Inside a Life on Stage: Tony-Nominated Will Swenson

What the Body Hears: Antoine Hunter on Movement, Culture & Truth

In this intimate episode of Why We Dance, Mia Tate welcomes Mx. Antoine Hunter—an award‑winning Deaf dancer, choreographer, teacher, advocate, and the founder of the Urban Jazz Dance Company and the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. Antoine describes movement as breath, meditation, and survival. They share memories of growing up Deaf in a hearing world, facing bullying and isolation, and discovering that dance was the first place they were truly seen. A high‑school solo to “I Will Always Love You” became the moment movement turned into a language—where they could finally be heard beyond sound. Mia and Antoine explore the difference between hearing and listening, the role of Deaf instinct in their teaching, and how choreography emerges from lived experience, including stories of injustice faced by Deaf community members in the prison system. Antoine also talks about their two‑spirit identity, the strength of family and community, and how vibration, drums, and embodied rhythm guide their art. They share what’s ahead: an art gallery, open‑stage events, and a Deaf and disabled dance film festival focused on access and visibility. The episode closes with a powerful poem—an offering of beauty, worth, and the truth the body carries. A poetic, grounding conversation on identity, resilience, and listening beyond sound. About the Guest: Antoine Hunter   Antoine Hunter (Purple Fire Crow) is an award‑winning Deaf dancer, choreographer, teacher, advocate, and cultural organizer based in Oakland, California. They are the founder and artistic director of the Urban Jazz Dance Company and the creator of the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival, an internationally recognized platform for Deaf and hard‑of‑hearing artists. Their work blends jazz, modern, African, and urban styles with storytelling rooted in Deaf culture, embodied experience, and ancestral knowledge. Antoine performs and teaches internationally, speaks on arts equity and Deaf access, and is a leading voice in disability justice and inclusive dance. Episode Timestamps  (00:00) “You Are Beautiful” — Opening Poem   (00:57) Meet Antoine Hunter   (02:02) Movement as Breath and Survival   (04:19) Childhood, Identity, and Belonging   (06:15) How Dance Saved Their Life   (09:18) Being Seen, Felt, and Heard   (11:59) Hearing vs. True Listening   (15:55) Family, Community, and Superpower   (18:59) Moving Community Through Lockdown   (20:32) Urban Jazz Dance Company Origin Story   (23:57) Deaf Prison Stories   (29:26) Intersectional Identity and Trauma   (32:08) How Antoine Creates Choreography   (34:51) Feeling Music Through Vibration   (36:45) Teaching with Drums and Sensation   (37:24) Deaf Vibration Senses Explained   (40:01) Leading from Within   (42:31) Intuition, Instinct, and Survival   (45:09) Two‑Spirit Identity and Expression   (51:40) Barriers, Perception, and Seeing Vibration   (54:17) Deaf Dance Festival Impact   (57:11) Workshops, Teaching, and Access   (01:01:33) New Projects and What’s Ahead   (01:04:50) A Universal Truth: Listening with the Body   (01:06:34) Sponsor Message   (01:07:32) “Why I Dance” — Closing Poem  Links & Resources • Antoine Hunter  [https://www.realurbanjazzdance.com/mx-antoine-hunter.html] • Mia Tate — IMDb [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2482420/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk] • Follow Why We Dance on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqqc2155Kyu2fkd8f8X5nxA] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/whywedancepodcast] • Producer: S.J. Nichols [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9523927/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_1_nm_7_in_0_q_s.j%20nichols] (Seannon Gonzalez [https://www.linkedin.com/in/seannongonzalez/]) • Executive Producer: Meredith Gooderham [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithgooderham/] • Studio: Caspian Studios • Production Support: Dark to Light Productions [https://www.darktolight.productions/] • Sponsor: Davies Reid Rugs [https://daviesreid.com/]   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Weight We Carry, The Moves We Make: Montana Tucker on Why We Dance

