Before He Could Speak, James B. Whiteside Had Ballet
“Ballet isn’t precious or remote—it’s athletic, emotional, and alive," reveals James B. Whiteside, Principal Dancer & Choreographer at the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in NYC. For Whiteside, ballet belongs in the present.
Host of the Stage Rightside podcast and author of Center Center: A Funny, Sexy, Sad Almost Memoir of a Boy in Ballet, Whiteside has also choreographed some faces you just might recognize: Mariah Carey and Taylor Swift.
Also a member of the NYC-based drag group “The Dairy Queens”, he performs alongside RuPaul's Drag Race alum Milk—and continues to push the envelope. Whiteside’s song and music video "I Hate My Job" has been featured in The New York Times, Huffington Post, MTV, and Billboard.
Photographed with Whiteside is Finnian Carmeci, an accomplished dancer with the ABT. Carmeci has performed the Mouse King in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Nutcracker, the Midnight Pas de Deux, and Apollo in Sylvia, in addition to appearing in every one of the Company’s full-length ballets.
James, you’re often described as a multi hyphenate—principal dancer, choreographer, author, and podcast host. How do these identities inform one another, and which part of your creative life feels most essential right now?
They’re all just different ways of telling stories. Dance is physical, writing is private, podcasting is social—but they’re all me processing the world. Dance is always the most essential to me.
You began ballet training at just nine years old. How do you think that shaped your relationship to the art form and to yourself as an artist?
It gave me a vocabulary before I had a voice. I learned how to express things physically long before I could articulate them emotionally.
Can you take us back to your early days at the D’Valda & Sirico Dance and Music Centre—what do you remember most vividly about that period?
The sound of Janet Jackson and Britney Spears blasting in Studio One. The sweat, the joy, and the community.
Having danced principal roles in some of ballet’s most iconic works—Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, Giselle—what does it take to keep these centuries-old stories feeling alive and personal?
You stop trying to honor tradition and start trying to tell the truth. The audience doesn’t need history—they need humanity. I do my best to honor my own ideas of who these characters are instead of trying to be someone else’s idea of who they are.
From Marilyn’s Funeral at Juilliard to pop collaborations with Mariah Carey and Taylor Swift, your work spans vastly different audiences. How have those experiences expanded the way you think about storytelling through movement?
If my intention is clear, the scale doesn’t matter.
You’ve published your first book, Center Center: A Funny, Sexy, Sad Almost Memoir of a Boy in Ballet. What reactions from readers have stayed with you the most since the book’s release?
People telling me they felt seen—especially dancers and queer kids who thought they were alone in their experience.
Through The Stage Rightside podcast, you’ve created space for deeper conversations than social media usually allows. What kinds of stories or voices are you most excited to amplify through the podcast?
Artists in transition—people leaving something, starting something, or questioning something.
You directed and choreographed the short film Daytripper, which was nominated for a New York Emmy. How did your approach to movement change when you knew the camera—not a live audience—would be the primary witness?
Everything got smaller and more internal, which was an exciting challenge for me. I loved working on that film. I’d kill to do it all over again.
You continue to choreograph for music videos, commercials, film, and ballet, including New American Romance and City of Women for American Ballet Theatre. Looking ahead, what risks are you most interested in taking at this point in your career?
Letting myself not know the ending before I begin.
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CREW CREDITS:
Talent: James B. Whiteside
Talent: Finnian Carmeci
PhotoBook Editor-In-Chief: Alison Hernon
PhotoBook Creative Director + Photographer + Producer: Mike Ruiz
Fashion Stylist: Alison Hernon at Exclusive Artists
Hair: Andrea Wilson at Next Artists
Makeup: Deney Adam using M·A·C Cosmetics
Set Design: Jasin Cadic
Assistant Fashion Stylist: Sabrina Diaz
Assistant to Creative Director: Mia Aponte
Photo Assistant: Dani Sax
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine
Interview by Brya Sheridan, Assistant to Editor-in-Chief, PhotoBook Magazine
Studio: LOFT ELEVEN TEN