Vintage tweed blazer, vest, RALPH LAUREN trousers, NEW BALANCE shoes. Photographed by Borgy Angeles
Keone Madrid reflects on returning to the Philippines, his journey from dancer to director, and the stories shaping his work across film, theater, and movement.
As Keone Madrid did his first Vogue Philippines shoot, his eyes couldn’t help but look over to the group of people dancing next to him. At Ayala Malls Circuit, random titos and titas were rehearsing for a dance number as the sun set. Madrid swiftly moves to the beat of their music, shifting from Eddie Low’s “Pearly Shells” to Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean.” In between takes, he smiles at them, appearing to feel right at home.
It is his first time not only shooting with Vogue Philippines, but also holding a dance workshop in the country his family once left behind. He had waited years for the right moment, the right constellation of people and schedules, insisting that when it finally happened, his family would be in the room. Most of all, he wanted his lolo there, the man who migrated to the United States with, as family lore goes, less than two dollars in his pocket, and built a life from nothing.
“He showed me what it takes to put your family first,” Madrid says. Growing up, he heard stories of his grandfather’s childhood in the Philippines. For years, he had asked tos ee the places where those stories began. Now, his visit to the country is a homecoming in motion: to his grandmother’s roots in Ilocos, to Baguio, where his grandfather is from.
Madrid is widely known as a dancer and choreographer, known for choreographing BTS’ “Dope,” “Blood Sweat & Tears,” “DNA” and Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself.” But for him, that framing has begun to feel increasingly lacking. “Dance has been the root of who I am,” he says, “but storytelling has always been my DNA.” Over time, that instinct has pushed him beyond movement alone, into directing for theater, film, and music videos.
Today, he describes himself simply as a “multifaceted creative.” He edits, does visual effects, colors footage, operates cameras, moves sandbags, pushes props, whatever the story requires. There is no hierarchy in the work, only a commitment to seeing an idea through from beginning to end. From being a dancer and choreographer, Madrid branched out to film and theater, choreographing and starring in Disney’s animated short film Us Again (2021) and co-creating, directing, and choreographing the Off-Broadway dance show Beyond Babel and Once Upon a One More Time.
Yet the transition hasn’t always been seamless. Madrid admits that there are people who still struggle to see him beyond choreography. “They’ll say, ‘The choreography in your video was amazing, but who’s the director?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, I directed that.’” The surprise, he says, is telling. Actors are allowed to become directors; dancers, too often, are not granted the same creative latitude.
For Madrid, the leap makes perfect sense. Choreographers, he points out, are already adept collaborators, working across departments to shape rhythm, pacing, and emotion. “At the end of the day,” he says, “it’s about guiding the eye and guiding people’s emotions.” Whether on stage or on screen, the goal is the same.
His confidence, now unmistakable, was hard-won. There was a time when Madrid didn’t feel he belonged in these spaces at all. That changed not through validation, but necessity. When a project lost its editor, and there was no budget to replace him, Madrid stepped in. He taught himself through old classes, YouTube tutorials, conversations with friends, and close study of films, even counting seconds between cuts to understand visual patterns. Confidence, he learned, comes from doing.
Being Filipino adds another layer of responsibility. If appearing on stage and screen once felt radical, being the one making decisions behind the camera feels weightier still. Madrid speaks of becoming one of the first Filipino director-choreographers on Broadway not as a personal triumph, but as a duty. “I don’t want to be the last,” he says. Excellence, for him, is a way of opening doors for those who come after.
That sense of lineage has taken on a new meaning in this chapter of his life. About a year ago, Madrid found himself in an identity crisis, ready to leave dance behind entirely in pursuit of filmmaking. Then, during a family gathering in Hawaii, he encountered photographs of relatives he had never met, including an image of a man who looked uncannily like him. It was his great-grandfather, known in his time as a dancer.
The realization hit deeply. Dance was not something Madrid had chosen; it was something that he inherited. In that moment, the need to label himself fell away. Dance, film, choreography, editing: they were no longer separate identities, but tools for telling a story that stretches backward and forward through generations.
Now, everything feels aligned. “It’s all firing on all cylinders,” he says. Standing in the Philippines, watching Filipinos rehearse outdoors, feeling the energy he recognizes as home, Madrid is no longer questioning whether he belongs. He is simply listening to the rhythm, to history, and to the stories waiting to be told.
BY DAPHNE SAGUN. Photographs by Borgy Angeles. Produced by Angelo Tantuico. Styled by Gab Yap. Photography assistant: Roj Mayugon. Digital multimedia artist: Myc Priestley. Special thanks to A-Team & ZERO Studio
