Ryan Heffington (born June 7, 1973) is an American dancer and choreographer based in Los Angeles. He was nominated for two

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for choreographing the music videos for

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member ...

's "

We Exist "We Exist" is a song by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire from their fourth studio album, '' Reflektor'' (2013). It was released digitally as the third single from the album on 26 May 2014 via Sonovox. The music video for the song, starring ...

" (2013) and

Sia Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...

's "

Chandelier A chandelier (; also known as girandole, candelabra lamp, or least commonly suspended lights) is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. Chandeliers are often ornate, and normally use incandescent ...

" (2014), winning a VMA Award for the latter.

Early life

Heffington was born in

Yuba City, California Yuba City (Maidu: ''Yubu'') is a city in Northern California and the county seat of Sutter County, California, United States. The population was 70,117 at the 2020 census. Yuba City is the principal city of the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistic ...

. He has danced since he was young, but has never received any formal training. He moved from Yuba City to Los Angeles at the age of 18.

Career

In the mid-1990s, Heffington co-created ''the sexy Psycho Dance Sho' with Bubba Carr'', and in the late 2000s he was the artistic director for the experimental modern dance company Hysterica. From 2006 to 2009, Heffington lead the dance troupe Fingered, which combined fast-paced

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She ...

-style choreography with

genderbending A gender bender is a person who dresses up and acts like the opposite sex. Bending expected gender roles may also be called a genderfuck. Gender bending may be political, stemming from the early identity politics movements of the 1960s and 19 ...

costumes designed by Heffington. He has performed at bars and clubs, as well as MOCA,

LACMA The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

, the

Dorothy Chandler Pavilion The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center The Music Center (officially named the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County) is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Located ...

, ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serve ...

'',

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand A ...

, the UCLA Hammer Museum and

Coachella Coachella may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind "Coachella – Woodstock In My Mind" is a song by Ame ...

. Heffington is best known for choreographing the music videos for

's "

" (2013) and

's "

" (2014), both of which were nominated for

, and the latter of which won him a VMA Award. Other Sia videos that Heffington has choreographed include "

Elastic Heart "Elastic Heart" is a song written by Australian singer Sia, featuring Canadian singer the Weeknd and American record producer Diplo, for the soundtrack of '' The Hunger Games: Catching Fire'', a film based on the novel of the same name by Su ...

", "

Big Girls Cry "Big Girls Cry" is a single by Australian singer-songwriter Sia, from her sixth studio album ''1000 Forms of Fear'' (2014). The single was not released internationally; it was only released in Australia and some parts of Europe. It charted in B ...

", " Cheap Thrills" and " The Greatest". Sia and Heffington's collaborations have "done more to raise the standards of dance in pop music than nearly any current artist integrating the forms." He has also worked with

FKA Twigs Tahliah Debrett Barnett (born 17 January 1988), known professionally as FKA Twigs (stylized as FKA twigs), is an English singer, songwriter, and dancer. Born and raised in Cheltenham, she became a backup dancer for numerous famous musicians af ...

and

Britney Spears Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the "Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...

, and made several appearances on ''

RuPaul's Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...

''. Heffington created the choreography for the science fiction series ''

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'', which debuted on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

in December 2016. More of his work can be seen in television, film and onstage around the world, including the first season finale of HBO's ''

Euphoria Euphoria ( ) is the experience (or affect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. Certain natural rewards and social activities, such as aerobic exercise, laughter, listening to or making music and dan ...

'',

Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pr ...

's '' Transparent'',

Spike Jonze Adam H. Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze began his ca ...

's commercials for Kenzo (winner of the highest honor, the Titanium Lion @ the 2017

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

's “Welcome Homepod” featuring FKA Twigs, and

Edgar Wright Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and ...

's critically acclaimed 2017 film ''

Baby Driver ''Baby Driver'' is a 2017 action film written and directed by Edgar Wright. It stars Ansel Elgort as a getaway driver seeking freedom from a life of crime with his girlfriend Debora ( Lily James). Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Eiza González, ...

''. Heffington was the owner of The Sweat Spot, a dance studio in

Silver Lake, Los Angeles Silver Lake is a residential and commercial neighborhood in the east- central region of Los Angeles, California. Originally home to a small community called Ivanhoe in honor of Sir Walter Scott. In 1907, the Los Angeles Water Department built t ...

. The space offered classes for both professional dancers and beginners in a casual atmosphere. Heffington decided to open the studio after he had hosted a roving event called Sweaty Sundays. Although the studio closed in 2020, Heffington still hosts Sweatfest and Wet Wednesdays on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

to thousands of dancers live. More recently, Heffington choreographed

Lin-Manuel Miranda Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals '' Hamilton'' (2015) and ''In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animat ...

's 2021 film adaptation of the

Jonathan Larson Jonathan David Larson (February 4, 1960 – January 25, 1996) was an American composer, lyricist and playwright most famous for writing the musicals '' Rent'' and '' Tick, Tick... Boom!'', which explored the social issues of multiculturalism, ...

musical '' tick, tick... BOOM!'' and made his acting debut in

Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with ''Hard Eight (film), Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' ( ...

's '' Licorice Pizza''.

Filmography

Music Videos

Commercials

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* American choreographers Performance art in Los Angeles 1973 births Living people Primetime Emmy Award winners {{Authority control