James Vu Anh Pham: An Award-Winning Vision Behind Madonna and FKA Twigs

Choreography by James Vu Anh Pham

The Manor LDN recently had the incredible pleasure of welcoming James Vu Anh Pham for an unforgettable masterclass — and few dancers anywhere can claim a résumé that moves this fluidly between concert dance and global pop stages. A Vietnamese-Australian powerhouse in contemporary dance, raised in Perth and trained through Chunky Move before winning the 2014 Helpmann Award for Best Male Dancer, Pham brought a genuinely rare blend of artistry and experience into the Finsbury Park studio.

That range has since made them one of the most sought-after creative voices behind the scenes of pop's biggest visual moments. Pham has worked with legends including FKA Twigs — choreographing "Striptease," winner of Best Alternative Video at the 2025 UKMVAs — and Madonna, contributing to The Celebration Tour. Alongside that commercial work sits a genuinely serious contemporary dance pedigree: collaborations with esteemed choreographers Damien Jalet, Akram Khan, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, including a National Dance Awards UK win for Outstanding Male Modern Performance with Akram Khan Company. Few choreographers move this convincingly between the concert dance world and the pop stage; Pham has built an entire career doing exactly that.

The session itself reflected that same dual fluency. It began with a comprehensive warm-up guiding dancers through stretching, strength, and fluid movement, before Pham introduced floorwork, isolations, musicality, and body awareness — laying the foundation for choreography that blended elements of both concert and commercial dance styles. For dancers used to one world or the other, this was a rare chance to train inside both at once.