PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST
Lifetime’s ‘ Spotlight’ shines on choreographer Laurieann Gibson
ACCLAIMED choreographer/creative director Laurieann Gibson is stepping out of the shadows and into the TV limelight. Gibson — who’s worked with Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Nicki Minaj (among many others) — stars in “Laurieann Gibson: Beyond the Spotlight,” a Lifetime docuseries premiering March 2. “I felt like I was not finished completing what I had to say as an artist,” Gibson says of “Beyond the Spotlight,” which follows her company, BoomKack Worldwide, and its clientele, including Sean “Puffy” Combs, Tamar Braxton and Fantasia Barrino. The Canadian-born Gibson, who trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, inspired the 2003 big-screen movie “Honey,” starring Jessica Alba (she had a small role and did the choreography). She was featured on MTV’s “Making the Band,” became director of choreography for Motown Records and Bad Boy Records and was Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s choreographer for the 2014 movie “Beyond the Lights,” in which Mbatha-Raw played a musical artist. “I feel like [‘Beyond the Spotlight’] is a vehicle for me to connect the dots and have a conversation [that] I started with ‘Honey’ and ‘Making the Band,’ ” Gibson says. “I just felt frustration with the way this business was going. There’s a lot of manipulation and oppression and I felt like I needed something to help me ... show people what I’m capable of doing. After working with Gaga, Nicki, Puffy ... there’s a part of me that people don’t know. They don’t know the power in what I do.
“Lifetime gave me the opportunity to bring cameras to my process while keeping it magical and sustaining that intimacy with my clients.”
Gibson’s come a long way since her days as a Fly Girl on Fox’s “In Living Color” in 1993. “I literally had no money and if I didn’t get the job it was a wrap for me,” she says. “I had only a can of tuna to eat for two days. I remember [Fly Girl choreographer] Rosie Perez was there at the audition and I went into the bathroom stall and I was on my knees crying and praying. I got the job and stayed on a friend’s carpeted floor in LA.”
Her “fiery passion” and drive, Gibson says, “is in my DNA. It comes from my dream, my purpose, which I’m still fulfilling, still writing. Persistence and perseverance is who I am. That’s part of my mark. We all face defeat in insecurities. It’s part of living in this world — it’s faith over fear.”
Gibson’s faith came in handy when her working relationship with Lady Gaga ended in 2011 over creative differences. “That’s when our relationship changed,” she says. “It was also driven from male-dominated influences around [Gaga] who were intimidated by my creative influence. If you know everything, how do you continue to grow?”
But it’s been a completely different scenario with her close friend Combs, she says.
“We’re stuck with each other because we truly have an incredible relationship. But when we did the [2017] documentary ‘Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: The Bad Boy Story’ I actually quit twice and got fired twice” because of the hectic pace, she says. “[Combs] is quite a genius, and has been misunderstood, but he continues to make change and great art.”