Charity Anderson has not stopped since she appeared on Season 2 of World of Dance with Andrés Peñate. The duo toured with World of Dance Live! and returned to the show for the Season 3 World Final to perform with Andrés, Derek Hough and Michael Dameski.
If she needed more icing for that cake, Charity is now on tour with Derek in Derek Hough Live! The tour has three more weeks with East and West Coast dates coming up.
Dance Dish first met Charity during her Season 2 run on World of Dance. It was refreshing to catch up with her almost a year later to find out how she's handled the success and a whirlwind schedule.
Dance Dish: What has this unbelievable year meant to you?
Charity Anderson: It's a snowball that just keeps rolling down the hill and getting bigger and bigger and bigger — in a good way. It's amazing. Honestly, I had a spark of a dream and it's gone on its own little journey and taken me places I never expected to go. It's crazy.
DD: Which came first for you — booking the tour or doing the video for A Star is Born with Derek?
Charity: I heard about the tour in December and I think around that same time we were doing the video, too. It’s such an honor. I never thought I would be doing this right now.
When he asked me, it was more of a hint — more like we're doing a tour, just keep that in mind. He hadn't chosen his dancers yet. It was a little bird in the ear.
I thought about doing a lot of other things. I did audition for the new High School Musical. There were a lot of opportunities, but I wanted to put this in front of all of the other opportunities.
DD: I know Andrés is doing High School Musical. After being so connected last year on a project, is it hard not working together?
Charity: He's doing great. He's having so much fun working with the cast and he's making a lot of connections. I've done a couple of things with him, but we haven't had a lot of time together, which is so sad. I miss him.
We saw each other every day for so long and it's like having a separation. We did work together with Sofia Wylie on an Instagram teaching video she's doing. We haven't been able to do much together, but he's having the time of his life.
DD: You and Andrés were known for your tricks on World of Dance. I know you've taught Derek a few tricks, too. What is that process like?
Charity: Derek has an idea of what he wants and then we workshop it together. It's very similar to what Andrés and I do — we have previous tricks we've done in the past and then we workshop it to make it something new, something we haven't done before.
It doesn't take Derek long to pick up a trick. It's very spur of the moment. We do it, learn it and keep it. He's a quick study.
DD: This is a heavy-duty dance show. How is this stretching you as an artist?
Charity: Every night you have to come out as if you've never done it before. It really exercises your acting abilities because it can get tedious. It has to be as exciting as the first show and that can be hard to do.
I feel like it's training my ability to keep it fresh and learning to get into the character every single night. Even in rehearsals, I feel like I grew a lot from working with the different choreographers because they each expected something different and that really pushed me.
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