Vincent Asiel Hardison (January 23, 1982), also known as Duke Jones and/or Asi, is one of the male dancers of Lady Gaga. He was part of the Haus of Gaga from September of 2008 to February 1, 2018. Asiel was supposed to be on Enigma but due to scheduling conflict with his job as choregrapher for Shania Twain, he was not able to join the concert residency.
Biography
Hardison was born in Beverly, Chicago. He headed to Los Angeles to live out his dreams and had the privilege to share the screen and the stage with artist such as Miley Cyrus, Omarion, Lady Gaga, Thalia, Kirk Franklin, Monica, Gloria Estefan, Snoop Dogg, R. Kelly, Whitney Houston and Qui.
Meeting Gaga
“ | In 2008 I got a call from my agent to audition for this new artist – Lady Gaga – for a performance on So You Think You Can Dance. Went to the audition, booked the job, then started rehearsals right away that same day. At the [time] she only toured with two girls, but a month or two later she had auditions for her tour where she would open up for New Kids On The Block using all male dancers. I went to that audition as well and later found out from Gaga that she “was hoping that tall dancer – me – would be there". There were about 80 dancers at this audition, then 20, then 10, and finally four guys were booked for this and I was one of them. Once it got down to 10 guys they had us all in one room and had us go through the choreography four at a time, and switching out guys each time to see which look they were going for. ‘I never got switched out which means I danced that combo at least 10 times at that point. She’s a loyal boss and really great sister ‘I later found out from Gaga that the reason for that was because they were looking to match guys off of me. I had no clue that I had basically already booked the job. 'Asiel didn’t take the opportunity to tour with Gaga lightly and explains that he was ‘fighting for [his] life’ in that audition room. He explained: ‘My muscles and brain was exhausted. I remember turning around after each round and praying to Jesus cause I was so tired but I really wanted to go on this tour. ‘I’m so glad I fought for that because that one month turned into 10 years and me working with one some of the most creative teams I’ve ever experienced. | ” |
—Asiel to Metro UK in 2019 |
- “Laurieann assigned me as Lady Gaga’s dance captain after seeing my ability and work ethic in rehearsals for the FAME tour” - Asiel.
Work with Lady Gaga
- So You Think You Can Dance (July 15, 2008)
- New Kids on the Block: Live
- The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (January 8, 2009)
- Doll Domination Tour
- The Fame Ball Tour
- The Monster Ball Tour
- The Born This Way Ball Tour (2012-2013)
- MTV Video Music Awards (Applause, 2013)
- iTunes Festival (2013)
- Good Morning America (2013)
- ArtRave (2013)
- Saturday Night Live (2013)
- American Music Awards (Do What U Want, 2013)
- Lady Gaga & the Muppets' Holiday Spectacular (2013)
- Music Station (2013)
- Jingle Bell Ball (2013)
- Roseland Ballroom (2014)
- ArtRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball (2014)
- Super Bowl LI (February 5, 2017)
- Coachella (April 15 & 22, 2017)
- Joanne World Tour (2017-2018)
Music videos
- "Poker Face" (2008)
- "LoveGame" (2009)
- "Paparazzi" (2009)
- "Bad Romance" (2009)
- "Telephone" (2010)
- "Alejandro" (2010)
- "Judas" (2011)
- "Applause" (2013)
- "G.U.Y." (2014)