The performance of the NFL of the Christmas day of Beyoncé, otherwise known as Beyoncé Bowl, and the half-time show of the Super Bowl of Kendrick Lamar could well be two of the performances most defined by the culture of the past year, and the same creative force was behind them.
The dancer who has become choreographer Charm la’Donna worked with some of the most influential voices of music, notably Beyoncé, Rosalía, Shakira, Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez, Meghan Trainor, Madonna, Pharrell Williams and The Weeknd. She choreographed the Cowboy Carter tour of Beyoncé as well as recent tours for Lamar, Dua Lipa and The Weeknd. This year, La’Donna’s work marked its two Emmy nominations for the exceptional choreography for the variety or the programming of reality for Beyoncé Bowl and the Lamar half-time show.
Double appointments in the category, which also include leading to the performance of the Grammy in Doechii, “The Lion King” with Hollywood Bowl and tributes to Oscars in James Bond and Quincy Jones, was a moment of career.
“I was in shock – I was arrested in my footsteps,” said La’Donna about receiving appointments. “Each project is special. Each project is a piece of me. ”
Whether to choreography Lamar or Dua Lipa, La’Donna said it was approaching each project with several “ingredients”, which understand itself and its experiences prior to the table and feel the music and the presence of dancers. The last step, however, is always to embrace pleasure and pleasure in these dream jobs, because La’Donna strives to recognize “I have the chance to be able to create on such a platform from the whole world”.
La’Donna is particularly based on her past experiences as “tools and skills”, saying “as a artists, [and] As people in general, we go through life and we learn. We take our experiences in our next trip. »»
The choreographer was certainly able to draw from his past experiences while working on the Lamar half-time show, after having had his first superb concert as a dancer for the Black Eyed Peas in 2011. At the time, La’Donna was under the direction of her mentor Fatima Robinson, who is one of the four black women to be named in a category of Choré La’Donna.
“I have already been on the ground, but in a different space,” said La’Donna. “There were a lot of dancers on the ground and a lot of colors – it was a task.”
While Lamar made a mixture of its greatest successes for the Super Bowl, La’Donna worked in tandem with the creative and production teams to ensure that each training and routine was perfect.
“He speaks to sets of sets, to creative directors on this subject, and to really understand what – I call him the playground where the dancers move, where the artist moves – and what is our real estate,” said La’Donna. “Once you understand this, you can just create there.”
La’Donna also joined forces with Lamar for the clip “Not like Us”, which paid tribute to the hometown of La’Donna and Lamar by welcoming in the extraordinary Hip Hop Tommy Le Clown and other local dancers.
“It is imperative for our culture as a dance community, and being part of it was special,” said La’Donna. “I was able to spend time with dancers and hire friends and represent just for a city and a space that raised me … I was at home, more in a way, physically and spiritually.”
The next step for La’Donna is to combine her love for dance with her passion for cinema, marking the next step in her creative evolution after having grown from the dancer to the choreographer to the creative director to a director on Shorts and Musical Clips. “I want to start telling dance stories and telling stories differently with the camera, with the movement, on dancers in different ways,” she said.
While La’Donna becomes the fourth black woman to be nominated in a category of choreographers Emmy Emmy, she said that she felt her gratitude to follow the stages of Robinson, Allen and Arnold. “”[I’m] Hoping and praying to these years later, there are more black women and more black voices “represented in the distinctions.” I am proud, and I am honored to continue and push the limits and to remove the limitations, “she said.
