In Conversation: Galen Hooks
Galen Hooks is a VMA-nominated choreographer, teacher, activist, and unconditionally miraculous LA-based dance standout. To date, Hooks has worked with more than 70 artists, including Chris Brown, Usher, Britney Spears, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, and Rihanna. Her breakthrough as a dancer took place when she booked the Super Bowl with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. After a successful career in the entertainment industry, she gathered viral fame on YouTube with dance videos such as River, Human, Love on the Brain, and Best Part, all racking up over 300 million views. She is as much an anomaly and one-of-a-kind unicorn as she is an industry native and versatile chameleon all at once. She’s wearing many hats yet her head is never in the clouds, and when it comes to her career, Hooks indeed stands firmly on the ground, but when she dances, gravity seems almost non-existent.
KELLY KORZUN: Back in the good old MTV days, many established choreographers such as Marty Kudelka, Wade Robson (who had his own show at one point), Brian Friedman, Laurieann Gibson, just to name a few, became household names due to heavy rotation of Making the Video. Today, there are still many great choreographers out there, but the so-called general audience isn’t necessarily familiar with them because content distribution has drastically changed over the last decade. Even though you’ve been in the industry since you were a 7-year-old kid, most people associate you with viral videos they’ve seen on YouTube. Considering all the media channels available to us today, how do you think the mechanism of getting exposure and reaching out to the audiences has changed compared to the TV-dominated era?
GALEN HOOKS: As far as I’m concerned, the biggest choreographers of today are as much household names as those of the MTV heyday. What’s changed is that now any choreographer can craft their own narrative, be their own publicist, reach people directly, be discovered by artists and directors regardless of experience, location, or connections. A person like me would have had a much harder time finding a way to go past the surface level of “choreographer for pop artists” had it been in the MTV days. For example, I can post Inside Look videos on YouTube explaining in depth a piece I choreographed for Ne-Yo or Ciara, and even if 10 people watch it, that’s 10 people more than would have been able to see it in the MTV era. With the help of social media, more people know my teaching philosophy, my values around dance, my approach to dance and choreography, and see my work compared to pre-social media times.
KK: One of the things that strike me about you the most is that even though you’re rightfully a full on triple threat entertainer, which is a pretty rare phenomenon these days, you’ve somehow managed to remain incredibly unpretentious and down-to-earth. Besides being a full-time dancer and choreographer (producer, singer/songwriter, actress, the list goes on), you’re also directing short films and music videos. It may come as a surprise to many, but despite all the exposure you have, you’ve mentioned many times that being in the limelight doesn’t feel particularly comfortable due to your introversive nature. Do you see directing and being on the other side of the camera as one of the ways to eventually step away from publicity? In this role, what things do you think you ultimately bring to the table?
GH: You’re spot on. As a child, I was very shy despite working in the entertainment industry, but as I got older, I had a very successful backup dancing career allowing me to embrace my moment of attention, so I am completely satisfied. What I love about performing is not the attention or the applause, but the process of learning material (choreography, script, teleprompter copy), executing it, and seeing the final result. What’s wonderfully new about social media, class videos, and being a content creator is that I get to have a very condensed timeline of that process. For example, performing a routine in a class in just one take and posting it right away instead of doing a 17-hour shoot for a music video and waiting for it to come out. When I first choreographed and directed, I was dancing in all of my pieces and therefore playing double duty. Now that I’ve directed without being in front of the camera, I’m hooked. Without a doubt, I’ll still be in front of the camera in speaking roles as a host or a talking head in content creation, but directing, producing and teaching allow me to bring the best out of other people and give THEM a time to shine. Since I absolutely know what it’s like to be a performer, I speak their language and can be incredibly clear when giving directions. As a choreographer, I am great with pacing, editing, staging, camera movement, and I’m a very good problem solver.
KK: When I first watched Madonna’s Confessions tour back in the day, I was totally blown away by how masterfully music, dance, and storytelling were interwoven. Many great talents were brought on board such as Leroy Hypnosis Barnes, Daniel Cloud Campos, and Sofia Boutella, who had her breakthrough when she was picked for the Jamie King choreography for Nike campaign in 2007, and now she devoted her efforts to acting. In what ways do you think dance and movement can elevate commercials, live performances, film, and other forms of media content?
