{"id":21299,"date":"2024-06-27T08:37:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T15:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marinlivingmagazine.com\/?p=21299"},"modified":"2024-06-27T08:37:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T15:37:35","slug":"marins-john-lam-is-still-making-ballet-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marinlivingmagazine.com\/marins-john-lam-is-still-making-ballet-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Marin\u2019s John Lam Is Still Making Ballet History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional ballet dancer John Lam grew up in a poor household in San Rafael\u2019s Canal District where the family \u2014 his parents were refugees from Vietnam \u2014 leaned heavily on community childcare services. When he was 4, something happened that changed his life forever.<\/p>\n

That something was a visit from Performing Stars of Marin<\/a> to the childcare center, with an offer of free dance lessons. For a hyperactive, shy kid, dancing was the perfect outlet \u2014 until he started getting teased. Lam quit for a day, but Performing Stars executive director Felecia Gaston wasn\u2019t having it and took him to see male dancers perform with S.F. Ballet. \u201cI realized \u2018oh, so there are other men and boys that dance,\u2019\u2009\u201d Lam says. \u201cSo I decided to come back and there was something about it, the music and everything that I loved and I stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lam found the dance studio to be a safe place that allowed him to \u201cspeak without vocalizing.\u201d He says his parents weren\u2019t very involved in his dance choices and there was no one forcing him to do it \u2014 he was self-driven. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the North American boxed-in support where every parent goes to every child\u2019s game,\u201d he says, adding that he holds no resentments about it. \u201cThat\u2019s not our culture. And that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognizing that Lam had a talent and a passion to dance without fear, Marin Ballet<\/a> artistic director Cynthia Lucas recommend he go to Canada\u2019s National Ballet School, in Toronto (Marin Ballet also helped with a scholarship), where he was accepted at age 14. From there Lam\u2019s first male role model, Mikko Nissinen, who knew the young phenom from his days directing Marin Ballet and had just become artistic director of\u00a0Boston Ballet, recommended Lam join up.<\/p>\n

His mom agreed, saying it is best to go somewhere where someone knows you, and Lam worked his way up, becoming the first Vietnamese American principal dancer in history to dance in a major ballet company.<\/p>\n

But before any of that, Lam, returning home to his parents at the age of 20, had to tell them he was gay and engaged to a man 20 years his senior. \u201cIt was a hard thing for them to understand at first,\u201d Lam says, explaining that it was a learning curve for his parents. \u201cBut they did come to our wedding and I\u2019m very, very thankful to have parents that love me for who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, after 20 years of dancing at Boston Ballet, Lam has called it quits, performing his last show in May. \u201cI\u2019m in a place right now where I am at the top of my physical game and I want to leave the organization at the top,\u201d he says, adding that ballet dancing is very hard on the body. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m retiring from dance; I\u2019m going to be dictating what I want to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond all the accolades from his peers at the ballet, there were a few other VIPs in attendance that made his grand finale even more special: Felecia Gaston, and his parents, who had never seen him dance professionally. \u201cAfterward I asked my mother and father \u2018How do you feel? Because this must have been a very epic situation for you to experience,\u2019\u2009\u201d Lam recalls.\u201cMy father said \u2018I didn\u2019t know that you were a big deal\u2019 and my mother said \u2018I\u2019m just so proud of you that you were able to do this all alone.\u2019\u2009\u201d For Lam that was the highlight of the evening.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t the end: watch for more from Lam, including a nonprofit called LamDanceWorks, a position as an associate professor of dance at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, a role in a new Amazon Prime show called\u00a0Etoile, and a memoir. Clearly not even retirement can slow John Lam down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professional ballet dancer John Lam grew up in a poor household in San Rafael\u2019s Canal District where the family \u2014 his parents were refugees from Vietnam \u2014 leaned heavily on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":21463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,28],"tags":[5469,5471,317,2097,5467,3564,2813,5470,5468],"yoast_head":"\nMarin\u2019s John Lam Is Still Making Ballet History - Marin Living Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From Performing Stars of Marin to Boston Ballet, John Lam has been making history as a dancer and isn\u2019t slowing down.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/marinlivingmagazine.com\/marins-john-lam-is-still-making-ballet-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marin\u2019s John Lam Is Still Making Ballet History - 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