Gbari Gilliam, a Berkeley High graduate who moved to Los Angeles to forge a thriving dance career in community, theater, TV and film, was in the hospital Friday, fighting for his life, after he suddenly collapsed from a previously undiagnosed heart condition that now requires he undergo a heart transplant.
The “talented, kind, and passionate” 32-year-old, who is said to be beloved in hip-hop and other dance communities in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, went into cardiac arrest during a dance rehearsal on March 27, his mother, Tuseda Graggs-Borden and his girlfriend, Shantel Ureña, said.
Last summer, Gilliam was performing with rapper Jimmy Bada$$ on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and his Instagram is filled with videos of his high-energy performances in a range of styles. Now he is on life support in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where his loved ones have said that he will need a heart transplant to survive, followed by extended hospital care and a long recovery.
“That’s what we’re looking at,” said Graggs-Borden of Pittsburg, who has spent the past week by her son’s side. “My prayer is that his heart will get strong enough that he does not need the transplant but the doctors are not in my mindset, so he’s officially on the transplant candidate list.”
Los Angeles-based dancer Gbari Gilliam, who was born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley, is facing a heart transplant after collapsing March 27 from an undiagnosed heart condition (gbaridenzel Instagram)
People in the Bay Area and Los Angeles dance communities are rallying behind Gilliam and his family. They have been hosting dance-related fundraisers and are promoting a GoFundMe campaign to raise $500,000, saying that the family expects to incur heavy bills to help cover the cost of Gilliam’s hospital care, transplant treatment, recovery and rehabilitation.
“He’s somebody who’s well known and loved and gives a lot to any community he’s in,” said Graggs-Borden said.
“He’s a friend to many, like when they are going through something, they can lean on him,” said Ureña, who also is his dance partner. She said Gilliam also is a choreographer and teacher who has built strong relationships throughout different dance communities by performing in a range of styles, including street, club, waacking and West African dance, some of which he learned while studying dance in UCLA’s World Arts and Culture program.
Before Gilliam went to UCLA, he studied dance at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond and graduated from Berkeley High in 2012, where he was senior class president, Graggs-Borden and Ureña said. In addition to his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, he’s worked with Tyler Perry’s production company and has appeared in some short films.
“Gbari isn’t just extremely talented, he has star quality,” said Shireen Rahimi of Oakland, aka Shea, a well-known performer in the Bay Area voguing community who first met Gilliam in 2017 and has become his “ballroom mother” and watched him perform at events in Oakland and San Francisco. She said there have been multiple fundraisers for Gilliam planned in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York City, an outpouring of love that is a reflection of “the love he pours into others.”
“He’s a sweet, kind and uplifting person, Rahimi added. “He’s also very humble, and as a teacher, he always puts his heart into his students.”
Gilliam has been diagnosed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic condition that causes thickening of the heart walls. It is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes and others who, like Gilliam, are otherwise is peak physical shape, according to the American Heart Association. The condition sometimes goes undetected in some people because it causes no symptoms until a person suffers a medical emergency.
That was the case for Gilliam, who had just finished rehearsing a dance piece when he fell to the floor, Ureña said: “A friend of ours who was in the rehearsal ran over to him and she began giving him CPR.” She said that a nurse who works at Cedars-Sinai nearby happened to walk past the studio and took over administering CPR.
Graggs-Borden said it was fortunate that Cedars-Sinai was the closest hospital so he was transported there. She said this hospital had the equipment needed to save his life.
On Friday, Gilliam was on an ECMO machine, a heart-lung bypass system that removes carbon dioxide from the blood and sends oxygen-rich blood back to the body, while allowing the heart and lungs to rest, according to the Mayo Clinic. An update on the GoFundMe page said that doctors were evaluating whether he can be taken off the ECMO machine, which would be a major milestone signifying that his heart is beginning to work on its own.
Graggs-Borden and Ureña also said that doctors had begun to reduce sedation, allowing Gilliam to have moments of consciousness when he’s been able to show there was no cognitive impairment. “When he’s awake, he’s able to respond to us,” Graggs-Borden said. So she feels hopeful but also helpless with the waiting for his condition improves. “You want to do something but you can’t,” she said. “Prayer has been a constant companion now.”
In terms of dance-related fundraisers in the Bay Area, Rahimi said an event, the “GQ Ball House and Waacking Battles + Mini Ball” is scheduled for April 18 at Fluid510, 1550 Broadway, in Oakland. All the proceeds will go to Gilliam’s GoFundMe. Details about the event is expected to be posted soon on the @OaklandToAll Instagram.