[This story appears in the November/December 2020 issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam keeps stretching his gifts.
Maybe it’s because he and husband John Ruggieri have two young sons, but Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam is hopeful for the future.
Despite the cancellation of Boston Ballet’s live performances due to COVID-19, Lam says he’s thrilled to be working with a small group of dancers as one of the choreographers for “The Gift,” a newly created dance film that’s part of Boston Ballet’s second virtual BB@yourhome program presented December 17–27 on Boston Ballet’s website.
“It’s inspiring to learn more about my colleagues at a time like this. As a principal dancer, you’re often not in rehearsals with many other dancers,” says Lam, now in his 17th year with Boston Ballet.
When they returned to the rehearsal studio in September, Boston Ballet dancers for safety reasons were separated into “pods” of 10–12 people where they worked only within their own groups, says Lam. Lam is one five principal dancers taped by Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen to choreograph pieces from Duke Ellington’s “The Nutcracker Suite,” the composer’s 1960 recording featuring jazz and blues interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker,” arranged by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
“The Gift,” says Lam, will be “a different spin” on Boston Ballet’s “The Nutcracker,” a beloved holiday tradition for more than five decades. Ellington’s “The Nutcracker Suite” offers compositions that nod to Tchaikovsky’s such as “Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy)”; “Arabesque Cookie (Arabian Dance)”; and “Chinoiserie (Chinese Dance).”
Lam will choreograph “Volga Vouty (Russian Dance)” for the dancers in his pod. “It’s three minutes of music; I’ll try to make it cohesive. All the pods will be synced together to make one program,” he says. “I’m creating this piece and having fun with it. That’s the directive we have as choreographers—just have fun. Our audiences are starved for content, but we want it to be meaningful and impactful and along the lines of who we are as an organization.”
As the first Vietnamese-American to be a principal dancer with a national ballet company and an out gay man, Lam also embraces a leadership role.
“I’m working with dancers who’ve been in the company for just two or three years. Choreographing is wonderful because I get to showcase these vibrant artists,” says Lam, who lives in Quincy with Ruggieri, a real estate lawyer, and their boys. “Maybe it’s because I’m a father, but I feel empowered to be chosen to be a pod leader. You must understand the nuances of listening to find out what people need.”
The son of Vietnamese refugees, Lam was born and raised in Northern California where he started dancing at age four. He joined Boston Ballet II in 2003 and the Boston Ballet Corps de Ballet in 2004. He was promoted to second soloist in 2006 and to principal in 2014. He’s danced most of the lead roles in the repertory including several George Balanchine ballets, Prince Desire in Marius Petipa’s “Sleeping Beauty” and the Faun in Vaslav Nijinsky’s “Afternoon of a Faun.”
Recently Lam branched out to making dance films. His first short film, “Movement in Structure” in 2019, was accepted into prestigious international dance festivals. Lam was eager to begin working on a film this fall with choreographer Helen Pickett who has created dances for Boston Ballet. He posts all his personal film work to his Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/johndilam/.
Creating dance films, Lam says, made for a natural transition to choreographing for the ballet’s virtual program. “It is different from choreographing on the stage. The lens dictates how the audience is going to experience that piece,” he says.
Lam also appears in the award-winning documentary “Danseur.” Directed by Scott Gormley, the film, which screened in the Boston Globe documentary series in 2018, examines the stigma that young men in ballet face, noting that 85 percent of men who study dance in the United States are bullied or harassed.
Despite his various creative pursuits, Lam says he’s just grateful to be back in the Boston Ballet’s South End studios with the dancers. He sees a silver lining even in a pandemic that has hit the performing arts particularly hard.
“As a dad raising two kids, it’s a lot. But when I go into the studio and see us all pushing for the same thing, it’s worth it,” Lam says. “Everyone is hungry to work. Maybe we wouldn’t have this opportunity if we were not in a pandemic. When you are in a company of 60 dancers, you might get lost in the corps and not be in spotlight. Film is an opportunity for these artists to showcase who they are.
“The arts help humanity push forward. That’s how [we’ve] survived through many pandemics and economic collapses. We have a human connection with everybody.
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