In this episode of Why We Dance, Montana Tucker joins host Mia Tate for a conversation that lives in the body: a conversation about lineage, loss, visibility, and the deep human need to move when standing still is too heavy. Montana has been dancing since childhood — inspired by Britney Spears VHS tapes, trained at her mother’s Pop Stars dance company, and performing behind artists like Ashanti and Remy Ma before most people her age could drive. She talks about the safety she finds onstage, the unexpected rise of her 14‑million‑strong following, and the quiet discipline behind staying authentic in a world built on performance. But this episode reaches deeper. Montana opens up about her grandparents, both Holocaust survivors, whose resilience shaped her refusal to shrink even when she was bullied for a childhood lisp, her body, or her ambition. She speaks about learning to take up space — not out of ego, but out of inheritance. Out of survival. The conversation moves into October 7 and the seismic shift that followed. Montana shares what compelled her to document stories in Israel; what it feels like to meet survivors, families of hostages, and those living through grief that rewrites the body; and the cost of speaking publicly in a world divided by fear and misinformation. She talks about losing brand partnerships, facing death threats, and continuing anyway — guided by a commitment to humanity over politics. Montana also describes creating “We Can Dance Again,” a dance tribute with Nova Music Festival survivors. She recounts the moment survivors returned to the site and chose to dance again — not to forget, but to release what could no longer be held alone. The episode closes with Montana’s “Why I Dance” monologue: a meditation on movement as therapy, connection, and a way to remember who we are when life tries to take it from us. This is an episode about the weight the body holds — and the moves we make to carry it. EPISODE TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Dancing after October 7 (00:59) Meet Montana Tucker (02:46) What movement means to her (04:28) Britney Spears VHS beginnings (06:08) The Pop Stars training era (07:50) From backup dancer to artist (09:09) Big stages, small nerves (12:50) Building a massive platform (17:19) Authenticity and finding it (18:35) Holocaust legacy and inherited strength (21:03) Hardships and never giving up (22:57) Learning to face the hard things (25:02) A preview of bullying (25:16) Growing up bullied (26:06) Body image & being herself (27:05) When school pushes back (28:45) Empathy as her mission (29:41) Life after October 7 (31:48) Truth telling and backlash (35:05) Why she won’t stay silent (38:11) What Israel felt like (42:25) Giving voice to hostage families (45:13) “We Can Dance Again” (46:49) Dance as communal healing (48:37) What followers don’t see (50:44) Sponsor break — Davies Reed (51:38) “Why I Dance” monologue (54:09) Final thanks + close LINKS & RESOURCES • Montana Tucker — Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/montanatucker] / TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@montanatucker?lang=en] / YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@MontanaTucker] • How To: Never Forget [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22997074/] — Montana’s Holocaust education docuseries • “We Can Dance Again” project • Mia Tate — IMDb [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2482420/] • Follow Why We Dance on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeDancePodcast] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/whywedancepodcast] • Producer: S.J. Nichols [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9523927/] (Seannon Gonzalez [https://www.linkedin.com/in/seannongonzalez/]) • Executive Producer: Meredith Gooderham [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithgooderham/] • Studio: Caspian Studios [https://www.caspianstudios.com/] • Production Support: Dark to Light Productions • Sponsor: Davies Reid Rugs [https://daviesreid.com/] BIO: MONTANA TUCKER Montana Tucker is a dancer, actress, singer‑songwriter, creator, and activist whose work blends performance, purpose, and deep emotional truth. With an audience of over 14 million, she is known for her viral dance collaborations, her powerful storytelling, and her commitment to showing up as her full, unfiltered self. A World Hip Hop Champion by 11 and a professional performer by her early teens, Montana has spent her life expressing what words struggle to contain. As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, she carries a legacy of resilience that shapes her humanitarian advocacy — from her documentary series How To: Never Give Up to her post‑October 7 storytelling, documenting survivors and hostage families in Israel. Through dance, activism, and her “We Can Dance Again” movement, Montana uses her visibility to fight hate, elevate unheard voices, and remind us that movement is a language for healing when speech fails. ABOUT WHY WE DANCE Why We Dance is a podcast hosted by Mia Tate, exploring the stories our bodies hold — the histories we inherit, the emotions we move through, and the ways dance helps us make sense of ourselves and the world. Each episode invites dancers, creators, and embodied storytellers to share how movement shaped their lives, healed their wounds, and connected them to something larger. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

