The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Welcome to the Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast. I'm your host, Maia. No matter who, what, or when you teach, I'm here to share all my best tips and tools along with real and practical conversations with fellow dance educators to help you be the very best dance teacher you can be.
Let's talk about it.

Hey, everyone. Are you ready to fangirl with me a little bit? We are going to be talking all things commercial dance with today's guest, Angela El Ghani.

Angela is a seasoned dance industry expert and mentor with over 20 years of experience. Let's talk about some of the people she's collaborated with. Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Beyoncé.

She also danced in the films Step Up Revolution and You Got Served. Angela specializes in stage presence and technical precision, creating performances that have reached millions while also mentoring aspiring talent to help them navigate the dance industry and build thriving careers. This is going to be such a fun one.

I'm so excited. Without further ado, Angela, thank you so much for being here. I'm really excited to chat with you today.

Angela
Yes, me too. Thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure.

Maia
Absolutely. Yeah, I'm ready to get right into it. I know you've had quite the career.

I'm so excited to hear more about it. And I want to hear about what your experience was like as a dance student as well, you know, kind of how you learned to dance, how you broke into the industry, and then a little bit more about your career as well.

Angela
Okay, well, I started dancing at the wee age of two years old.

It was just because, you know, my mom was looking for an extracurricular activity to keep me busy. And I guess from jumping all around the house, and she was like, okay, let's expend this energy somewhere. But it seems that I liked it a lot.

I hopped in, I went right along with like the discipline of it, you know, like the teacher telling me like, come over here, go over there. And I like, I listened. And so that was how like my early, early career was.

And then right around the age around, I think, like 10 years old, there was like this cheerleading line for our professional sports teams in the area. And they were doing like a big line and a medium girl line and a little line and littles were like, you know, like under 11, or something like that. But it was a tryout.

It was an audition, and you had to like, make it. And that was my first audition experience. And believe it or not, I was so nervous.

And they were like, come in with your own prepared choreography. And, you know, show it. So I had never, I didn't know what prepared choreography was.

I had never really besides like a ballet, you know, recital type thing. Had I done anything? So my sister created some kind of choreography, probably from because my sister was older. So she probably had been watching, I think, like, who knows, like the MTV music videos or something like that.

And she had created this small routine for me. And I did it. But the routine, because they said it had to be 30 seconds, the routine was 30 seconds long.

But my music was like a song. I had just the one song on my music, right? So I come in, and they hit play. They're like, here's your music.

Okay, here's my music. And here I am, Angela. I didn't have like a resume, a headshot or anything.

And then I think I used like a five by seven, like one of those like, you crazy. And I get there, and they're like, turn the music on. I get in my position.

I do my whole little routine, my dance, and then I finish. But the music kept going. And I kept going.

And I just started kept going. I kept going, kept going. I started doing kicks.

I started doing cartwheels. I did splits. I hopped back up.

I did some more of the same. I bopped around. And I went going until they stopped me.

You know, that got me to the next round. There were rounds. And then like a choreography round.

And that was my first professional quote, even though I wasn't getting paid experience. But that led me into becoming more serious about it. Because once I did finally make it, I had to go to the studio.

That was where we were practicing and learning the choreography. And that's kind of also how I got into like heavy dance classes. Because we had practices twice a week.

And when I came to the studio for the two practices a week, some girls had came up to me and said to me that I couldn't dance. Because I was in the back row. I was very new to this.

I was very new to dance. And they told me I couldn't dance. They were like, you can't dance.

Which really hurt me. But I guess I took it as fire to my passion. And my mom went ahead and signed me up.

She was available, you know, said to come every other day of class, pretty much. So I signed up right away to Jazz Tap Ballet every two to three times a week on top of the cheerleading schedule. And by the next year, I was front row.

So, you know, like, right. So it was like I was back row when I first started. And that's okay.

