If you’re not familiar with the name Ryan Heffington, chances are you’ve seen his work.
The choreographer is behind some of the most iconic dance routines of our time, including Sia’s “Chandelier” video, which gave then 11-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler her first mainstream hit. He followed up with Sia’s “Elastic Heart” routine, which starred Ziegler alongside Shia Labeouf.
Not to mention, he worked with Humberto Leon and Carol Lim on Kenzo’s fragrance ad starring Margaret Qualley, and choreographed the design duo’s recent Opening Ceremony dance show, Changers, which starred Lakeith Stanfield and Mia Wasikowska.
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For his work on these projects and more, Heffington was honored with the Performing Arts Innovator of the Year award by The Wall Street Journal‘s WSJ Mag. At a ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday evening, Heffington, along with other honorees, including Reese Witherspoon (Entertainment Innovator of the Year) and Raf Simons (Fashion Innovator of the Year) were presented their silver statuettes.
However, while Witherspoon chose to take her moment at the podium to elaborate on her plan to fight for more movies with strong female leads in Hollywood, and a bashful Simons spent more time heaping praise on his presenter, Marc Jacobs, than speaking of his own accomplishments, Heffington skipped the speech and did the one thing he does best: He danced.
ICYMI: Choreographer Ryan Heffington did this instead of giving a speech while accepting @WSJMag’s Performing Art Innovator award last night pic.twitter.com/GEBfhIWAJb
— Sam Reed (@HereReedThis) November 2, 2017
Honestly, we’d expect nothing less.
