Street Dancer Bobby “Pocket” Horner Steps Back from Broadway

October 21, 2024

BY BONNIE EISSNER; PHOTOS BY ADAIN TOOTH

Note: This article was first published in Stance on Dance’s fall/winter 2024 print issue. To learn more, visit stanceondance.com/print-publication.

Just over two years ago, Toronto-based street dancer Bobby “Pocket” Horner got the break that many dancers dream of: a spot in a Broadway musical. Cast as the nonbinary character Rumour in the popular musical & Juliet — a jukebox show of pop songs by hitmaker Max Martin that imagines the life of Shakespeare’s Juliet had she lived — Horner thrilled audiences. Fans raved on Instagram, “We couldn’t take our eyes off you!” “Your dancing is spectacular. I was drawn to your dance style for the entire performance.” The New York Times described Horner as “electrifying” and noted that the audience went wild when Horner performed freestyle street dance at the top of the show.

Just before their Broadway debut, Horner spoke to the Toronto Star about their experience in the play. “It feels like the most aligned I’ve ever been, in my whole life, doing anything,” they said.

By last July, though, Horner was in a different place. Dancing on Broadway was no longer a Disney fairy tale but closer to a Shakespearean play, full of light and shadow. At a New York City coffee shop, Horner, who exudes warmth, spoke with candor about their love of street dance and the highs and lows they encountered as a nonbinary artist performing on the Great White Way.

Broadway, Horner said, has brought “such a beautiful opportunity and so many things on paper that seem so climactic and epic.” They performed with the cast of the musical at the Tony Awards Show and on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Good Morning America.

But Horner, 31, also described a culture clash. In the world of street dance, they can express how they’re feeling in the moment or what’s happening in the world. “I think that’s what art is — the responsibility to reflect the times,” they said, quoting Nina Simone. “But doing the same show eight times a week, it’s hard to stay connected.”

The “intense” and “almost militant” training Horner received while studying street dance — specifically popping, locking, and breaking — prepared them for the physical demands of Broadway, they said. Yet when they performed and even battled, it was for short periods of time. Dancing in eight shows a week plus rehearsals strains the body. In July, Horner was nursing a year-old knee injury. “It feels like being in the Olympics with no off-season,” they said. “Even football teams have off-seasons.”

Dancing on Broadway was not Horner’s aspiration. “It was never something that was even on my radar,” they said.

Although Horner was first inspired by dance when they were eight years old and saw Michael Jackson’s Thriller video on a tiny television in the basement of their home in suburban Ontario, it wasn’t until high school that they took their first dance classes. They studied what was offered at their arts high school — ballet, modern, and jazz. Occasionally, guest artists came to teach hip-hop. One artist, Melissa Nascimento-So from City Dance Corps in Toronto, spotted Horner’s potential and encouraged them to audition for her studio’s pre-professional program. Horner hesitated, but after their high school dance teachers told them they had what it took to dance professionally, they went for it. They got into the program and began training after graduating from high school.

At City Dance Corps, Horner met Andrew “Pyro” Chung, an established street dancer, who invited them to audition for a new street dance academy he was starting. Horner, who struggles with stage fright, was so nervous they almost skipped the tryout. But a friend encouraged them, and they went for it. Horner wasn’t familiar with street dance at the time, and a lot of the terminology, such as twist-o-flex, walk out, and master flex, went right over their head. They thought they had bombed the audition.

Yet, Chung and his partner Mariano “Glizzi” Abarca were sufficiently impressed by what they sensed of Horner’s talent and hard work that they invited the 21-year-old dancer to join their new Footnotes Elite Training Camp on a provisional basis. Horner had three months to prove they had the mettle for the program. They did. The rigorous training clicked, Horner said. “I was able to learn so fast and in a way that was so fulfilling.”

Chung has since become Horner’s mentor, and Horner says they became obsessed with popping when they learned about it at Footnotes. The dance style, which started in the US in the 1970s, involves tensing and releasing muscles in time to music beats in ways that make the dancer appear to move mechanically. Michael Jackson trained and danced with early poppers like Timothy Earl Solomon, known as Popin’ Pete. Horner sought out workshops with popping pioneers and was stunned to learn they had been zombies in Thriller, the video that had fascinated them as a kid.

In 2018, Horner and three friends from Footnotes created a dance crew, House of Hunniez, to perform and compete at events and battles in Canada and the US. They choreographed their own pieces and battled at freestyle events.

A year later, in another twist of fate, Horner landed a coveted spot in Disney’s Zombies 2, which was filmed in Toronto. At the audition, the film’s hip-hop choreographer Jennifer Weber played a Bruno Mars song. “I remember just going off,” Horner said. Everyone in the room started cheering and screaming,” they said. “It was the first time I was like, ‘Oh wow, I have something to offer.’” Horner’s agent told them after they landed the job, “Now, they’re just looking for people like you,” Horner recalled.

Weber’s next big job was choreographing & Juliet, and she remembered Horner. In 2021, Horner was invited to audition for the musical.

At that point, Horner wasn’t dancing. The pandemic prompted them to step away and reflect on their role as a white person in dance culture and the fact that they enjoyed an unfair privilege performing an art form that was created by Black and brown people. People who saw them on stage would tell them they had never seen anybody move like that before. “And I’m like, that’s crazy because I have,” Horner said. “There are tons of members of the POC community who can do what I do, but they aren’t given the same space or opportunity to show their skills.”

The break also let Horner see that they were living two lives. Street dance had allowed them to access their masculinity. “Living in that, being able to feel that in my body, never felt weird or uncomfortable,” they said. “I thought it had to do with just dance, but it really had to do more with who I was.”

So when Horner read the script for & Juliet, which celebrates queer love and gives Juliet a nonbinary best friend, they saw a mirroring of their own life. By then, Horner had started transitioning, and they thought they would be safe in a show that was “inherently very gay, very trans.”

But Broadway, they realized, still had some catching up to do. “Even working on a show that has these characters and works with these themes, I’m still a nonbinary person in a very binary industry,” Horner said. As the show progressed, though, Horner was able to advocate for changes and accommodations that made the show more comfortable and their experience more affirming.

Looking back, Horner thinks being nonbinary gave them an edge in landing the role. But, based on some of the initial choreography, audience members didn’t always see them that way. At the stage door, Horner said, fans would say things like, “You go, girl! You were amazing. Wasn’t she great?” Horner appreciated the love but was pained by the misperception, they said.

Horner is grateful to the show’s creators for being open to change, and the dancer has found upsides to being a nonbinary performer on Broadway. The visibility has allowed them to be a role model for aspiring dancers. They started accumulating a roster of students and taught classes to people of all ages who wanted to learn street dance. “I’ve made such beautiful connections with families and students who see themselves in me,” they said.

Ultimately, though, nearly two years on Broadway were enough for Horner. They planned to step back as soon as their contract ended in October, if not before. “I could be doing something much braver,” Horner said. They have no intention of returning. “I’m going to prioritize my healing and health moving forward,” they said.

“I would love to continue performing, but in ways that address the time we’re in, the time I’m in,” Horner said. They want to help the world heal through dance, through movement. “Hopefully this has given me enough exposure for people to trust me with that.”

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Bonnie Eissner is a writer, editor, and public relations professional. You can see samples of her work at linktr.ee/bonnie_writing.