Ryan Heffington

 ( American Choreographers ) 

Heffington is best known for choreographing the music videos for Arcade Fire's "We Exist" (2013) and Sia's "Chandelier" (2014), both of which were nominated for Grammy Awards, and the latter of which won him a VMA Awards. Other Sia videos that Heffington has choreographed include "Elastic Heart", "Big Girls Cry", "Cheap Thrills" and "The Greatest".Adams, Char. "Sia Releases Haunting 'The Greatest' Music Video: Is It an Orlando Shooting Tribute?" , People magazine, September 6, 2016 Sia and Heffington's collaborations have "done more to raise the standards of dance in pop music than nearly any current artist integrating the forms."Kourlas, Gia. "For Sia, Dance Is Where the Human and the Weird Intersect" , The New York Times, 19 July 2016, accessed 31 October 2016. He has also worked with FKA Twigs and Britney Spears, and made several appearances on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Heffington created the choreography for the science fiction series The OA, which debuted on Netflix in December 2016.Renfro, Kim. "The genius behind Sia's music video choreography is the man who created the movements for 'The OA'", Business Insider Australia, December 23, 2016.

More of his work can be seen in television, film and onstage around the world, including the first season finale of HBO's Euphoria, Prime Video's Transparent, Spike Jonze's commercials for Kenzo (winner of the highest honor, the Titanium Lion @ the 2017 Cannes Film Festival), Apple's “Welcome Homepod” featuring FKA Twigs, and Edgar Wright's critically acclaimed 2017 film Baby Driver.Murphy, Mekado (27 June 2017). "How They Pulled Off the Perfectly Timed Stunts in ‘Baby Driver’" , The New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2017.Fear, David (28 June 2017). "'Baby Driver': How Edgar Wright Staged the Crime Movie's Musical Action Scenes" , Rolling Stone.

Retrieved 7 July 2017.
     

Heffington was the owner of The Sweat Spot, a dance studio in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. The space offered classes for both professional dancers and beginners in a casual atmosphere. Heffington decided to open the studio after he had hosted a roving event called Sweaty Sundays. Although the studio closed in 2020, Heffington still hosts Sweatfest and Wet Wednesdays on Instagram to thousands of dancers live.

More recently, Heffington choreographed Lin-Manuel Miranda's 2021 film adaptation of the Jonathan Larson musical tick, tick... BOOM! and made his acting debut in Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza.