James Vu Anh Pham is from Perth, Western Australia, and was the first generation of his Vietnamese family to be raised in a Western society. James loved music as a child, playing piano, clarinet and saxophone, he planned on becoming a musician. Struggling with stage-fright a friend suggested he tried dance classes as a way to connect to his body. Starting hip-hop, he loved what he could express through his body. Subsequently, he switched his planned career in music to a career in dance, going on to study at New Zealand School of Dance.

His first professional contact was with Chunky Move, shortly after Anouk van Dijk started, performing in An Act of Now, in 2012.

“I definitely was able to continually push and push and push and continuously break boundaries and kind of allowed myself to get drunk off of this intensity. And so to take that power into a professional environment with Anouk was really special because she was really good at asking me to sort of distil and gain a different control over this intense firepower that I bought from school.”

James continued to dance extensively for Chunky Move in a range of works including Rule of Thirds (2016), Depth of Field (2015), Complexity of Belonging (2014), 247 Days (2013) and AORTA (2013) – a Next Move production choreographed by Stephanie Lake.

He learnt Countertechnique for Anouk van Dijk and has since become an instructor.

James received the ‘Best Male Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre Work’ (2014) Helpmann Award for his performance in 247 Days and the ‘Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer’ (2014) Australian Dance Award for AORTA.

“What I love about the dance world is that it has the possibility of bringing together so many different cultures, so many different people, beliefs, ways of thinking, ways of being in a space. And I’ve been really lucky in the sense of every time, I do a project with a bunch of different people from different places, we always find a common ground and a way to exist and support one another and to create something really beautiful”

In 2016, James relocated to Belgium to work at Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Eastman, where he performed in works including Babel 7.16 in the Palais Des Papes for the Festival d'Avignon, guesting in Ravel with Ballet Flanders and ICON with the Göteborg Opera Dance Company. He also performed with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in Les Indes galantes, a production by the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

In 2019, James moved to London, where he now works as a company dancer with Akram Khan Company. He was involved in the creation of Outwitting the Devil, which had its world première in 2019. James has so much to offer the world of dance and continues to bring his own style and personality wherever he goes.

This is the second episode in a season looking at Australian dance artists working and living overseas. The next interview is with Juliet Burnett who dances with Belgium's premier dance company, Ballet Vlaanderen.

A transcript of this episode is here.

Delving into Dance is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. If you enjoy Delving into Dance please consider leaving a contribution. Contribute here.

Featured

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Lloyd Newson

I used to say for a long time that I thought the dance was the Prozac of the art forms. […] there is an aesthetic that dominates our work, often complex or ugly or difficult issues are glossed over because people are pointing their feet and look very lovely.

James Vu Anh Pham

“What I love about the dance world is that it has the possibility of bringing together so many different cultures, so many different people, beliefs, ways of thinking, ways of being in a space … we always find a common ground and a way to exist and support one another and to create something really beautiful”

Paul White

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Amrita Hepi

“There is something about sharing something with somebody, or about teaching somebody something that allows space for a conversation that you might not normally have.”

Harper Watters

“I try to make the ballet world a lot more colourful, diverse and a lot more inclusive.”

Mette Ingvartsen

“The fact that the sexual undertone, or the desiring undertone that a lot of dance is operating through, for me it was very important to make it explicit. To actually say ‘okay part of what is happening here is a question of desire, it is a question of being stimulated physically. Then there are many different levels or layers of this happening of course. In my work it was about saying, we have to recognise that these underlying structures are there, and if we recognise it and even expose it explicitly then maybe we can actually look at for something else or question ourselves….”