You know, I was just happy to be there. But they really lit that fire upon me. I think it was a little bit of you can't do it. And then I just kind of took that as like, yeah, I can. Yeah.

Maia
So that story in itself sounds like that should be a dance movie to me. So I'm going to use that as my segue. Like, how did you then get into doing movies and everything?

Angela
Oh, my gosh. Well, so the thing is that I always love commercial dance.

So coming up, learning, you know, all the technical dance, ballet, jazz tap that point, I learned everything. But I always loved the stuff that came from like, you know, MTV music videos. I love the stuff that came from movies at the time.

And I just when I finally, you know, got to that point in my career where I felt like it was I want to do this as a professional. I moved to Los Angeles. I got an agent.

And I, again, immersed myself in the whole like scene culture out there for professional dancers and professional actors as well. And yeah, landed two movies. And that was really some really fun and special cool stuff.

Maia
Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. I also want to talk a little bit. So fill me in if I have any of this wrong, because when you start to look into like Angela Elghani, what does she do? It's like everything. She does everything.

So correct me if I have any of this wrong. Um, but you also you did some movies and you also toured with a number of musicians, a number of big names, correct?

Angela
Yes.

Maia
And did that run parallel with doing the movies?

Angela
Well, I mean, I guess not parallel, like they weren't happening at the same time. It was more like in between. You know, I was fortunate enough to be the kind of dancer that kept booking jobs. So like if I wasn't doing one job, then I go to an audition, I probably book another one.

And I was fortunate to be able to do that. So I once I got one tour under my belt, you start getting like your reputation known, your resume gets stronger and more choreographers want to, you know, use you. And yeah.

And hey, I'm not going to like short myself, but I was also a really good dancer. And obviously, yeah, I would get the parts. Yeah.

So yeah, but a lot of times, no, it wasn't like at the same time. It was really in between things that the next project, the next gig, the next project, the next gig. Yeah.

Is it hard to go back and forth? Is it like whiplash going between dance for film versus dance for a tour? Because I imagine those have to be very different in a lot of ways, right? Yes. So dance for film is like a very long stretch usually because you have the choreography days and you're learning, you know, in those days, a lot of times, honestly, it's like you're going for like 18 hours a day sometimes. But then so is set life.

Set life was kind of like your life on set. And it's the same thing, like 20 hours a day. Now, during the rehearsals, I'm dancing probably for 18 hours a day.

During set life, I'm waiting probably at least, you know, three quarters of that. And then I get called to stage for the quarter. But it's day in, day out like that.

The only difference is that I get to go home and sleep in my bed. When I'm on tour, oh my gosh, those tour rehearsals are the same. Long, long days, 18 hour days of practicing, practicing, practicing, leading up to the tour, finally get first show opens up.

Now it's long days because you're traveling. So your long day becomes travel. You get to the venue, you get to the show and you eat properly.

You also set up your dressing room. You're going to energize yourself, whatever else you needed to do. Start doing your own hair and makeup.

Get your costumes on. Make sure for us, even though we had wardrobe, I still went and checked to make sure my costumes were in the places they're supposed to be, especially for like a change. I always had to make sure that they were there and any other thing I thought I needed.

Sometimes I felt like I needed to change my bra for that moment. You know what I mean? So I would make sure those personal items were there, especially, or maybe I wanted a shoe that I like better for that outfit or that moment in the show, and I would make sure that was in the right place. So just a lot of like making sure everything's in the right place, getting into the right mental mindset, and then getting ready for this very high energy two hour, two and a half hour show.

Comparatively to when I'm on a movie set, it's like very chill, very chill, but then all of a sudden, Hey, you're on, you're up, let's go. And then as soon as it's almost like you go from sleeping to like awake. You're like, I'm awake. Now let's go.

Maia
Yeah, yeah. So I was gonna ask you, I'm gonna come back to more like the technique side and, and getting into like the dancing, so to speak.

