Jaxon Willard

Jaxon Willard (born on September 20, 2001) is an American professional dancer and choreographer from American Fork, Utah, who trained at Center Stage Performing Arts Studio.

Jaxon Willard
Gender	Male
Age	24
Birthdate	September 20, 2001
Nationality	American
Hometown	American Fork, Utah
Height	5'7"
Eye Color	Black
Hair Color	Black
School Grade	{{{school grade}}}
Professional Information
Profession	Dancer Choreographer
Affiliations	Bloc LA Agency MN2S Agency UK
Dance Studios	Center Stage Performing Arts Studio
Titles	see below
Friends and Family
Parents	Cindy Fraughton Willard (adoptive mother) Bryan Willard (adoptive father)
Siblings	five older adoptive siblings
Friends	Avery Gay Ezra Soza Carter Williams Sam Williams Ella Horan
Pets	{{{pets}}}
Nicknames	Jax

Jaxon got first time public eye by his performance on NBC World of Dance season 2 in 2018 when he finished third in Junior Divisional Final. He already competed on season 1 as member of 801Squad in 2017, but they didn't pass the Qualifiers. As an estimated 4.7 million watched Jaxon Willard’s high energy dance routine with high-flying leaps and balletic turns, many may not have realized that through his dance, Jaxon was revealing his innermost struggle. On the show, he won fans with self-choreographed routines set to songs like “Fragile” by Kygo & Labrinth. JAX' The Cut performance. He got later also awarded Senior Male Best Dancer (Orlando) at The Dance Awards 2021 and Senior Male Core Performer at Radix 2019.

Now he has been making waves in the commercial industry. He was performing with Rihanna in the 2023 Super Bowl Halftime Show, which is currently with about 121 million the TV broadcast with the second most watchers in American history. He danced in an FKA twigs music video "Tears In The Club (feat. The Weeknd)" and at the 2022 Grammy Awards with Lil Nas X, and he’s taking on a mentorship role in YSL Beauty’s Push The Boundaries contest, where he will help further the careers of the two winners in its dance category.

Between September and December of 2021, he spent three months dancing in Dubai for the United Arab Emirates’ 50th anniversary.

In 2022, on Feb 17th, Jax performed with Julianne & Derek Hough on ABC's Step Into...The Movies, Behind-the-scene - Their cover of Saturday Night Fever. On March 22, he performed with Rosalía on “Saturday Night Live to CHICKEN TERIYAKI.” Shortly before he worked a month in Spain with her on her Motomami album.

On September 21, 2023, the Dance Magazine published an lead article by Amanda Sherwin - Meet Rising Commercial Star, Jaxon Willard.

In 2024, was performing on Madonna’s The Celebration world tour. Well, the shy, vulnerable, young man, who got patronized by Derek Hough on WoD is gone. For the Queen of Pop he turned the entire crowd in the arena on in strings. With Madonna and FKA twigs, he could finally tried out all sins live on stage he would burn to death in Utah. On May 4, 2024, Madonna closed out her career-spanning Celebration Tour Saturday with a free concert at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's Copacabana Beach in front of 1.6 million fans, setting the record for the largest audience ever for a stand-alone concert by any artist in history in a 2 h 10 min concert - Sight Reuters.So Jax had the biggest crowd in history as well and will probably never have stage fever again. - Some of JAX' Madonna Tour Highlights. On September 13, he was performing on FKA twigs' and Zoï Tatopoulos' collaboration, the music and concept video Eusexua. Shortly before he performed on Tim Milgram's concept video Singularity, who got the new Canon Co-Lab Ambassador, where Zoi did the choreography as well - The Making of. On September 19, Jax performed on the great dance show On and FKA twigs present THE BODY IS ART | featuring Eusexua (live) with his fellows Meshach Henry, Hailey Paollilo, Emiliano Jimenez, Naomi Weijand, Shivawn Joubert, Oscar Li, Daniele Sibilli, Dustin Tay and James Vu Anh. A special performance at London Fashion Week. On October 18 Jax performed on FKA twigs' new MV Perfect Stranger. On November 27, he perfomed on DWTS Season 33 with Stephen Nedoroscik and Rylee Arnold - Stephen & Rylee.

In 2025, on Feb 2, Jax performed with Doechii on the GRAMMY Awards, who got norminated for three GRAMMYs, and won in the category for Best Rap Album by Alligator bites never heal. On Feb 3, Lady Gaga's new music dance video "Abracadabra" was released. Jaxon performed with Lady Gaga and his fellows - Summer Waikiki, Yuli Maldonado, Jessica Toatoa, China Taylor, Patience Aquart, Idaliz Cristian, Starley Anne, Bailey Dean Holt, Taylor Amaré Marić, Briana Morrison, Jennique Dabomb, Kaili Bright, Ami Takashima, Sienna Lalau, Zara Dimmock, Alaïa, Ashley Kole, Jasmine Pōmaikaʻi, Teesha Taulepa, Daisy NicOlee, Honey Gonzales, Lexee Smith & Pressley Tucker (stand in). Directed by Lady Gaga, Parris Goebel and Bethany Vargas. Choreography by Parris Goebel. More dancing and production staff: Brain Friedman, Miguel Zárate, Tucker Barkley, Dez Soliven, Jordan Harris, Michael Dameski, Devin Neal, Dre'moni Watts, Robbie Blue, Lucas Debiasi, Trevon Anderson, Zachary Venegas, Mekhi Cuffee, James Dhaïti, Elvis Lopeti, Byron Tittle, Isaiah Reid, José Gabriel, Jose Tena and Gab Robert. Movement Assistents Gab Robert, Lexee Smith, Jessica Toatoa and China Taylor. Make-up by Sarah Tanno. Styling by Peri Roseenzweig, Nick Royal, Hunter Clem and Genesis Webb (so budget wasn't an issue here; didn't heard that for a while). "Parris Goebel's choreography is not for the weak", said Brain Friedman, who survived the job over a week with 47 that way. 37 of 40 dancers on the set were his former students or assistents including Parris Goebel and Jax (P2, P3).

