Lil Nas X’s Saturday Night Live performance of his hit song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) was certainly one for the history books, and we have dance choreographer Sean Bankhead to thank! Think about it - who else could direct a Black and openly gay Grammy-award winning rapper with Black male dancers all wearing du-rags and tight leather pants for the entire world to see?
With the iconic wardrobe selections from stylist Hodo Musa, the performance definitely felt intentional, symbolizing to the world that ‘Black Gay Men Been Here and Isn’t Going Anywhere!’
Bankhead, who's work with artists like Beyoncé, Missy Elliott, City Girls, and Cardi B shared via an Instagram post Monday (May 24) that he and his team hand selected all six male dancers for Lil Nas X’s performance. He details that the dancers prepared for two weeks to perform, however upon landing in New York City, one of the dancers tested positive for Covid-19.
“Shit happens and the show must go on. I had to recast all 6 dancers and 2 background vocalist the DAY BEFORE WE WENT LIVE! A nightmareeeeeee!!! And teach them the entire show we worked on and cleaned for two weeks,” stated Bankhead.
Bankhead further shares that he was forced to choreograph the new dancers over Zoom because he had to be quarantined.
“I just want to commend the dancers who learned the show the night before and kicked ASS! You guy never know what’s going on behind the scenes and all i can say is i was beyond stressed as fuck...”
He ends with thanking all of the original dancers who worked very hard but unfortunately couldn’t perform. Thankfully, the show still came out spectacular!