But I, I also really wanted to ask you about the mental component. And this ties in so much with what you were just saying is like, as dance teachers, specifically, if you have a student that's interested in going into this commercial industry, I feel like you probably have to prepare them to a certain extent, beyond just the technique for like, what does that entail personally? And what are some mental things that you have to be prepared for and be, you know, really tough and resilient in in order to succeed? Can you talk about that a little bit as well?

Angela
Yes, definitely. I mean, I think the biggest, easiest word to put it into is grit.

And like you said, it's resiliency, it's discipline. So most of dancers coming up learning technique, I think already have the discipline, because that's why they've come up learning and they've gotten so far. They're disciplined.

But the next part that does, I see what students and a lot of people I feel like run into and maybe don't even realize. And then I feel like I had to learn it the hard way. I didn't have anybody telling me about it.

I just kind of probably had this natural knack in me. But I do have students. And I do notice that students, even good students, are very afraid to make mistakes.

And if they do make a mistake, they let it define them. And that's the point. You have to be able to be a tough cookie in the sense of you can't let the one that you don't get diminish the next one.

You know, like there were certainly tours or shows that I wanted to. I wanted to dance with Janet Jackson. I wanted to dance with Michael Jackson, and I didn't get a chance to dance with them.

OK, so there's certain things that we all want. But does that make my career any less of a career that I didn't? I mean, I have friends who did dance with Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, you know, but I feel like I'm proud of what I did. And I'm also proud of my friends that got a chance to do the same thing.

So we shouldn't always compete with our friends. You shouldn't take it in and make that turn into it's all about mental health turning into I'm no good. I'm not worthy.

I can't do this because you can. It's just a moment. And it might have been a small thing that separated you from that next person to get that job.

The small thing could have been maybe they already had a girl with like blondish hair and they were just looking for a brown hair girl. You see what I mean? It becomes like, you know, that simple. Are you going to let something so tiny define you and stress on your mental health? I think that's part of grit that people don't talk about maybe as much.

People say, oh, get in and discipline and work every day. Yes, but there's got to be that part that where you can tell yourself it's OK. I'm OK.

I'm OK. And it's OK. I didn't make it.

I'm OK. It's OK. There is a job out there for me.

I will book the next job. I will be booking jobs. Yeah.

And I think that was something I learned probably just the hard way. I think the hard way just kind of being like, you know, I got a lot. I certainly had a lot of dreams crushed, certainly had a lot of moments that I wanted something and didn't get it, but I didn't let that stop me.

And even if I was crushed for a moment, I still didn't. Again, I took it more as fuel to the fire. Let me not stop.

Let me pick up and move forward and continue going. And that's something I see with, I think, today's generation. They want to be so perfect right out the gate.

They just want to. I feel like and I'm like, whoa, like, please, if any students or these are dance teachers, talk to your students, let them know, like even professional dancers didn't walk on the stage professional. I mean, I came from you heard my story.

Girls telling me you can't dance. Do you see what I mean? And I have to remind my students. I'm like, OK, we have to come in class.

You have to try here as hard as you can. And you have to be willing to mess up, make a mistake here so that I can correct you. You can learn.

We can see what are your strengths and weaknesses are. And you can work on that. You see, it's not perfect, but they walk in a lot of times with that mental of like, OK, it was perfect.

And if it's not, I need to stop. And I'm like, no, it's not perfect. But that's OK.

Right. Keep trying. That's OK.

And the dance teachers out there, I mean, I when I personally teach, I do make it a purpose to try to, like, see the girls that, like, pull themselves to the back because they get nervous and they don't want to be in the front. And they're like having I can see they're having that mental like I'm not I'm not that good. I'm not that good.

I like to come out and like kind of like personally, I go dance next to them. I'll walk. So when we start doing the combination, instead of me staying in the front, even if I break it down in groups or something like that, I will actually walk and go dance right next to them in the back in the corner just to give them my energy and for them to see that I see them and that they should be dancing this and get and gain that experience of dancing with me.

