SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, April 3, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah dancer Charity Reid will be heading out on tour with Derek Hough this spring, and she couldn’t be happier.
Reid was born and raised in Springville, where her mother Tresa Anderson owns a dance studio. Reid’s mother studied dance at Brigham Young University and opened Charisma Studio in her home in 1996. Reid and five of her nine siblings have danced competitively.
The same year the now 23-year-old graduated from Springville High School, in 2018, she and her partner Andrés Peñate competed on season two of NBC’s “World of Dance,” becoming the first in the show’s history to score a perfect 100 on a routine. The pair won the junior division with a score of 93, though Reid had broken her toe during practice a few days before. They finished third in the finals with a combined average score of 94.3. From the ages of 8 to 12, Reid competed in ballroom dance with partner Peñate; the pair won the title of National Preteen Champions. Reid has also danced competitively with her older brother Landon Anderson, and currently teaches and choreographs at her mother’s studio.
Reid was selected to back Derek Hough on his first solo tour in 2019, and later this month, she will be joining him for his “Symphony of Dance” tour, after some dates were postponed in December. The tour kicks off April 14 in Melbourne, Florida, and will come to the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City on May 15, before wrapping up on May 19 in San Diego, California.
On Thursday, Reid chatted with Gephardt Daily while on a break from rehearsals in Los Angeles.
We asked her about growing up in a dance family and what that was like.
“I mean, my whole life was dance,” Reid said. “It’s all I knew from the second I was born. So my parents’ home has a studio that’s connected to the garage. And I basically lived in the studio, and our whole lives were built around our dance schedule and competitions. My closest sibling in age is five years older than me, and he’s also still dancing, and then my second oldest brother and his wife are still dancing professionally. I spent all my time in the studio. I mean, my mom never had a babysitter, I would just sit out in the waiting room and the parents of the dancers would watch me and I would tumble and I would — it’s funny because I used to do this thing where my mom would sit with her knees together, one knee out on a chair, and I would just do back handsprings or back walkovers over her knee, and so I thought I could just do that with other parents and that was normal. So I was just flipping over people’s knees and tumbling for them in the waiting room. It was my whole life.”
We also asked her what the “World of Dance” experience taught her.
“There are so many things that I learned,” Reid said. “Well, I learned all the people that it takes to go into a production like that. I mean, I learned so many new moves for my vocabulary; for my arsenal of tricks. My partner and I, we had only been partners officially for ‘World of Dance.’ So we didn’t have an arsenal of moves or tricks to pull from, so we were constantly creating new things on the show. So I mean, learning to choreograph. Like that definitely was one thing that I learned, and how to work with a partner, because I had never done a duet; growing up my mom never let me do duets (a dance choreographed specifically for a couple). And so I competed ballroom, but it’s very different. Like we implemented cabaret, which is show dance; it’s ballroom show dance, elements of ballroom and then elements of partner lifts and tricks, as well as the contemporary and lyrical and jazz and all those styles. So learning to dance like that with a partner was also something that I learned and, I mean, interviewing skills. I hadn’t much experience with interviews. And so that was another thing that I learned. I mean, there are so many. I could go on and on and on. But that’s just to list a few.”
She also explained that as she and Peñate got further and further along in the competition, the journey became more and more intense.
“So yeah, there were a few weeks in between, that we could kind of prep our next routine,” she said. “We went to the show with the basis of two routines and then once you go there, they alter and change; you work with an artistic director of the show, and they kind of help you evolve, what you bring, make it show-worthy. It all stays organically our choreography, but they kind of help it so that we change our focus for the camera angles and things like that.”
The pair went on to win the junior division of the show even though Reid was dancing on a broken toe.
“I broke my left big toe, which is my dominant leg, it’s the foot that I turn on, that I jump off of, so that threw us for a whirl,” she said. “At first I was kind of nervous because they didn’t know exactly where the break was, and if it was where they thought, I mean, worst-case scenario where they thought it was, I wouldn’t be able to have a dancing career. And I was like, what, I was shocked, but I had the mindset that if I win this thing, I’m going to pay for a bionic foot. I wasn’t scared. I mean, I was for a split second there. I was like, oh, that’s kind of serious. But I mean, immediately I was like, I’m determined to continue on in this competition.”
She also met Hough officially during her “World of Dance” journey, as he was one of the judges.
“I mean, I’ve always known him and he’s from Utah,” she said. “So I’ve like seen him in passing. But formally meeting him; that was where I met him.”
That meeting led to Reid being selected for Hough’s first tour.
“So Andrés and I were season two,” Reid explained. “Season three’s finale, the judges were able to pick contestants from the previous season to perform with them. So Derek chose me and Andrés, and then the guy who got second place which was Michael Dameski. During the rehearsals that we were putting that piece together, he mentioned that he was looking for people for his first solo tour and that’s when he proposed to us if we were open or available, and I was the only one. And since then I’ve been performing with him and doing jobs everywhere.”
Reid also talked about what audiences can expect from the “Symphony of Dance” tour. The tour began late last year; then in December, Hough’s wife, Hayley Erbert Hough, was rushed to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with a cranial hematoma and underwent an emergency surgery to remove a part of her skull. In February, Hough announced new dates for his postponed shows — plus a number of new shows, including in his home state of Utah. It’s not clear whether Erbert Hough will be joining the tour.