No Fixed Form: Viktoria Modesta and the Art of Becoming

The body is not static. Neither is identity. In this episode of Why We Dance, Mia Tate welcomes Viktoria Modesta for a bold and expansive conversation about movement as authorship, creativity as survival, and the freedom found in refusing fixed forms. Viktoria shares her early life in Latvia and the medical challenges that shaped her relationship with her body from a young age. She reflects on immigrating to the UK and immersing herself in London’s underground and fashion subcultures—spaces that gave her permission to imagine herself differently and to design her own visual language. The conversation moves into Viktoria’s decision to advocate for amputation at fifteen, not as an act of loss, but of self-determination. She speaks candidly about reclaiming agency through choice, and how movement and performance became tools for rewriting narratives around beauty, disability, and power. Viktoria also discusses her recent recovery period and the innovative ways she integrated AI into her creative process—exploring how technology, healing, and imagination intersect. Together, Mia and Viktoria examine the relationship between science and spirituality, alternative body architecture, and why evolving the body is inseparable from evolving the self. This episode is a meditation on becoming—on embracing transformation, honoring curiosity, and choosing movement as a way forward. About the Guest Viktoria Modesta is a boundary-defying performance artist and musician known for reimagining the body as a site of authorship rather than limitation. Born in Latvia and based in the UK, she gained global recognition as a “bionic pop artist,” blending avant-garde fashion, music, and alternative body architecture to challenge conventional ideas of beauty and identity. Her work spans performance, technology, and embodied practice, exploring transformation, agency, and the art of becoming. Episode Timestamps: (00:00) Empowerment Through Creativity and Self-Design (01:04) Meet Viktoria Modesta: The Bionic Pop Artist (02:16) Early Life, Disability, and Medical Challenges (07:25) Immigration, London Subculture, and Identity Formation (09:29) Choosing Amputation and Reclaiming Body Autonomy (14:46) The Power of Dance, Movement, and Embodiment (20:47) Breakthrough Performances and Creative Transformation (26:34) Imagination as Resistance and Reinvention (29:55) Small Shifts, Big Personal Evolution (30:16) Posture, Recovery, and Physical Realignment (31:13) Resilience, Body Awareness, and Strength (32:06) Curiosity, Reinvention, and Lifelong Learning (32:30) Movement, Fashion, and Avant-Garde Expression (34:55) Innovative Healing and Alternative Body Architecture (37:53) AI, Technology, and Creative Recovery (42:11) Embodied Cognition, Science, and Spirituality (50:57) Future Vision, Advocacy, and Sharing Knowledge (56:31) Universal Truths, Identity, and Final Reflections Links & Resources: Mia Tate’s IMDb [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2482420/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk] Viktoria Modesta Subscribe and Follow Why We Dance on YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeDancePodcast] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/whywedancepodcast/] Podcast Producer S.J. Nichols [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9523927/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk] (Seannon Gonzalez [https://www.linkedin.com/in/seannongonzalez/]) Executive Producer Meredith Gooderham [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-gooderham-9228a3142/] Production Studio Caspian Studios [https://www.caspianstudios.com/] Camera Operator Kai Irvine Assistant Camera Ben Drummond Production also by Dark to Light Productions [https://www.darktolight.productions/] Thank you to Davies Reid Rugs [https://daviesreid.com/] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Inside a Life on Stage: Tony-Nominated Will Swenson

