The American Ballet Theatre principal performed the choreography (on pointe!) from the music video for his newest pop hit, WTF, which he released under the moniker, JbDubs in April. Whiteside was joined by four backup dancers: Matthew Poppe, Douane Gosa, Maxfield Haynes and Gianni Goffredo. Catch a clip of the performance below.
Madonna’s party took place in the midst of rehearsals for her upcoming Madame X tour. According to Vulture, Madonna was give the name Madame X by Graham herself, after showing up to class each day with a different identity. And of course, we love Madonna’s choice of JbDubs song. Of Whiteside’s musical oeuvre, WTF most explicitly targets a ballet audience, with lyrics referring to George Balanchine, the Rose Adagio, former New York Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay, Sergei Polunin and much more. Whether or not Madonna’s guests understood all of Whiteside’s references doesn’t seem to matter; we guess they were more than taken with the quintet’s precision, attitude and impressive pointe work.
This appearance leaves us wondering if Madonna will give Whiteside and Co. bigger platforms on which to perform. After all, Whiteside is already besties with actress Jennifer Garner, and he toured with pop star Rozzi earlier this year. In the meantime, we’re looking forward to seeing Whiteside back onstage at ABT this fall.
Happy Birthday, M!
More at PointeMagazine