Willard’s future goals include working with Doja Cat and Beyoncé. “I’m into reggaeton, contemporary, dembow, and Afrobeat, so I’d love to work with any artist of color whose music and life I can feel connected to,” he said.

Biography

Jaxon was born in Utah to a mother from Atlanta, Georgia, he never met. She had come to Utah to place her baby for adoption through “A Act Of Love.” The name of the Utah-based agency is strategically grammatically incorrect to make it the first listed in the phone book. The agency made it possible for Jaxon’s birth mother to deliver her baby in Utah, which his adoptive mom Cindy does not believe was a coincidence. “His birth mother, I believe through inspiration, brought him here so that I could find him here. I think it was the both of us being led to get him where he needed to be.” Jaxon was three months old when the Willards adopted him on Christmas Eve 2001. - WORLD WIDE ADOPTION DAY

At 14 years of age, Cindy Willard had a premonition that one day she would have a black child. Having been told at 18-years-old that she would never be able to bare any children, the premonition made sense. After serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cindy met and married her husband, and their first child was born soon thereafter. Four more children would be born into the family, but after having five children, the problems she had experienced as an 18-year-old resurfaced. She had a hysterectomy, and during recovery, she knew that her family was not complete, and she embarked on a new mission to find the missing member of the family.

Jaxon began ballroom dancing at age 11. He asked his sisters to join school ballroom dancing. After that he got hooked. Later he auditioned with the group 801Squad for the first season of World of Dance, the producers became concerned and contacted Cindy. They wanted to learn more about the racism and bullying that Jaxon had experienced growing up in a predominantly white community in Utah. She denied the request for an interview, believing that it was a matter that she and Jaxon needed to work through privately first. His group 801Squad was soon eliminated.

Then Jaxon decided that he wanted to audition on his own for the show’s next season. Cindy had just one request: “If you try out for the show again, you know where they’re going to want to go with your adoption story. ... So, if that’s where you want to go, let us figure this out first.” Together they worked through the arduous process, and when the producers of World of Dance approached her again about running the story about Jaxon’s experiences, she consented.

During one of the first emotional interviews of the season, in response to Jaxon’s comment about missing his birth mom and siblings, one of the interviewers asked, “Jax, do you understand though that you would not be where you are, being able to do what you do, without this mom? You wouldn’t be here without this mom. You wouldn’t be here without this family and the big picture is you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.” The comments were not exactly what then 16-year-old Jaxon wanted to hear at that time, but the truth was spoken, and it was exactly what he needed to hear from someone outside of the family.

to be continued ...

TV Competition Shows

NBC's World of Dance

Season 1

Qualifiers
801 Squad	79.3

Season 2

Qualifiers ("Fragile")
Ne-Yo	95
Jennifer Lopez	96
Derek Hough	91
AVERAGE	94

Duels Round ("Surprise Yourself")
Lucas Marinetto	88
Jaxon Willard	96

The Cut ("Higher")
Ne-Yo	90
Jennifer Lopez	90
Derek Hough	92
AVERAGE	90.7

Divisional Final ("Blind Faith")
Ne-Yo	87
Misty Copeland	89
Jennifer Lopez	87
Derek Hough	88
AVERAGE	87.8

In the middle of his performance, Jaxon began to have trouble breathing. He walked off the stage, and Ciara told him to take his time returning to the stage. Jaxon said, he can’t catch his breath. She hold his hand as he received oxygen. “I’m having some breathing problems, and it’s like athletic-induced asthma, and so it definitely like worries me because I don’t want to be dancing in this round and just all of a sudden stop because I can’t breathe,” Jaxon admitted. “But I’m just going to have to power through.”

Dance Titles

Runner-Up Placements

• 1st - National The Dance Awards 2017

Awards and Nominations

Year	Title	Category	Nominated	Result	Refs
2019	Radix Awards	Senior Male Core Performer	Jaxon Willard	Won
2021	The Dance Awards - Orlando	Senior Male Best Dancer	Jaxon Willard	Won

Contact

Management and Agencies:
MN2S Agency UK Agent Sharron Elkabas +44 207 378 7321

Quotes

About Jaxon

• "A beast of a dancer, but also one of the most loving, fun, and empathetic humans. His dancing is full of honesty and truth the more life experience he gets. [...] He’s a powerhouse mover, but is just as impactful when he goes still and looks out to the audience—that’s something you cannot teach.” - Willard’s mentor, contemporary dancer and teacher Chaz Buzan.

By Jaxon

• "It’s about my feelings towards my birth mom and how I was angry, and I felt abandoned by her. But then I didn’t know how to share these feelings with the mom I have now because I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and so I’d just suppress all these feelings. But then throughout my journey and my growing, I would just learn that I can’t just be mad at my birth mom because I don’t know the full story, and so I just must be grateful that I have the family I have now, and I’m just so thankful for that.” (after his “Fragile” performance, he explained the story behind the dance to the judges and audience)
• “It’s the constant pressure to dance that’s exhausting, so taking breaks keeps me in a healthy relationship.”
• “For a long time I was holding on to anger and stress from my past, but once I let that go, I had to navigate a lot of change in the way I moved and how I used dance as a creative outlet.”

Fun Facts

• He also likes painting and journaling and prioritizes taking time to “dance the way I want to outside of my work.”

Additional Page

Jaxon Willard/Gallery

External Links

• Instagram
• TikTok
• Facebook