Presence as Craft. Movement as Meaning. In this episode of Why We Dance, Mia Tate welcomes Will Swenson for an intimate conversation that looks beyond the spotlight and inside the life of an actor shaped by movement, memory, and truth. From their shared high school years in Salt Lake City to Will’s acclaimed career on Broadway, the conversation traces the arc of a life lived in performance. Will reflects on growing up in a theater family, his early connection to movement and dance, and how those foundations informed his approach to acting long before he stepped onto a Broadway stage. Together, Mia and Will explore the importance of presence in storytelling, the differences between theater and film, and what it means to stay grounded while inhabiting iconic roles in productions such as Hair, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Les Misérables, Waitress, and A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Story. Will speaks openly about balancing career and family, navigating change, and learning to remain honest—both in performance and in life. The conversation also touches on faith, identity, and Will’s decision to step away from the LDS Church, examining how movement and embodiment can become tools for truth and self-connection. The episode closes with Will reading a deeply personal letter about dance and movement—an invitation to listen more closely to the body and stay present as life continues to unfold. This is a conversation about craft, courage, and what it really means to live inside the work.     EPISODE TIMESTAMPS: [00:00] Introduction and Guest Welcome [00:31] High School Memories with Will Swenson [03:16] Movement and Acting [07:03] Growing Up in a Theater Family [14:28] Journey to New York and Early Career [21:44] Balancing Career and Personal Life [23:44] Theater vs. Film: The Actor’s Perspective [30:06] Experiences in Iconic Roles [33:02] Tony Nomination and a Humbling Preschool Moment [34:31] A Beautiful Noise and Neil Diamond’s Influence [37:12] Landing the Role [42:22] Creation, Pottery, and Staying Grounded [46:22] Leaving the LDS Church and Family Dynamics [52:45] Reflecting on Life’s Journey and Memory [01:01:33] The Power of Dance and Movement     LINKS & RESOURCES: Mia Tate’s IMDb [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2482420/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk] Will Swenson IMDb [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0842451/?ref_=fn_t_1] Subscribe and Follow Why We Dance on Youtube, [https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeDancePodcast]TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@whywedancepod], and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/whywedancepodcast/] Podcast Producer S.J. Nichols [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9523927/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk](Seannon Gonzalez [https://www.linkedin.com/in/seannongonzalez/]) Executive Producer Meredith Gooderham [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-gooderham-9228a3142/] Production Studio Caspian Studios [https://www.caspianstudios.com/] Camera Operator Kai Irvine Assistant Camera Ben Drummond Production also by Dark to Light Productions [https://www.darktolight.productions/] Thank you to Davies Reid Rugs [https://daviesreid.com/] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Freedom in Motion: From Michael Jackson to Ballet, Aaron Walton Unbound

Freedom as Practice. Movement as Choice. In this episode of Why We Dance, Mia Tate welcomes Aaron Walton for a reflective and wide-ranging conversation about freedom—not as a destination, but as something lived, practiced, and earned through motion. Aaron shares how growing up in a musically rich household shaped his earliest relationship to rhythm and expression, long before his career in advertising took shape. He reflects on formative professional experiences, including working alongside Michael Jackson, and how proximity to cultural icons taught him less about spectacle and more about discipline, trust, and creative rigor. Rather than lingering in the spotlight, the conversation moves forward—through fashion, embodied learning, and spiritual curiosity. Aaron traces his path from Paris runways to the quiet intensity of the ballet studio, including his involvement with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, where structure, humility, and presence reshaped his relationship to movement. The episode culminates in a deeply personal moment as Aaron reads a letter on why he dances—an intimate reflection on authenticity, gratitude, and the courage to remain open to change. This is a conversation about loosening definitions, honoring lineage, and discovering that true freedom is not found in stillness, but in motion. Episode Timestamps: [00:00] Embracing Curiosity and Growth [01:22] Introducing Aaron Walton [03:02] The Power of Dance and Movement [06:36] Childhood and Early Influences [08:36] Educational Journey and METCO Program [12:03] Career Beginnings at Pepsi [14:36] Michael Jackson’s Bad Tour Experience [17:57] The Discipline Behind Creativity [22:12] Fashion Week and Personal Growth [29:17] Embracing Confidence and Body Awareness [30:29] Joining the LINES Ballet Board [32:05] Winning the Auction and Preparing to Dance [33:46] The Joy of Ballet and Continuous Learning [35:03] The Power of Movement and Creativity [37:09] The Importance of Disruption and Curiosity [45:11] Personal Truths and Coming Out [47:08] Spiritual Connection to Movement [49:19] Reflecting on Family and Upbringing [54:25] Concluding Thoughts and Letter Reading Links & Resources: Mia Tate’s IMDb [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2482420/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk] Aaron Walton – Walton Isaacson Alonzo King LINES Ballet} Subscribe and Follow Why We Dance on Youtube, [https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWeDancePodcast]TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@whywedancepod], and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/whywedancepodcast/] Podcast Producer S.J. Nichols [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9523927/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk](Seannon Gonzalez [https://www.linkedin.com/in/seannongonzalez/]) Executive Producer Meredith Gooderham [https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-gooderham-9228a3142/] Production Studio Caspian Studios [https://www.caspianstudios.com/] Camera Operator Kai Irvine Assistant Camera Ben Drummond Production also by Dark to Light Productions [https://www.darktolight.productions/] Thank you to Davies Reid Rugs [https://daviesreid.com/] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.