IMG Models has signed Parris Goebel, the choreographer behind Jennifer Lopez’s portion of the Super Bowl LIV halftime show, The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned.
Sunday’s performance, which was co-headlined by Shakira, earned unanimous raves, and the overall Super Bowl telecast drew 102 million average total viewers between Fox, Fox Sports’ Spanish-language simulcast and streaming, its first ratings increase in five years. (See the halftime performance below.)
Goebel has been working with Lopez since 2012, when she choreographed her “Goin’ In” music video, her American Idol performance and part of her world tour that year. Goebel, at the young age of 28 years old, also has choreographed for such global stars as Rihanna, Janet Jackson, Kanye West, PSY, Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, Little Mix, Ciara, Jason Derulo, Big Bang and Sam Smith. She also has appeared in her artists’ music videos, most notably front and center with her all-female ReQuest dance crew in Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” which to date has generated more than 3.2 billion views on YouTube and ranks as the eighth most-viewed video on the site.
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A native of Auckland, New Zealand, Goebel began taking hip-hop lessons at age 10 and started ReQuest with four friends five years later. The following year, she got her big break when ReQuest went to Arizona for the Monsters of Hip Hop dance convention and Goebel was chosen to perform in the final. She left school to focus on dance full-time after that, and in 2016 she won Female Choreographer of the Year and Live Performance of the Year at the World Dance Awards. Earlier this year, Goebel’s contribution to dance earned her an appointment as Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
She is next branching out into filmmaking, making her feature directing debut with Sony’s Murder on the Dance Floor, an adaptation of her own street dance-based show.
IMG Models will look to expand Goebel’s profile beyond the dance world through editorial and brand deals in beauty and fashion, and particularly tap into her South Pacific roots for opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region, such as the 25th anniversary of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia in May.
“I’m so excited and honored to be signing with fashion’s most respected agency — IMG,” Goebel said Monday in a statement. “To be represented alongside so many influential and pioneering people in fashion means so much to me. I can’t wait to start this collaboration and make my own lane in the fashion world as a strong, creative Polynesian woman!”
