident choreographer on FOX’s reality TV sensation ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and currently serves as Creative Director for RCA recording artist Jazmine Sullivan. In the Fall of 2009, Jeffrey expanded his reach even further when he made his Broadway debut in the cast of the Tony Award winning musical FELA!
On September 2nd, Nigeria’s premiere dance TV reality show Maltina Dance All will air it’s Seventh Season. With 220k Facebook followers, MDA has become one of the hottest programs in West Africa – traveling across the country from Lagos to Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Abuja and Port Harcourt, in search of dancers within the genres of Hip Hop, Jive, Gumboot, Pantomine, Wazobia and Salsa. Jeffrey Page will serve as one of the four seasoned dance professional judges alongside Muyiwa Osinaike, Bimbo Obafunwa and Janell Burgess. Dancers will be competing to win a cash prize of N6,000,000 ($40,000) and the title of Nigeria’s No.1 Dance Family.
It’s fitting that Jeffrey would travel to Nigeria for Maltina Dance All, as a former member of the Broadway musical FELA! which wowed audiences in a show about a Nigerian musical pioneer Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, West African dance has been Jeffrey’s specialty since childhood. Like his FELA! director, Bill T. Jones, Jeffrey has spread his talents across concert dance and musical theater, and has taken on directing as well as choreographic responsibilities. He has served as an African dance instructor/consultant for Cirque du Soleil’s breathtaking Show “O”, Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theatre and most recently in July 2009 Page was one of the resident choreographers of reality sensation So You Think You Can Dance – responsible for the West African piece “Balanta” performed by Season 5’s top five men which was praised by various online entertainment sites as “intricate,” “energetic” and “incredibly entertaining.”
Choreographers across the world fantasize about the once in a lifetime chance to work with Beyoncé Knowles, an extraordinary talent who is known to keep a tight knit circle of dancers and creative people. Jeffrey Page was first sought out to work w/ the multi-Grammy Award winning entertainer on her 2007 world tour “The Beyoncé Experience” in support of her sophomore album B’Day. The two had previously met while dancing alongside each other at promotional appearances for her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love. In 2006 Jeffrey helped choreograph Beyoncé’s live performances of “Déjà Vu” featuring husband Jay-Z while also choreographing the diva’s performances at The World Music Awards and VH-1 Fashion Rocks Tribute to dance icon Josephine Baker. That same year Jeffrey assisted Beyonce’s resident artistic director Frank Gaston during the MTV Video Music Awards for the song “Ring the Alarm”. Currently Jeffrey’s choreographic material can be seen across the globe during Beyonce’s Mrs. Carter World Tour where he put together dance moves for “Grown Woman,” “Single Ladies (Remix)” and “Run the World (Girls).” Impressed by Page’s work with her sister, Solange Knowles recently recruited him for her upcoming video “Lovers in the Parking Lot,” the second single off her EP True.
Unlike much of the formulaic African dance that has been incorporated into music videos, films and entertainment over the years Jeffrey brings a traditional authenticity to this intricate and ancient art form. In fact his first statement in rehearsal to the performers of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ was “This is not going to be Hollywood African.” Those few words pay homage to the African continent whose lexicon, style and rhythms have often been substituted for stereotypes and gimmicks. In fact very few Hollywood dance choreographers can boast that they’ve performed with and received praised from the national dance companies of West Africa (Ballet Djoliba, Ballet Africains, Le Ballet National du Senegal).
For the gifted virtuoso who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts with honors from the University of the Arts and jokes about being “tricked” into taking an African dance class by a teacher who advertised it as “hip-hop” Jeffrey is lighting up stage, TV and film with his colorful and creative choreography. Whether he’s combining Korean folklore and Brazilian Samba or conducting anthropological research into traditional dance and music of Senegal, Guinea, the Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, nobody in the industry can deny Jeffrey’s deft ability to create stunning visual collages of work which are transcending cultural barriers.
Jeffrey Page has been featured in Vogue, Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, Los Angeles Times, Dance Tracks, The Huffington Post, Much Music, Celebs.com, Backstage West, OkayAfrica, Broadway World and was voted TheRoot.com’s Top 100 people in 2010.
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