Maia
Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much, Angela. So now I want to pivot back because when you started, you were talking about you studied ballet, jazz point, and you also loved commercial dance.

Now, I'll admit, I'm an East Coast girly, and I studied ballet and jazz and modern. And I have like no experience with commercial dance whatsoever. I know there's like LA is like a whole different beast and the commercial dancer is a whole different beast.

So do you think; how do I want to word this? Can a student transition from just studying like ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, whatever, and then go into the commercial world? Or do you think that they need more exposure to quote unquote commercial dance? And how do you define that? And how do you seek out opportunities for that?

Angela
I think, yes, a trained dancer will do excellent in commercial dance, because I think the part that it made me more attracted to commercial dance is because it seemed to have a fusion of it all. And even now, having been a commercial dancer, like there, I would get called for sometimes like swing dancing, you know, like random different styles of dancing clogging. And I love that I could like experiment with all these different flavors.

It's almost like being at an ice cream bar. I mean, and that's kind of what it was. It was just like I and I always loved that even before I got to commercial LA land world, even before I got there.

That's that was how after I got the taste and I was really driven. I started trying to feel like I wanted to get a taste of every style I could. So of course, I wanted to earn my way.

And I always say earn earn my way up to point, which I did. And then I wanted to get better at tap. And I wanted to do the harder tap, which went into a hoofing and kind of like a clogging style, which is, you know, with more rhythmic tap.

And then with jazz, then it to me that turned into the that's where the commercial because it gets more like poppy fusion mixtures with hip hop. So I was always loving the like multiple flavors at the ice cream bar for dance. And I think that's what LA encompasses.

But how to find it? I at the time, me growing up, I had to find it. I didn't have we didn't have internet and social media and videos that you can look up on YouTube. So it literally was a thing of like, you're to the ground who said what, when, how, oh, I saw this video, I saw that music video.

I saw this movie. I studied this movie 20 times just to find it. But eventually, I did start going to conventions.

And like there was like LA Dance Force, there was Tremaine dance convention. And those also introduced me to like the choreography style where I got to actually do it, not just watch it or try to imitate it from television. And so, yeah, that segued.

And then from there, I would I always got scholarships. So not always, but I did get scholarships. And I was lucky enough to go to Los Angeles and actually take up on those scholarships and like study in like Edge Performing Arts Center, and stuff like that.

And so I was studying there, you know, from 15. Kind of I would go in the summer.

Maia
Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I think that's a great, again, I'm East Coast. And I talk a lot on the podcast, too, about how I'm in a rural setting. And that's part of why I like to put these conversations out there for other people like me that are maybe feeling a little bit trapped.

But there are scholarship opportunities to conventions and things that are not, you know, you don't have to up and move, you can get a taste for it, see how it goes. Start with the conventions and those types of things and then go from there.

Angela
So yes, I actually came from I'm from St. Louis, Missouri, which is very, I feel like is a rural, like, it never, it just doesn't quite have that, like, especially now that I've been in the business that that pop popular, yeah, urban type population, you know, like, even Chicago gets more than I think St. Louis.

So it'd be like Chicago, but not St. Louis, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, but St. Louis, no, no, no, no. So I do feel like I relate to that child or that student or that person who just wants to get out, but they're in this bubble. But I think there's a lot of opportunities.

I see a lot more like workshops, conventions, ideas rolling around where where you can get those trips or moments to even travel to those places, maybe travel to LA for a week and just get into it for a while. I mean, you know, take advantage.

Maia
Yeah. And so many of them allow you now to audition virtually, which is nice. So there's a lot more opportunity. Oh, my gosh.

AngelaI
know. And I love that. I wish I wish I had that when I was coming, you know?

Maia
Yeah. All right. So at this point, there's so many other questions that I would ask you. But again, I know there's so much that you do, and I just want to kind of fully like turn the floor over to you.

