How Canada's Drag Race helped this Black, queer choreographer make his mark

This episode originally aired September 1st, 2021.

In the early days of his career, Hollywood Jade felt like he had to play by other people's rules. 

Now the Toronto choreographer says LGBTQ performers, including himself, are finding more opportunities to be celebrated in mainstream media through series like RuPaul's Drag Race, and its Canadian counterpart Canada's Drag Race.

"It is lovely to be me in the space that I'm at right now — working with other queer individuals who are at the top of their game," Hollywood Jade, a Black, queer choreographer, told CBC Radio's Tapestry.

"We're crushing it. The content is good — the content is amazing. The things we are creating are shifting the lens."

Serving as the resident choreographer for Canada's Drag Race, the second season of which premieres this week on Crave, Hollywood Jade has a front row seat to some of the best drag performers in the country. 

It's a world he has been steeped in since he was a teenager, first choreographing performances with renowned Toronto drag queen Michelle Ross who died in March. 

WATCH | Trailer for season two of Canada's Drag Race

With drag now broadcast on TV screens around the world, he says the genre's talent is doing some of its best work because it's finally seen as a viable career trajectory.

"What makes me so excited about the time that we're in right now is that drag is the thing that has changed so many people's lives," he said, noting Canada's Drag Race Season 1 winner Priyanka as a major success story.

"What Drag Race did is they called my name. They put me on camera, on stage [and] said, 'resident choreographer Hollywood Jade.'"

From university rejection to film sets

Hollywood Jade knew he would be a dancer from a young age. In senior kindergarten, he won his first competition. But his career began unlike others: he had been rejected from theatre school.

So he made a deal with his mother. He would pursue his dream of becoming a professional dancer and then revisit university the following year.

Soon after, at 19, he booked his first gig as a dancer in the 2004 Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen film New York Minute. By 22, he was cast as a dancer in the 2007 blockbuster film adaptation of the Broadway musical Hairspray.

"We never revisited the conversation," he said, laughing. Hollywood Jade has also appeared in the films Save The Last Dance 2 and Camp Rock 2, and in music videos alongside artists including Nelly Furtado, Kelis and Rihanna.

For much of his early career, however, the 37-year-old says he had to hide parts of himself — that he couldn't show up in his "fullness" on set — for fear directors wouldn't put him on camera.

"Truthfully, I don't think I was ever really appreciated in large part because my perspective and my approach that I was coming from was queer," said Hollywood Jade.

"And the urban community just wasn't as open and as receptive as it is now to Black, queer bodies being Black, queer bodies in cis-heteronormative, Caribbean, very religious-based environments."

That presented in different ways, but he points to situation in the early 2000s as one example. He says he was turned down for a part in a music video and told that there were no male dancers in the production. When he was later booked for background work on the same project, he arrived to discover there was an entire section of male dancers.

"It just really hurt," Hollywood Jade recalled.

It wasn't until starting his own performance company in 2011 that he took control of the narrative and began shaping his work — both in its aesthetics and who he chose to feature. His first show, Urbanesque, blended burlesque dance with modern music and movement.

Drag Race 'making everybody up their ante'

Whether it was choreographing numbers for Ross or dancing backup with Toronto's Sofonda Cox, a performer featured in the CBC Arts series Canada's A Drag, drag played a key part in Hollywood Jade's work.

He says the artform has always been a major aspect of his creative process.

"The power of drag for me is that it encompasses all aspects of entertainment," he said. "It's fashion, it's makeup, it's performance, it's music, it's dance."

"And I say this to people all the time who have mixed feelings about drag: I'm like, 'Do you not want to be entertained? Because when drag is done well, honey, it is a show.'"

But for Hollywood Jade, it's more than just about putting on a show. It's about showing younger LGBTQ people what's possible.

"I love being an example that people can go and show to their family members and be like, 'Look, I know my queerness or ... discovering my sexuality scares you, but here is a list, an example, of other Black, queer boys and girls or folks who are out here crushing the game," said Hollywood Jade.

Canada's Drag Race, he adds, is an important outlet for that representation.

"I feel like it's making everybody up their ante," said Hollywood Jade. 

"Everybody's now really leaning into this as a career because they see that there is a horizon, there's more that you can get from it other than just being stuck in a bar performing for the rest of your life."

Written by Jason Vermes. Produced by Arman Aghbali.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.