After 20 years, principal dancer John Lam is retiring from the Boston Ballet to create his own set of steps.
John Lam in William Forsythe’s The Vile Parody of Address
Few ballerinas dance for decades. The profession is hard on the body and the schedule greuling. And yet, when Boston Ballet principal dancer John Lam (@johndilam) announced his retirement after 20 years with the company, the city shared a collective gasp. Not only have we admired his otherworldly physical prowess on the stage, but we’ve been inspired by his story and all that he has come to represent. As a child of Vietnamese refugees, his entry to and success in ballet was unlikely and uphill. Few make it beyond the elitist barriers to entry and even fewer who look like Lam. It’s been his talent and incredible work ethic that has propelled him from a promising adolescent in an inner city, afterschool program in California to the lead dancer for an esteemed company. It’s been a career filled with accomplishments amid the struggles, but lately, his personal life has also started to share the stage. Lam is married with two young boys who need him and their pull with the relentless push of work, work, work is becoming unendurable. He’s ready to step out of the spotlight to begin defining who John Lam is, on his own, without the sensational Boston Ballet behind him.
“I want to be able to spend the holidays with my family and go on trips with them. I want to be there for my kids. When you look at the world through their eyes, it’s such a beautiful, vibrant life. I don't want to be that father who is always hustling back and forth, trying to keep my work at the highest level while also trying to be a good father. Making this decision will allow me to expand the wealth of knowledge and experience that I have,” says Lam.
One of those things will begin immediately after Lam’s farewell performance on May 19. He decamps for Brooklyn where he will be spending three months filming a new Amazon Prime series with an Emmy-award winning team. When he returns in August, he will be joining the faculty at the Boston Conservatory. “I’m so thankful to dean Michael Shinn and provost David Bogen for creating this position for me and I’m excited to be able to give back and empower students. I came from poverty, but I made it to the top, and I think my story will inspire students to go for it,” he says. Lam has also accepted a role as the movement director for the upcoming production of The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s, A Christmas Carol. He’s in talks with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and with the Institute of Contemporary Art and is writing a memoir, due out this fall.
This next chapter is not a retirement, it’s a rebirth. Lam is passionate about expanding the culture of dance in Boston. He recently received his masters from Northeastern University in nonprofit management and intends to continue on to receive his PhD or EdD in education. He dreams of starting an organization to make art more accessible and bridge the gap that he experienced as a child. He wants to explore his own practice and bring different choreographers to Boston who can use him as a vessel to create work. He envisions creating a weekend dance festival, perhaps in the SOWA district, where dance would be free and open to the public.
“Curating my own work and exploring what art means to me is a beautiful and empowering moment. I have all of these colorful feathers that I’m ready to show off and see what that brings. I’m not stopping, I’m expanding.”
Photography by: ROSALIE O’CONNOR