GH: The three dancers you just named are prime examples of performers who can elevate a brand, sell a product, and create magic on screen. In my book, Jamie King is untouchable in his ability to not just find that kind of talent, but know how to EXPERTLY use it. When dance and movement are in harmony with music and storytelling in the way it was executed on the Confessions tour and other Madonna’s performances that Jamie did, or when a moment like Thriller or Singing in the Rain enters the social zeitgeist, it changes our lives. If those two examples did not have dance involved, would they have been as impactful? That’s up for debate as some people don’t believe dance is that important, but what I can say unequivocally is that the dance doesn’t take AWAY from the moment. Whether you realize it or not as the viewer, special dancers like Cloud, Sofia, Hypnosis and countless others have a skillset that has more depth than they are often given credit for.
KK: Apart from your inward-focused personality, another thing that is very unexpected about you is that you completed a BA program from Penn State with majors in Law and Philosophy all the while touring with Snoop Dogg, Janet Jackson, Christina Millian, and other artists. As a professional entertainer and educator, what would you say to all the young kids out there who are planning on becoming a part of the industry yet unsure if they need to get a degree? In which ways do you think it can potentially help the artists in navigating their careers?
GH: Getting a degree is absolutely not necessary to pursue a dance or choreography career. In fact, whenever I am asked by students if they should study dance in college, I come down on the side of “you’ve got limited time, money and energy, and if you’re going to go to college, don’t study dance”, but it’s simply because there is no dance college program that I'm aware of that spits you out after four years in a stronger hiring position than someone who didn’t do that program. That is precisely why I do two-day intensives: it allows to spend LESS time, money and energy while getting MORE real-life, applicable instruction. The reason I went to college was because I loved school with all my heart and begged my parents to let me graduate from high school early so that I could start college early. Ultimately, I was getting a degree purely for the experience, not for someone else’s approval or as a safety net, so if you do not want to get a degree, I cannot recommend doing it based off my experience and reasoning for getting mine. Having said that, I would not be the activist, negotiator, critical thinker, choreographer, director, or business owner I am today without the philosophy and law courses I took, so getting an education can absolutely help with who you are as an artist. In navigating the entertainment industry, having a law degree definitely comes in handy when it comes to contracts, which I genuinely love and relish talking about.
KK: As a choreographer, you’ve worked with many top-notch music artists, including the ones who sure know how to dance, including Ciara, Janet Jackson, and Usher. If you had to name one artist you’ve worked with who wasn’t a professional dancer yet surprised you the most, who would that be?
GH: I just worked with Chris Martin on a Coldplay video and while there are a lot of artists who are non-dancers who have been just as good as him, he’s an example of a true rockstar. When he is ON, you get chills. I love seeing moments on the monitor when an artist just clicks.
KK: A few years ago, you set your focus on training the next generation of dancers using unique knowledge you’ve gained throughout your career, which ultimately formed into The Galen Hooks Method. Given its proven longevity, what do you think is the main quality separating it from other dance intensive programs, and how do you think it’s evolved over the years?
GH: I really don’t want to compare myself to other intensives as I like to focus on what I’m doing and my students, but I think it's a fair statement to say that TGHM has unintentionally set the standard of what dance intensives can be. I’ve gotten many messages from dancers who weren’t even teachers, let alone doing intensives, who have started similar workshops because they’ve seen my program. Since I was carving a new path where none had existed, I feel very fortunate to have let my knowledge of dance and the industry guide me. Perhaps, the proof is in the pudding and the fact that I’m not trying to bamboozle people and sell a product that I have to make seem more impressive than it is. Also, there’s very strong word of mouth from almost every single person of the thousands of people who have taken the session globally. Such thing as longevity wouldn’t have existed if the intensives didn’t produce results, and I wouldn’t want it to keep going if people didn’t feel like they were getting value out of it. The reason I called it The Galen Hooks Method is because I recognize that there are as many methods to approaching the industry and dance as there are choreographers: we all have our own ideas, philosophies and approaches, and these intensives represent my personal approach, which is now incredibly refined, effective, emotional and balanced. Besides being a professional dancer and choreographer with a 17-year-long career, the main thing that sets my method apart from other intensives is ME. Even if I taught the concepts to other people to teach, there is a difference in the way I articulate them, the tone that I set, and, most importantly, my ability to immediately assess where a dancer is at and get them to transform in just two days. Mind you, I don't say this to brag. If I were able to have other teachers teach the method, I could ultimately reach and impact more people. Over the years, the spirit of TGHM has remained the same, but my teaching ability improves drastically month by month because I’m seeing hundreds of students regularly. The clientele has definitely evolved: it was 90% professional dancers in the beginning, but now that I offer beginner sessions, I am honored to consistently fold in hobbyists, who range from social workers, to lawyers, to doctors, scientists, stay-at-home moms, bartenders, you name it. Age range has also expanded from 18-35 year-olds to 11-60 year-olds. If it weren’t for the intensives, I would never be able to meet and intimately get to know such a wide variety of people. The alumni community has grown very tight over the past year because of quarantine as they’ve been able to be a source of community for each other. The capacity has also increased from 10 to 30 people due to high demand, and now I’m teaching not only in LA, but also in New York, Berlin, Istanbul, Toronto, Vancouver, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and Amsterdam. The variety of sessions have drastically advanced as well: it started as an audition intensive, and now there are five different sessions to choose from (industry + non-industry).
