Story + Rain Talks

If you don’t know, now you know. James Alsop, a one-time contestant on Bravo’s Step It Up And Dance, is now one of the entertainment industry’s most sought-after choreographers doing some of the most interesting work. James began her career as co-choreographer of Beyoncé’s videos, tour, and promotional materials for the multi-platinum selling records Who Run the World, Dance For You, and Love on Top. And we get into how she made her way into dancing with Beyonce, here. She also assisted in choreographing the huge hit music video Booty by Jennifer Lopez. James has worked with Paul Thomas Anderson for the Haim music video Just A Little of Your Love, and after choreographing the entire season of Maya Rudolph and Martin Short’s variety series Maya + Marty, she was asked by Tina Fey to choreograph season three of the Emmy nominated series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. A truly incredible body of work, and there's more. She most recently choreographed the Peacock musical TV series Girls5Eva starring Story + Rain cover star Busy Phillips, and UnPrisoned, the Tracy McMillan series starring Kerry Washington. Then there’s Pose, the superbowl, the Dahmer series, Emily In Paris; the Gossip Girl reboot; and it was a dream come true when James worked on the Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody. There are so many more projects to name. On the podcast we talk about that experience as well as her vision for The Devil Wears Prada musical, and being inspired by the ways people walk, for it. We discuss working through her feelings and her skillset to choreograph the upcoming A Transparent Musical, based on the Emmy award winning series from Amazon Prime. We talk living by the rule of rising to the occasion to be the best you can be, the time she surprised Beyonce, and the time she was at a party that changed her life, and that was shortly before Story + Rain's Editor in Chief and Founder, Tamara, met James. James loves to teach; we talk about her teaching style and philosophies, and her dancing style---"intricate, sexy, and groovy” is how she describes it. We talk all about sticking with the dream, and the opportunities that opened up after she decided to “wake up and see who I really am every day”. Tired of hiding, James transitioned in 2015. From stories about mornings in the kitchen with her siblings singing and dancing with her mother blasting Luther Vandross, to when Tamara met and dressed James in LA on a Bravo ad campaign set and when she knew there was a superstar before her---you’ll be inspired. One of our favorite people, a one-of-a-kind talent, our conversations with creatives continue as Story + Rain talks to James Alsop. Discover more + Shop The Podcast:
Folllow James Alsop on Instagram
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Above And Beyonce Video Collection + Dance Mixes
Spare by Prince Harry The Duke Of Sussex