THIS IS DANCE + BOBBY AMAMIZU

Bobby Amamizu is a dancer, educator, and choreographer whose résumé runs from Cirque du Soleil's original Viva Elvis cast to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Etoile, But the story that stayed with me wasn't a credit, it was a 17-year-old at an open call getting stopped mid-combo and asked, "Who are you?" What does it actually take to get kept in the room, and what do you owe the people standing next to you once you're in it?

Here's what we're exploring:

• The Fame audition where Marguerite Derricks stopped the music, called Bobby out by name, and told him she couldn't hire him if he kept dancing like a soloist, "so I can't hire you if you're gonna dance like that"

• A case study in Networking that is literally money in the bank

• What it meant to be trusted with a 5am ballet class before an 8am call, part of the job of keeping a company of dancers ready to be as authentic as the story asked them to be

This one's for anyone who's ever had to prove they could be trusted with more than their own moment. Bobby's answer: show up exact, show up for the people beside you, and let the work speak before you do.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

Show Notes:

Connect with Bobby on IG

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THIS IS DANCE + WHAT WE OWE EACH OTHER

Dani Vitale is a Choreographer, Creative Director, + Movement Coach who by September of this year had already wrapped four films and two tours. But what stuck with me in this conversation wasn't the résumé, it was her definition of loyalty: to the dancers she leads, to the truth about hard jobs, and to the people she loves through loss. What do we actually owe the people around us, and what happens when we pay up?

Here's what we're exploring:

• The one thing Dani never bent on when she started choreographing: dancer rates and conditions, because "once you lose the support from dancers... you can't gain that back"

• Why she pushes back on "choreographer vs. dancer" and thinks of it instead as one team doing one job: movement

• The gap between what happens on a brutal set and what gets posted after, and why she'd rather "report the facts" than romanticize the process

This one's for anyone who's ever had to decide what they're actually willing to bend on, at work, on a team, or at home. Dani's answer is the same in every direction: tell the truth, and show up.

Watch the full episode here.

Show Notes:

Connect with Dani on IG

Learn more about Dancers Alliance

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This is DANCE + CONFLICT AND TEAM DYNAMICS

I've been sitting with this idea that wherever you put art, money, a deadline, and a hierarchy in the same room, conflict is coming. That's not a flaw in the system, it's actually a good thing! What I want to answer with this conversation is this: How do we navigate inevitable conflicts and criticisms in a way that neither the people or the product suffer?!

Here’s what we’re exploring:

• Why art, money, deadlines, and hierarchy each carry their own built-in opportunity for conflict, and why that center overlap is where teams actually fracture

• The trap of "it should be different" and how it quietly drains my empathy out of a room full of talented people

• A simple mental tool I use to get unstuck: asking whether the opposite of my assumption is just as likely to be true

• The best teammates know how to do two things: Give constructive criticism + receive constructive criticism

This one's for anyone who's ever felt small on set, or big on set, and let that feeling run the show. Empathy isn't the soft option here. It's the thing that turns conflict into better work.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

Show Notes:

For more DANA

For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY

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This is DANCE + Makenzie & Phillip Chbeeb

Makenzie and Phillip Chbeeb are the dynamic duo behind the new Netflix coming-of-age dance comedy movie, “Best of the Best” (Premiering September 18, 2026). In this episode, we unpack what it means to choreograph across cultures, across dialogue, and three weeks postpartum. If you’re into being impressed, this episode is for YOU!

Three weeks after welcoming their first child into the world, they walked straight into their first pre-production meeting of their on Best of the Best, a film that asked them to hold two things at once: honor the specificity of Western hip hop and South Asian dance forms like Kathak, and build choreography that could survive dialogue, alt takes, and lines that changed on the spot. What they found, again and again, was that the tightest constraints produced the most original ideas.

We explore:

• The shoes-on, shoes-off problem between Chicago footwork and Kathak, and the jump-out-of-your-sneakers solution that turned a limitation into one of the film's best moments

• How they built "cushion" choreography, loop-able movement with matching in-and-out points, so a scene could breathe as long as a director needed and the music could be solved in post

• Making a Netflix film three weeks postpartum, and the very literal system they invented for handling a body and mind that felt, in Makenzie's words, "scrambled"

This one's for anyone who thinks creative limits are the enemy of good work. For Phillip and Makenzie, the limits were the work.

Watch the full episode here.

