Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week Dawsen & Riley sit down to answer one of your biggest questions- "SHOULD I GET A DEGREE IN DANCE?" The girls openly discuss what you questions you should ask yourself and things to consider when making this decision. What kind of college experience do you want? Do you want to perform or teach? Do you want to perform now or perform later? What does life look like after college? Is this what YOU want or just what you saw someone...

Welcome to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week Riley & Dawsen sit down to share some "hot takes" on what's happening in the industry today. More so now than ever lack of respect, etiquette, and professionalism is present (or should we say not present) in the industry and we've got some unpopular opinions on why this is happening, where it stems from, and solutions to move forward. As dancers who grew up in environments where being called out, reprimanded, and showered with a little...

Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week in honor of the NEDA Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Dawsen & Riley believed it was an appropriate time to shine light on the subject in the dance world- their experiences, insight, advice, and information to better understand exactly what EDs look like. Though a heavier subject, normalizing conversation around disordered eating, eating disorders, and other mental health struggles have been a part of the Dancer's Choice Podast...

Welcome (or WELCOME BACK) to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week Riley & Dawsen are laying it all out- the TRUTHS and REALITIES of being a professional dancer! Inspired by the honest conversations they had in school, the girls share their own lists of what they have learned as they begin a career in this industry. We love what we do, but the truth is it is NOT all sunshine and rainbows, and this episode is here to expose that. Coming from a place of wholehearted love, we're here to...

Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week, Riley is here to share some friendly reminders from a fitness coach, regarding motives for working out, mentalities to take into the gym, and the realities of what's going on in the fitness industry today. Riley has been a Pure Barre fitness coach for 3 years and is currently continuing her education with the National Academy of Sports Medicine to become a Certified Personal Trainer and renew her Nutrition Coach certification. With that...

Welcome back to another week of Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week, Dawsen & Riley sit down to share their experience of taking time off dance and how to navigate that season of your life both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Whether you're dealing with a sprain or tear, twist or break, physical overuse or mental overwork- it's important to know what you have to do to get yourself back to your best! & even MORE IMPORTANT to listen to your doctors...but we'll discuss more of that...

Join Dawsen as she recaps the audition process for the Carolina Panthers TopCats and discusses her plans for this upcoming season! It's a short and sweet episode but you'll be pleasantly surprised to find out some things about the Pro Cheer world that you may not have known before! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dancerschoicepodcast/message

Welcome to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week, Riley and Dawsen unpack the talk of the town- the 2024 UDA College Nationals. In honor of Superbowl weekend, it only seemed fair to acknowledge the "superbowl" of dance. Riley & Dawsen share their biggest takeaways from watching routines, inspiration from choreographers, and address how to apply it to your own training. Shoutout to any college dance team members that competed this year, let alone college dancers out here working...

Hi friends, WELCOME (or welcome BACK) to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! Riley is back this week for a mini episode sharing 10 LESSONS she's taken away from the last 10 months of post-college life. Too many points to wait til we got to a full year so here you go! In a season of auditioning left and right? Not getting callbacks? Submitting hundreds of applications and in a waiting game for jobs? Lost on where to go? Feeling spiritually dry with your career? Me too! We open up (& dare we...

Welcome to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week Dawsen & Riley are sitting down to shine light on what has helped them in their own healing & recovery journeys. Whether you are a dancer or not, you have probably felt the effects of today's world heavily glorifying diet culture. With lack of education and misleading media, it can become very hard not to get sucked into this vicious cycle of dieting, weight loss, and body comparison. After years of healing their own mental health...

Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week Riley & Dawsen sit down to reflect on their experiences with dance teachers- what worked and what didn't. Being at the age to step into teaching positions themselves, the girls compile a list of what they believe to be the "Do's/Don'ts" when it comes to being an educator in this industry. From playing favorites, critiquing students, competition costuming, navigating nutrition, and praising students, the girls-you guessed it- UNPACK IT...

Happy Tuesday friends! Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week, Riley sits down to discuss the neglect of rest days when in a busy training season of dance. Inspired by her college and conservatory dance schedule, she shares ways you can gift yourself more rest and recovery time even when your calendar shows no days off. From creating a healthy sleep schedule, learning to better manage your time, cut excuses, and say "no," Riley walks you through the many ways that rest is...

Welcome to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! 'tis the season for college dancers to be mapping out their road maps (#iykyk) and with that fear of the unknown in the air, Riley & Dawsen decided to sit down and reflect on their own 5 year plans. Ringing in the new year, they discuss where they were 5 years ago (2019 for reference), what their most recent roadmap consisted of, hot takes on mapping out your life, and where they think they'll be 5 years from now. Do dancers need 5 year plans?...

