We recently connected with James MahKween and have shared our conversation below.

Hi James, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I created “The MahKween Method” back in 2014/15. This came about from working with dancer’s and constantly being told that my choreography/ movement was completely different from what the dancers have done before. I like to use a lot of power movements and theater to help create my work. I have a BFA in Musical Theater Performance. I’ve always believed in making sure my work is clear/ understandable and very dramatic when watching because when I first started majority of work focused on my personal life and where I was at the time in life. Which just happened to be a lot of darkness/ pain/sorrow. I always would say “that people loved to watch my pain on stage.” And they did appreciate it. But with that there was a lot of movement that I wanted to use that I wanted to seem extremely challenging/contorted because that was my life at that time. Also a lot of silent screaming because I felt that I was always screaming for support/ love but was never heard. Also me wanting to be bigger than life I wanted my movement to show that. Doing a lot of of floor work and quickly rising up because in my personal life I had extreme ups and down fighting for a balance. I wanted what I was feeling internally to be conveyed externally on stage. In one of our rehearsals getting ready for my first show that I put together a dancer stated that I have a true authentic method of expressing movement and they all said at the same time “The MahKween Method” and it really sat with my spirit so I decided to keep that as my movement titled!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve always loved dancing! But I when I got to Lula Washington Dance Theater that’s when i decided to take it to another level creatively. Tamica and Lula were my first true mentors in the world of choreography. Offering me insight into what that is and how to set myself apart from other artists and telling my story. Offering me endless amounts of space to work on that and finding that for myself. I’ll always be grateful for that because I’m not sure if I wasn’t offered that space I wouldn’t be the creative person I am today! Also gifting me opportunities to teach and dance to see if this what I really wanted to do with my life. Since then Ive been given an overwhelming amount of opportunities to offer dance classes/ present on several stages/workshops/ choreography classes to other dancers. I ended up creating my own dance company “Eternity Dance Theater” where we performed all around California and even got an opportunity to travel to New York.

After a while I wanted to expand out and do the same so I created my first dance event “Reflect” which is a platform that allows choreographers to share their work based on a theme chosen by me. Giving the audience and artist to connect on a set subject with multiple views on how they feel on that theme. I’ve been doing that for 6 years we’ve focused on love, home, gratitude, time, and more. It’s been very successful. I’ll never forget when I first started this adventure my first 3 reflects ideas I didn’t know what to expect how it would work because I’ve never put a project like this together before and I was blessed to have 12 plus choreographers present and they were sold out. It was a sign for me to continue down this path of production and now I’ve created other shows such as “Love Inclinations” which is a variety show that allows artist of all form to share their opinions on the bends and folds of love. “F.E.M” which stands for Feminine Energy Magnified it’s variety show for artist who identify with feminine energy and need a safe community to express themselves within that.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I first created “Reflect” for the first few years I didn’t have a team to help me put it together. I’d did everything by myself with minimal to no guidance as to go about creating this space for artist. I knew it had to happen because I truly loved the idea of creating space to offer artist time to share their opinion on a subject. I had decided if I was gonna let the fact that I was on the adventure alone keep me from creating something that was needed for the community or would I just not do it. So I did my research and worked to create connections.i had no idea it would be as successful as it is today. I just believed in giving back opportunities like people did for me.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I’ve known my business partner for years. We went to college together and are best friends. He’s actually my original dance partner when I would create choreography! I know he thought I was crazy when I would ask for him to do certain movement. But he never left my side and he gave me a safe space to just try things. It wasn’t till recently that I asked him to be my creative assistant for all of my projects because I didn’t want overwhelm him with everything. But when I asked he gave me an effortless “yes” which truly still to this day warms my heart. Because he has just been so willing to be there for me and makes sure that I’m taking care of with any part that I need.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_mahkween_method?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=1360240003
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@MrD0lly?si=Uog2sIOGww4AozD-