Show Notes:

Connect with Mckenzie on IG

Connect with Phillip on IG

Listen to Phillip’s episode

Listen to How Do Dancers Make Money?

Learn more about Feybl

For more DANA

For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY

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This is DANCE + Nathan Kim

The choreographer behind the newest Spider-Man, on how dance found him almost by accident.

Nathan Kim didn't grow up dreaming of being a choreographer. His meet-cute with dance happened almost by chance, with an open slot in an Afro Brazilian dance class, and one impossible-to-mark movement across the floor that cracked something open in him. From there, dance became the throughline of a career that's taken him behind the camera and back, from his early days shaping movement for Charli XCX, to leading the choreography team on Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

We explore:

• The happy accident that got him into that first dance class, and the moment mid-warmup when he stopped holding back

• The wild logistics of choreographing Spider-Man's biggest movement sequences, in-ears, hand cues, counts, and dancers who can't see what's coming from behind them

• Why "kill your darlings" hits different at a blockbuster budget, and how the ideas that get cut still ripple through everything that survives

This one's for anyone who thinks their path has to be a straight line. Nathan's wasn't, and it swung him to Spider-Man.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

Show Notes:

Connect with Nathan on IG

Listen to our episode with Miquel Zarate

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This is DANCE + Teddy Forance

Coming to you LIVE-ish from CLI Conservatory, with the guy who built the place he wishes existed when he was 17 and googling "which college has a dance program for me."

Teddy Forance didn't set out to become a studio owner. He set out to dance, and he did, big: Madonna, Lady Gaga, Cirque du Soleil, the Oscars stage. But underneath all of it was a gut feeling that never went away. That there wasn't a space built for dancers like him. So with his brother Jonny, he built one. Literally, twenty seconds down the road from their mom's studio in Southampton, Massachusetts.

We explore:

• My new position at CLI: Director of Professional Development

• Why Teddy skipped college for a career that found him at 17, at NYCDA Nationals

• The "Costco math” behind 100 guest choreographers and a fraction of the cost

• The budget-and-schedule advice Teddy gives every dancer terrified to move to a big city

• What it feels like to watch five conservatory years soak into the walls of a building you built from nothing

This one's for anyone chasing a career nobody handed them a map for. Teddy didn't find the space that fit him, so he built it.

Watch the full episode on YouTube.

Show Notes:

Connect with Teddy on IG

Learn more about CLI

For more DANA

For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY

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This is DANCE + Fantasy Night

Coming to you LIVEish from CLI Conservatory, with a story I NEED to tell you while it’s still fresh in my mind. It's a tribute to my acting teacher Gary Imhoff, whose class taught me that losing can be winning, and that the greatest gift we can give is to support each other in the pursuit of our wildest dreams.

We explore:

• How Gary's class and this once-a-year tradition rewired my relationship to failure and gave me the confidence to finally call myself a choreographer

• The three rules of my Fantasy Night Party: no bystanders, you can't perform the thing you're known for, and everyone gets a standing ovation.

• What it felt like on the other side of singing all five verses of "Fast Car" in front of my friends…. I almost threw up.

This one's for anyone who desires to express themself in a way they haven’t yet… Consider this your permission slip.

Watch the full episode here.

Show Notes:

For more DANA

For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY

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This is DANCE + Nick Drago

Nick Drago holds the honor of being this podcast's very first guest — Episode 0.5, the audition episode, back when I wasn't even sure this whole thing would work. A dancer, writer, and producer with 20+ years in the industry (think La La Land, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Glee, Dancing with the Stars, and about a hundred more), Nick is a walking case study in "just do stuff," imposter syndrome be damned. We sat down to talk about banter as a survival skill, the many different ways to "make the sausage," and why sometimes you just have to try the thing even if it might suck.

We explore:

• Was it false or REAL confidence that kept me going for 270+ episodes

• The bicep-flex technique nobody asked for, but everybody needed

• What Michael Rooney, Mandy Moore, and Kat Burns taught Nick about building choreography, and the attitude that keeps him in the game no matter who is calling the shots

This one's for anyone who needs a reminder that "just do stuff" is a mantra, not a mistake.

Watch the full episode on YouTube

Show Notes:

Connect with Nick on IG

Learn more about The Seaweed Sisters Show “Weed Oh No”

Listen to their episode

Listen to Mandy’s episode

Listen to Kat’s episode

For more DANA

For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY

To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES

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