Is there anything else that you want to just like add to the conversation? And or are there any specific projects or like aspects of your work, your career right now, what you're working on that you want to share with the listeners?

Angela
Okay, so yeah. So that's actually my dream. That's what I'm doing with my dance industry coach.

That's kind of what I've been doing. Dance coach, Angela. I'm trying to reach out to the students to teach them mentally.

So I feel like sometimes like dance teachers, don't be afraid. I'm not trying to take your students. I want to help you with your students because I want to help you give them a different perspective of mindset if they're looking to make this a full fledged career.

And sometimes that's also even better said from another person than maybe the dance teacher that they've been growing up with that feels like almost like a family member, right? And sometimes it's different when it comes from like your mom or your family member or your dance teacher mom, you know, as opposed to now I'm an outside source, I'm neutral. I'm just coming with all the facts or positivity that I can give you because I'm also a very positive person. I totally believe in that.

And also I do want to give people in rural counties a chance. So I'm looking to also create a moment like a workshop here in the Midwest. So people can't get to Los Angeles where we can give you a moment to video yourself, photography yourself, get your resume together.

We can work on your social profiles and your branding because now it's coming more down to things like that. It's the full package. So that's where I want to do it because everyone does it like in LA or they, you know, you got to get to LA.

And I'm like, but nobody's doing it here in the Midwest or somewhere, you know, where it feels like, again, to those students who are like off the beaten path. We're not on the path, but we're still here and we still want the opportunity. And maybe getting to New York is too far or too costly.

So yeah, so I'm working on that. That's my dance coach Angela stuff. And part of that can be virtual.

And then I hope to bring it in person and like have like a little week of like convention style where we can talk, dance, do dance, and then also leave with some actual assets to develop yourself. Yeah. And then the other part of it is I am doing Dance Good Vibes, which is open for anyone.

You don't have to be a dancer. You could be a past dancer. You could be a current dancer.

You could be, I just wish I could have danced. Just anybody that is open to having some good vibes, because I take the moves that I learned in the early 2000s and all those fabulous songs that most of us women or people still love. And I kind of reteach the choreography in a very simple, easy to follow along format.

But yet you feel like you're still doing the thing that we did. So like I'll do some Britney songs and you still feel like you're doing it. And it's really just a moment for I feel like I want to give people a chance to reclaim their life, own who they are and just say, yeah, I'm here for me and I celebrate me no matter what.

And I am the superstar. That's the whole vibe for Dance Good Vibes. Like you are a superstar and you deserve all the moments in the world.

And I know we get caught up, especially like a mom or working woman, it's like we're so caught up and we're supposed to do this and we're supposed to do that. And we're trying to help this person do this. And we're trying to deal with that.

And then it's like you kind of feel like you lost yourself. You might look up and be like, what happened to me? Like where was my 20 year old self when I used to be kind of carefree and maybe just hanging out with my friends and just not worried about anything and just kind of letting it all go? Well, Dance Good Vibes gives that to women. I usually get mostly women, but hey, men, if you're available, come on out too.

But you know what I mean? So it's for anyone. It's for everyone and anyone. Just easy to follow along dance that makes you feel good.

Maia
That's awesome. So can you give a shout out? Where should people go to follow you, get more information about these things?

Angela
Oh, yes. Yes. OK, so my website is called Dance Good Vibes with an S at the end. All one whole thing, no dashes or anything like that. Dot com. So Dance Good Vibes dot com. That's the main one. And all of my websites actually connect to each other. But there's also Angela Elgany dot com. There's also Dance Industry Coach dot com. All of these things interconnect with each other.
And they will put you where you want to go. And then you can also follow me on Instagram. I'm XOXO Angela Elgany. XO, love and heart. Because I'm always trying to put out love and positivity. That's definitely the base for anything I do.

Maia
I can feel it from our conversation. Thank you so much. Yes, I love the positivity and not picking up like the mean girl vibes that started your career, but just spreading good vibes. It's so awesome.