Break Ups with your Apple Watch... yeah yeah... cause you're bored. In this mini episode, Dawsen talks about her recent break up with her Apple Watch and why she feels its so important not only for people in general, but for dancers too. Tune in to listen to her top reasons why you need to break up with your Apple Watch too! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dancerschoicepodcast/message

Welcome all to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week we are THRILLED to be joined with Special Guest, Kiesha Lalama! Former Senior Executive for the Pittsburgh CLO, Point Park University Dance Professor, Jimmy Award's Choreographer, Mother, Wife, and current Managing Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh Playhouse, joins us for a jam-packed conversation about having a career in the dance industry. In this hour long episode, Kiesha shares her life story and words of wisdom around the power...

Hi friends, welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast. This week, Riley sits down to open up about her mental health journey and share a message that has been weighing on her heart for quite some time. With many dancers struggling with mental health and our industry starting to advocate for the mental wellness of dancers, Riley wanted to share the life-changing question and biggest game-changer she found in her healing journey. Listen in for 3 Reasons Not to Neglect Your Faith/Spirituality...

Welcome to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! Our first episode of 2024*** (not 2023 lol) and we had to hop on the Ins/Outs trend. Riley & Dawsen share what they're leaving behind in 2023 and bringing into 2024- some serious, some not so serious. We hope this lighthearted episode helps you ring in the new year and perhaps finds you making your own list of Ins/Outs. Wishing you all a happy and healthy start to 2024! --- Send in a voice message:...

New Years Resolutions influencing you to get into a new routine? To start up a new fitness regimen? To get out of your seasonal workout rut? Don't worry- we feel you! This week Riley shares some quick tips/steps to get consistent with your workout routine or start a new one in a way that is sustainable! Riley has been a Pure Barre Fitness Instructor for the last 2.5 years and coaches weekly. After a couple conversations with clients regarding their New Year's Goals, she had to hop on the...

Welcome Friends! We are here to wrap up the FINAL EPISODE OF 2023! The year that started it all! This week Riley and Dawsen sit down to talk about the year they just had and share their thoughts on New Year's Resolutions. Between being out at sea, navigating college, and the making of Dancer's Choice to their lists of "want to-do's" for the new year, hot takes on goals, and visions for the podcast- the girls share it all! Join us for a light hearted, bittersweet episode. We send all...

The girls are officially girlie-ing! We told you that once this happens we would make an episode about it! Dawsen tells all on how she supported her period recovery - from prioritizing protein to managing her stress levels and even decreasing her training! Tune in to get some great information that you may find helpful - get your notebooks and pens ready because were getting intimate! *Disclaimer: Dawsen is not a licensed professional and these are just things that worked for her and may...

Hello lovely people! Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week we are blessed to be sitting down with yet another SPECIAL GUEST, Chelsea Mitchell-Bonsu! Chelsea is currently dancing in MJ The Musical's FIRST National Tour and took the time out of her tour to share her story with us. From getting cast in the National Tour of CATS, to graduating college, getting married, auditioning, and now taking on another contract, Chelsea opens up about her struggles with mental health and...

Welcome to our NEW MINI EPISODE SERIES!!! Dawsen & Riley were wondering how they could get more content to you and THIS became the answer! Don't worry- Dawsen & Riley are still recording episodes together, but will be recording separate smaller episodes to give you TWO EPISODES A WEEK as frequently as they can! Individually, the girls have more topics they relate to in their personal lives and thought this would be a great way to increase conversation in our community. This...

Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week, Riley and Dawsen had the privilege of being joined by Point Park Alumni and Alvin Ailey dancer, Ashley Green! Ashley shares her story about growing up in competition dance, the importance of not labeling yourself, how to stay present in process, and many more of her biggest takeaways from her last three seasons with Ailey. This conversation is loaded and full of so many revelations- we cannot wait for you to listen! Don't forget to share...

Hey friends! Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week Riley and Dawsen sit down to talk about dancer burnout. We dancers throw the word "burnout" around a lot, but what exactly is it? From learning to take a step back when needed, say no, find other hobbies outside of dance, and establish boundaries, the girls cover all things how to spot, prevent and treat burnout. A lighter subject this week, but so so important to talk about. We hope this inspires you to find other...

Welcome back to the Dancer's Choice Podcast! This week, Dawsen and Riley decided to take on a real world problem- society's obsession with finding a "quick fix." More specifically, this conversation stemmed from a discussion about the latest drug, Ozempic, and realizing after some research that it is not what most of the population believes it to be. In this episode, the girls dive into the unfortunate lack of education around fitness, health, and nutrition in our culture today, discuss...