Jeffrey Page’s talents as a dancer and choreographer have taken him everywhere from Hollywood awards shows to West African villages, and have produced collaborations with the biggest names in modern dance as well as superstars of pop music. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for NAACP Image Award choreography in 2005, is credited with giving Beyonce’ Knowles her African flair, more recently served as a resident choreographer on Fox’s reality TV sensation ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ and is credited as one of the choreographers for the upcoming feature film “Step Up 3-D”.
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. Although Jeffrey speaks of it casually almost as an after thought he says, “Working with Beyonce, who is one of the hardest and most focused artist that I have ever had the pleasure of working with, has given me a very detailed awareness of my work from outside of myself, working with her has brought me to understand art-making and entertainment in a different way. Her allegiance to quality and passion for "digging deep" has lead me to explore another side of staged art creation and sharpen my eye to developing a heightened theatrical experience.” The multi-faceted choreographer was 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. In 2006 Jeffrey helped choreograph Beyoncé’s 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 choreographer Frank Gaston on the MTV Video Music Awards for the song “Ring the Alarm”.
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 artform. 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 continent of Africa whose lexicon, style and rhythms have often been substituted for stereotypes and gimmicks.
Jeffrey has graced the stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., starred in Debbie Allen’s Louisiana bayou-set dance musical Soul Possessed, choreographed with Otis Sallid for the Middle Eastern International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi and paid homage to black intellectuals like Langston Hughes and Zora Neal Hurston in play adaptations of their written works. 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.
In the Fall of 2009, Jeffrey expanded his reach even further when he made his Broadway debut in the cast of the new musical FELA!, a show he can still be seen performing in nightly. Click HERE to see Jeffrey Page in FELA! (HELIO PR)
