“It’s so much better to just accept yourself and get that love from yourself,” KJ Campbell tells The Irish Dance Globe ahead of the biggest performance of his career so far, “and the people who don’t love it just clearly aren’t your people.”
The New York-based, Ohio-raised Irish dancer is speaking to us over Zoom just one day before he takes to the stage at the Manhattan Movements & Arts Center for his first lead performance with the Brooklyn Irish Dance Company show Celtic Odyssey, a stage voyage the production describes as an “adventure of the heart and sea” which premiered Off-Broadway back in the spring of 2022. The milestone will make the 24-year-old the first trans man to lead a commercial Irish dancing show.
Growing up dancing for The Irwin Academy Of Irish Dance from the age of six before moving to The Academy in 2014, KJ competed at Majors like the Great Britains and All Irelands and was a part of two world champion Senior teams, which he describes as his “biggest achievement” during his competitive chapter. However, he was always drawn to the performance side of dancing and struggled to bring that same passion to feiseanna. When an opportunity arose to audition for Brooklyn Irish Dance Co — a woman-founded company which also hosts the queer-friendly, all-ability Gayli nights — he took it and hasn’t looked back.
We spoke to the lead dancer about his experience coming out as trans, stepping up to the principal role, and why being true to yourself outweighs everything.
Can you remember what it was that first caught your eye about Irish dancing?
I think I just liked the performance of it. I liked how it was so different from everything else — the way you hold yourself and the style of it all. And of course, rhythms, I love a good rhythm.
Did you find it to be an inclusive space growing up?
For me, since I did have the privilege at the time of presenting and identifying as a girl, I didn’t face discrimination in that way, but as I got older and started to kind of realise, at least sexuality and stuff like that, there was definitely discrimination against that.
“I bring that activism into everything I go into”
KJ Campbell
Are you comfortable telling us about when you started coming out to people and how you navigated that time in your life?
When I started coming out as trans [it] was actually right when I moved to New York. It had been probably four years since I had competed, so I went to put on the dress, and I was just like, “This is weird — this doesn’t really feel right.” So I just was like, “I don’t know, maybe it’s just competition”. So I just quit. And then about two months later [I went to] this Brooklyn Irish Dance Company audition, and they were very off the bat, like, “You don’t have to wear a skirt if you don’t want to, we’ll put you in your pants.” And it wasn’t a question of gender or anything. It was just [doing] what is comfortable.
So I think when I started realising, “I can make the space for myself to be comfortable while Irish dancing”, is when I was comfortable then coming to terms with why I didn’t feel comfortable wearing a skirt. So I guess I didn’t properly come out until 2022.
Before you went for that audition, did you have any desire to dance professionally?
I thought about it to the extent that everyone does: “Should I do this. Could I do this?” But it truly wasn’t something that I was even thinking I was going to pursue too much, but then I just got to the audition. First of all, I hate competing; I don’t miss it. Second of all, I love performing, so it was pretty quick.
Did you go through a retraining process like switching to the men’s soft shoes and changing your style and steps?
I think one of the reasons I didn’t ever do too well in solos is because I could never dance femininely. The main comments I got from my teachers, they’d be like, “You need to dance like a girl.” And I guess now I understand why I couldn’t. So it really wasn’t too hard of a switchover. I also have a twin who danced in the boys’ competition, so I was always learning his sets and copying his stuff. So most of the stuff I do now is just copied from what I’ve watched him do.
“The people who don’t love it just clearly aren’t your people”
KJ Campbell
How have you found stepping up to the lead role?
It’s quite terrifying! It’s very, very exciting. I’m so stoked, but it’s a lot of learning new things. I’ve never had to do partner work with a female partner, so I did have to learn all of that. Literally at rehearsals last night, I dropped her! [Let’s hope] that doesn’t happen tomorrow.
You’re the first trans male lead in a major Irish dance production. What does that milestone mean to you?
It’s just crazy to me because it’s something that I had never seen or even thought was a thing when I was growing up, and I just know if it was, if I saw that, I definitely would have realised things sooner. And I don’t regret the timing really, of when I realised things and how my life has folded out with that, because I’m very grateful for the spot that I’m in right now, but I know that’s not everybody’s story.
Sure, my life would be different and great in other ways if I had realised things sooner. So it’s cool to be that for people who are going to come and see the show. They might not even know it’s a trans lead, but if they do, what a great thing for especially younger people to see, because this is a child-friendly show.
“It’s quite terrifying [stepping up to the lead role]! It’s very, very exciting”
KJ Campbell
There’s so much anti-trans legislation in both the US and the UK at the moment. How important is it to you to continue pursuing your own personal milestones alongside activism and advocating?
They go hand in hand. I bring that activism into everything I go into. Things are bad in the world and in the Irish dance world. So it feels like I’m doing something to help both with any sort of representation.
Do you have any advice for a young person who’s going through their own gender identity journey in Irish dancing and struggling to find their place?
I think what I realised was, it’s scary accepting that people may hate on you for what you’re coming out as or whatever’s going on, but the internal hatred that you have for yourself, for not being your true self, outweighs it, and it’s so much better to just accept yourself and get that love from yourself. And the people who don’t love it just clearly aren’t your people. I feel like that’s my biggest thing — just to stay true to yourself.
Follow KJ Campbell and Brooklyn Irish Dance Company on Instagram. ‘Celtic Odyssey’ visited the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on September 19. Keep up with future performances on the website.