KK: There are many aspiring dancers coming to your masterclasses every hour of the day, and I’m sure there are many of them who are sacrificing a lot and literally saving every penny to catch a glimpse of your process and potentially escalate their careers. Was there any specific student whose story touched you the most, or a situation where your teaching ended up having the most drastic impact on the student’s life?
GH: After every session, there is at least one person who has had a transformation that LIFE-changing in the literal sense of the term. There are countless students who were going to quit pursuing dance careers yet took an intensive and started booking the biggest jobs of their lives. From TGHM classic sessions, there are many abuse survivors who have come to terms with issues they’ve been reckoning with in therapy for years, and there are trans students who have never felt comfortable in their bodies until the intensives.
KK: Baryshnikov once mentioned that perfectionism in itself is not what he strives for. “Perfection is a theory. All you have is the hope that, as you go through your daily routine, by the end of the day you will be a little better in all respects and do something meaningful rather than have a day that just passed by senselessly, disappearing in the fog of life”, which brings me to the work you do in the field of social activism and your involvement with Dancers Alliance and other mission-driven organizations. How do you think the situation in the industry has changed since your active participation? What are the most complex and demanding problems that you and other representatives of the industry are still tackling?
GH: The industry has changed drastically with social media and content creation. Since I don’t know what it’s like to be a dancer in this new landscape, I knew there needed to be new dancers taking the reigns of leadership. There is a laundry list of issues I would pull out if I could snap my fingers and make change: use of likeness (you could be auditioning for a job and that audition ends up on the choreographer’s YouTube channel, which didn’t exist in my time as a dancer), ancillary usage (you dance in a music video and the artist posts a snippet of the video on Instagram or TikTok as part of a brand deal and gets paid for that snippet), dance classes (if you take a dance class and end up in the class video being completely unaware that the teacher is being paid to promote a song or product while generating income from your likeness). There are also many issues in the choreography landscape such as #DanceChallenges, copyright, credit in YouTube descriptions, unionization, the list goes on.
KK: There’s a quote from Spike Jonze’s movie Her, “Sometimes I think I have felt everything I'm ever gonna feel, and from here on out I'm not gonna feel anything new... just... lesser versions of what I've already felt”. Considering both emotional intelligence and vulnerability play a massive role in your method, how are you protecting your inner child so that it remains intact? By and large, do you think it’s possible to avoid indulging in cynical attitudes in the modern world?
GH: That’s a great question. I feel extremely fortunate to never have had to really consider protecting my inner child as every time I’m choreographing or dancing, I am undisputedly that child. When I dance, I feel like I’m taking every feeling I’ve ever felt and feeling it to its upper limits, stretching it to maximum capacity, and even getting to experience new feelings that I’ve never felt. When dancing a prompt that says “dance like you’re living in a lie” or anything else I’ve never felt or experienced before, I get to have a condensed experience of that feeling in the span of a 1-minute-long routine. All of this requires imagination, which, in its turn, wakes up my inner child. When you’re in artistic flow, it’s all about purity, honesty, truth, and everything else you hoped the world would be, with no room for deceit, disappointment, or cynicism.
