A behind the scenes glimpse of alumnus Jakevis Thomason’s repertory process with the BFA students. Gain insight into the inspiration behind his new work — a hybrid Hip-Hop interpretation of Martha Graham’s Lamentation Variation — as he reflects on his choreographic experience earlier this semester.

By Rhaine Marquardt (BFA ’26)

What was your experience like returning to USC Kaufman to work with the current BFAs?

“It was so nice being back and being in a different position, but still feeling that same love and support in the room when I was a student,” says Thomason. Since his graduation in 2020, Thomason has carved a multifaceted career path, becoming sought after in the realm of choreography. Highlighting the anticipation and unpredictability of beginning a new work, Thomason emphasizes, “you never know how the exchange of energy and ideas are going to go when you walk into a process, or if the dancers will be interested in the work you have to share.” However, upon returning to USC Kaufman as a guest artist, Thomason received welcoming energy from the BFAs, diving into the choreographic challenge he had to offer them.

Entering a room with dancers he had never worked with before, the evolving and innovative nature of the school was immediately apparent for Thomason. “The movement knowledge that the students have is so great. You can tell it keeps progressing as the years go on.” The BFAs innate sense of drive and openness sparked a fruitful process founded upon both personal and collective growth. A celebration of full circle moments, Thomason describes the learning that came of this experience as present within the students and himself. “I was a student once, and even though I am a choreographer now I am still a student,” he says.

How did you approach a process that calls for such a unique collaboration between dance forms?

It all began with a genre-bending vision. A vision that called for the intermingling of two very distinct art forms. When Professor Jackie Kopcsak first reached out to Thomason about creating a hybrid hip-hop interpretation on Graham’s Lamentation Variation, he admittedly responded with, “I don’t know what that is.” After viewing the variation, Thomason describes his initial reaction to the piece as “quite sad and heavy”. He asked himself how he would respond to these feelings with movement, paying tribute to the esteemed variation without directly mimicking it. “I wanted to do this interpretation in a very respectful way,” Thomason says. 

Despite the highly innovative and unprecedented nature of the piece, Thomason felt that his hybrid artistic voice aligned with the interdisciplinary vision. “At the end of the day, I feel like my choreography already encompasses a fusion of contemporary, hip-hop, and jazz styles,” he explains. Thomason shares that he didn’t want to limit the piece according to the constraints of what people think hip-hop should be. He illustrates this through multidisciplinary choreography, believing that “it is all movement at the end of the day, and the context will do its job.” Thomason encouraged the students to prioritize exploration and really dive head first into the work when the first rehearsal commenced. With commitment and artistic willingness, Thomason guaranteed the students that they would end up with a remarkable piece. 

What is the inspiration behind the musical composition for the work?

When considering the musical score for his premiere, Thomason was drawn towards the sound of drums. “I think I was pulled to drums because when I think about heaviness, I feel like drums convey this emotionally.” In pursuit of an original score, Thomason reached out to Braden Akinyele, a drum artist he had previously been on tour with. “I started researching drum lines and drum rolls and eventually came across funeral drums. The sound really connected with me because it was so simple, yet so effective. That is really what I got from watching the Lamentation Variation,” he says. Although there may not be a lot of steps, Thomason highlights the rich quality and meaningful context behind the movement, bringing depth to the variation. Using this to fuel his choreography, Thomason was researched how he could make “simplicity very impactful” in both musical score and physicality. 

“We ended up creating a score that I loved at first, but then I realized that there were too many things going on,” Thomason describes, reflecting back on the initial stages of creation. Knowing that he was seeking simplicity in heaviness, Thomason shares that he had “lost the purpose and reasoning behind my piece in the initial complexity of the music.” In order to depict depth within heaviness, the simplicity of the drums was key. Through simplicity, Thomason strived to embody themes that everyone — dancers and audience alike — could connect to. “I realized that maybe the piece was actually about a loss of purpose,” he shares. Thomason resonated with this idea of loss, feeling that many people could connect to this theme. He prioritized moments of individuality within the work in order to reflect each dancer’s personal connection to the theme of loss.

What compositional tools did you utilize throughout the trajectory of the piece?

For Thomason, the choreographic process begins with ideas and rounds out with edits. “I am very much the choreographer that likes to try a lot of different things without second guessing. Later, I will go back, edit, and make changes,” he says. Thomason avoids artistic limitations by placing exploration at the forefront of early stages of creation. In an effort to fulfill the concept of depth in simplicity, he created a bank of movement vocabulary to be repeated or manipulated, fostering variance within theme. “I love the fact that when you watch the piece, you can see movement in the beginning that is also repeated throughout the work in some way.” Utilizing repetition as a compositional tool, Thomason’s choreography lives in a distinct world shaped by recognizable movement. “I loved the motifs that came out of this process,” he says. 

What was your favorite moment from the process?

“The first time I watched the dancers do the piece full out, I didn’t know what to expect, but I got so emotional. I felt the tears coming and this was a moment of, Wow, I really did it.87” Thomason was calling upon an unusually vulnerable side of himself in order to convey such heaviness, shining a light on the unmistakably gratifying results of unapologetic risk taking. “I didn’t know if I would be able to connect to the finished work as much because of this,” nonetheless, “it came off exactly how I wanted it to, and it was pulling at my heart,” he exclaims. Watching the students execute the piece with such commitment, Thomason found validation in his choreographic vulnerability. “This was such a full circle moment. Coming back and setting work that I was not dancing in was something I never thought I would do,” Thomason explains. 

How would you describe your experience with this process in one word?

“The first that comes to mind is eye opening,” says Thomason. Even when you think you know yourself artistically, he explains how choreographing reveals a whole separate world of possibility. From working closely with the BFAs on the development of a distinct physicality, to partnering with Akinyele on the musical score, Thomason shares that he learned so much about collaboration that he hadn’t known before. “I will also say that this process was incredibly inspiring,” Thomason says when reflecting on how collaboration led to discovery. Seeing his movement resonate so profoundly with the dancers was inspiration to seek even more depth in the work, finding inspiration every time he walked into rehearsal.