Angela
Good vibes. Yeah, no mean girl vibes.

Maia
So I do want to ask you, normally, I would ask a guest to close with a favorite quote, which you can share a quote if you want to. But I also kind of wanted to ask you if you have any like, industry tea, any fun little like anecdote from a set or something that you could share with us to close?

Angela
Well, I think the biggest shocker to me for LA and tour and all these music videos is that this stuff that looks so awesome is true, though. Like they put us in water.

It looks like water. Yeah, you're dancing in water. So there's this Britney music video that I did.

And I think it's called Overprotected, the Dark Child remix because she had two versions and we shot two videos for it. Oh, wow. But in the second video, at the end of the video, she's like running like because she kind of like sneaks out from her bodyguard so she can go out on the town.

We're the dancers with her. OK, so, oh, my gosh, we are in this back alley place in Los Angeles where you do not want to be. OK, that's what that might be the surprise.

A lot of times these sets are like, you would never go there in your entire life, but you're there. And that was like supposed to be the entrance to this, quote, dance club that she was going into, but then it starts to rain. OK, so that's the other thing.

Whenever you see these rain things, this is real rain. Most of the time they really are pouring it on you. But it is freezing cold.

I was like the water was like so cold and we're supposed to splash and swing around in it and do the choreography and get on our knees and like, wow. And it was ice. Ice cold.

Cold. So I think like people think the elements like, oh, that looks so cool. And literally, like I look at those moments and think I was freezing.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And also sometimes the places where they choose to give the look of the scene is not always you're like, oh, this is not where I want to be caught dead.

Maia
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. There's that grit that you need.

Angela
That's no-kidding. Always be open for anything and just never know what they're going to do to you. Never know.

They might even have a fire thing go off. Also, you're like, this is really close. It's like pyro goes up and also you're like, wow, that's awesomely close to me right now.

As I'm supposed to continue to dance with a smile on my face, like nothing is happening right here. I'm not supposed to react to this fire right here. No, it's just this close, two inches away from my arm.

So, yeah. And then like dancing on tour with Britney, it actually rained on stage on that tour, too. And we danced every single night at the end of the show in rain.

And that was awesome, but also like cold. And it made the whole show a little bit tricky because they have to rain from the top and it had to go down into these grates, you know, like, where does it go? So basically the whole time we're dancing on these thick, like New York subway style looking type grating on the stage. And that was incredibly hard for us to get used to at the beginning of the tour because we had been in, you know, dance studios learning our choreography, you know, like that.

Then we get on stage and we're like, wait, this ground is like thick steel metal, open rod looking gritty stuff that you like. What? You don't want to, you know, like you're not used to dancing on. I guess the thing is be ready for anything because they might be like dance on concrete, dance on water, put a fireball next to your head.

Now dance on a grate. You're like, whoa, I mean, talk about hazard pay. And you're like, oh, you know, it's it's pretty intense.

And yeah, you're expected to perform. So yeah, that was an intense tour because then, you know, we had to do choreography on a lot of times falling in place on top of these grates because they could never move the grates. They don't bring the grates, you know, out there all for that ending moment of when the water would come down. So yeah, yeah. Be ready for anything.

Maia
Hey guys, it's Maia back again to wrap up from here.

I'm sorry, I can't help myself. I just love a little juicy Hollywood scoop moment, a little backstage pass into the industry as a girl from rural Pennsylvania. I just always get a kick out of hearing these stories.

So I had to switch things up and instead of ending with a quote, and with some little juicy backstage tidbits. So I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did. Huge thank you to Angela again for taking the time to sit down and chat with me.

Thank you to everyone in the Casual Dance Teachers Network Facebook group. I love sharing with you there and would love to have you if you're not already part of that group. You can also join me on Instagram at the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast.

If you want to give me a really great early Christmas present, be sure to leave a review for the podcast wherever you're listening and I'll catch you all on the next episode.