DANCE +

By Dana WilsonBusiness Education Arts Performing Arts Careers

DANCE + episodes

November 04284. DANCE + CHARISSA KROEGER
THIS IS DANCE + CHARISSA KROEGER
Charissa Kroeger is a director, creative movement director, choreographer, and costume designer whose work spans from luxury fashion & cosmetic campaigns to the biggest stars of our time, with credits on Emmy-, Oscar-, and Grammy-nominated projects alongside Paul Thomas Anderson, Nicole Kidman, Francis Ford Coppola, Harmony Korine, and Olivia Wilde. But what stayed with me wasn’t a credit; it was a way of working: treating everything as research. What happens when you stop defining the work and start discovering what is next for you through the work!
Here’s what we exploring:
Why “between spaces” is her happy place, and how curiosity keeps play at the forefront without lowering the stakes
BURN. OUT. (and what happens after)
Being a muse to men in creative spaces
The making of SPAGHETTI, her Cannes Lion-winning film: many bodies en masse, human gesture over choreography, and a cast that included her parents and her grandma
Embodiment as the “command center,” and choosing which part of you leads in your creative life (and work)
This one’s for anyone who’s ever felt more at home in the in-between. Charissa’s answer: stay curious, lead with the body, and let the research take you somewhere new.
Watch the full episode on YouTube.
Show Notes:
Connect with Charissa on IG
Go to Charissa's new installation “FISH”
Listen to our episode with Toni
Listen to our rebrand episode
Listen to our episode with Tony
Watch the trailer for “SPAGHETTI”
For more DANA
For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
1 hr 3 min
October 21283. DANCE + RACHAEL MARKARIAN
THIS IS DANCE + RACHAEL MARKARIAN
Rachael Markarian is a dancer, actor, choreographer, and author whose résumé runs from two Super Bowl Halftime Shows and world tours with Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Chayanne to Captain America: Brave New World, Top Gun: Maverick, and Netflix’s Sweet Magnolias. But the story that stayed with me wasn’t a credit, it was what happens when you’re at the top of one field and have to start over at the bottom of another. What does it take to build the room you aren’t being invited into, and what do you do when the door finally opens two days before the shoot?
Here’s what we’re exploring:
The transition from in-demand pro dancer to actor, and the humbling reality that “because I said so” belief only gets you so far
A booking story that nearly slipped away
How she wrote The Dancer’s Edge, from a little student workbook to a four-act guide on mindset
This one’s for anyone who’s ever had to start over, or been told “we’ll get the next one” and kept going anyway. Rachael’s answer: advocate for yourself, create the opportunity if nobody hands it to you, and be ready for the “yes” before it arrives.
Watch the full episode here.
Show Notes:
Connect with Rachael on IG
Buy Rachael's book: The Dancer’s Edge
Listen to Joe’s episode
Listen to Nick’s episode
Listen to Liana’s episode
For more DANA
For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
41 min
October 07282. DANCE + BOBBY AMAMIZU
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
For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
1 hr 6 min
September 30281. DANCE + DANI VITALE
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
For more DANA
For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
1 hr 14 min
September 23280. DANCE + CONFLICT AND TEAM DYNAMICS
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
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
19 min
September 16279. DANCE + MAKENZIE & PHILLIP CHBEEB
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
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
1 hr 4 min
September 09278. DANCE + NATHAN KIM
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
For more DANA
For coaching with me, join the WTMM COMMUNITY
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
1 hr 9 min
August 19277. DANCE + TEDDY FORANCE
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
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
35 min
August 12276. DANCE + FANTASY NIGHT
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
To shop for GOODIES & SERVIES
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
17 min
August 05275.5. DANCE + NICK DRAGO
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
Watch and Subscribe on YOUTUBE
Stay connected with us on IG and TikTok
33 min

About DANCE +

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The dance podcast where movers and shakers like you get the information and inspiration you need to navigate your creative career with clarity and confidence. Master mover, Dana Wilson, taps into 20…