It seems like Jesse Rasmussen has always been on the go. He speaks quickly, with the rapid fire enthusiasm and energy of a New Yorker rather than a typical laid-back Aussie. But he is unfailingly polite and pleasant and generous with praise for others while discussing the development of his own career in dance.
He is also very busy. Luckily I manage to catch him on the phone before a performance of Dein Perry’s Tap Dogs at Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast. Coincidentally it turns out that the Gold Coast is where he grew up and started training to be a dancer. Rasmussen was 10 when he started at the Paradise Performer’s Academy with Peta Norton and Robert Sturrock. Just two years later he won the Showcase Dance Championships in Las Vegas.
“At that time it was probably one of the best dance studios on the Gold Coast and I was being taught by Peta Norton – Todd McKenney’s mother – so she knew what she was doing. It was a very musical theatre school – I did tap, jazz, ballet, song and dance.” Rasmussen says he trained five days a week and still loves being able to do different styles. “I worked really hard as a kid so I could have all these feathers in my cap and it would open up different avenues for me as a professional. Money is never a guarantee in this industry and having a range of abilities rather than specialising in one field can make the difference between working and not working.”
Before Rasmussen finished high school he had a private audition in Brisbane with David Atkins for Hot Shoe Shuffle. At 17 his professional career had begun, touring Australia for seven months playing the role of Tip. “I just got swept up in the whole dance industry,” he says. He moved to Sydney sson afterwards, where he has remained based for 10 years. At 18, inspired by the American hip-hop style that he had been exposed to at the LA Dance Force conventions in Brisbane as a teenager, Rasmussen went to Los Angeles for the first time to start training with the hip-hop dancers and choreographers where, he says, they are still “the best in the world”. He still attempts to get back to LA for three months each year (work commitments permitting) so he can continue to train and advance as a dancer. “I believe as a dancer we always need to keep updating ourselves and can never sit on our hands because once you believe you know it all, you’ll get left behind.”
Back in Sydney, at 19 Rasmussen performed in a string of musicals including Oh What A Night and Grease the Musical. In fact he remembers Grease as being the first time he and his younger brother Joel performed together in a professional production. “We toured around Australia together and it was really fun.” He has been performing and touring with Tap Dogs for three years now, juggling his stints with that show with many other dance projects.
In recent years Rasmussen has started creating his own work, branching out into directing and producing by co-founding Jtown, an entertainment production company, with his brother Joel. He has also used his entrepreneurial skills to give back by developing Flow City Australian Dance Convention, which allows Australian dance students to train in a workshop situation with leading choreographers from LA without having to travel overseas. Now in its fifth year, Flow City is based in Sydney and is, says Rasmussen, “A three day dance camp that’s designed to expose young dancers to the latest styles and trends so that they can keep up with the best, wherever they are”.
On top of musical theatre, hip-hop and commercial shows Rasmussen has also worked on some well known movies, including George Miller’s two Happy Feet movies. The first one was choreographed by Kelley Abbey in Australia and “took four years to make, with the motion capture technology where dancers performed each character’s movements in the studio instead of just using traditional animation techniques. But by the time we did the second film the technology had improved so much that it was made much more quickly.” He can also be seen briefly in the vaudeville scene at the beginning of Peter Jackson’s King Kong, for which he was called to a casting and auditioned with a one minute tap routine before being flown to New Zealand to work with the director.
It’s an exciting life but a whirlwind of activity and Rasmussen says he would not be able to juggle so many commitments without the support of his agent, Petie Fallon from Grayboy Agency, who he describes as a really good friend. Talking about his plans for the future, Rasmussen says can’t see himself anywhere else. “I love choreographing for others and creating events and I definitely want to be one of the leaders at the forefront of the dance and entertainment industry. I feel like I have a lifetime of knowledge to give back.”