“For people that saw the first leg of the tour, it’s an incredible show,” Reid said. “Seriously, the most amazing show I’ve ever been a part of. The story, the emotion and the thought that’s put into the entirety of this symphony of dance. It’s magical and I get teary eyed just thinking about it. And I look into the audience every single night and I don’t see a dry eye. It’s an incredible feeling to be a part of it, it almost makes me want to watch it. It’s gonna be super exciting to be able to get out there again. I cannot wait for everybody to see it.”
We also asked Reid what she loves about touring and if there’s anything she finds challenging.
“I enjoy so much performing for live audiences, there’s nothing like it,” she said. “I mean, the response, the cheering, the way you can feel the audience and the way that I feel on stage in front of those big audiences, and the music, since it’s a live band. They have a drummer, they have a bass, they have a clarinet, flute, saxophone, cello. There’s a few more instruments but yes, they’re playing live and it makes the performance that much more amazing. But as far as getting to be in that, I mean, our our cast is so small. So we really become a family, and it’s really fun to travel with each other, and we have such a fun time together. But the difficult part of touring, I would say it’s just leaving your significant other for long periods of time. So there’s me, and Alexia [Meyer] and Alexis [Warr], we are all married. It’s probably the most difficult part of going on tour, but it’s worth it for sure.”
Reid said various family and friends will be coming to the tour stop in Utah.
“They already had two shows in Salt Lake on the first leg,” she explained. “I’m so happy that I get to go back to Salt Lake and just have that. I had people that weren’t able to get tickets, and there were two shows. And so I’m excited to be able to perform for all of my friends that weren’t able to go.”
She also talked about what her plans are after the tour concludes.
“Well, I’m gonna go back and teach at my mom’s studio,” she said “I’ve kind of taken that up as a project to kind of build that program there. And in between teaching there, I open myself up to do master classes and workshops at other studios around the nation, and choreography, but I always leave myself open for Derek because he calls us up last minute like, ‘Hey, are you available in two weeks? We’re gonna do a Disney special’ or something. So I don’t know what the future holds, but Derek’s always doing something.”
We also reached out to Reid’s mom, Tresa Anderson, who told us that all her children trained at her studio. Her oldest son, Mike Di Lello, started dancing as a young child and was a competitive ballroom dancer. Her second son, Ryan Di Lello, also started dancing very young and competed in ballroom. He was on the BYU Ballroom Tour Team and then met his wife, Ashleigh Di Lello. Together they became professional dancers and appeared on “So You Think You Can Dance” season six, where they made it to the finale. They toured the world performing for many years, and he still performs professionally. Her daughter, Shantay Healey, also started dancing as a young child and competed in jazz and ballroom dancing, and her son, Tyler Gregersen, competed in ballroom.
“My youngest son, Landon Anderson, is the child next to Charity, who set a great example for her,” Anderson said. “He became a national champion and also competed on a world level with Jenna Johnson Chmerkovskiy from ‘Dancing With The Stars.’ Landon was Jenna’s partner when she auditioned for ‘SYTYCD’ and was invited to come back the next season. He ended up going on a mission for the LDS Church and then danced on the Ballroom Tour Team at BYU. Since then, he has been asked to assist Jenna with choreography for ‘DWTS.'”
She added: “Charity and her brother Landon held the title of National Ballroom Cabaret Champions for two years and were sought after for two years by producers of ‘SYTYCD’ for their show, but declined. So with all that information, I guess you can surmise that yes, I am proud and grateful that my children have all been naturally skilled at dance and have loved what I love. My husband, Wylie, also loves dance almost as much as I do, as a spectator and casual participant, and has been very supportive of all our children. I always say that the magic ingredients for a child to succeed in any skill are passion first, hard work, supportive parents, and natural talent figures in there somewhere as well.”
We also asked Anderson what characteristics she saw in Reid right from when she started dancing that suggested to her how far she would go as a dancer.
“As a small child, I saw great love for the art of dance in Charity,” she said. “I do believe that she was first inspired by watching all her siblings succeed at it. Literally two days after she was born, she was with me in the studio while I taught, and then she attended dance performances and competitions continually. It was not long after she learned to walk that her favorite activity became either performing for her friends in the studio or bringing all the family into the living room to watch her create and perform dances. She amazed us all as she would watch the older students at the studio learn a tumbling or acro trick and just by watching, she would try it and do it. At three years old she would ask the parents in the waiting room of the dance studio if she could do back handsprings over their knees, which they all enjoyed accommodating.”
As a child, Reid became a champion competitor in jazz, lyrical, contemporary and ballroom styles of dance, and very often would win the overall events for the day, not only in her age and style but against dancers sometimes twice her age, Anderson said.
With her mom’s help, Reid and Peñate started working on choreography in the spring of 2017 thinking they would work on their dancing together for a year to prepare for “World of Dance” before auditioning.
“We had already missed the deadlines to audition for the upcoming season, but then we heard that they had decided to open a few last-minute audition tapes,” Anderson said. “We scrambled to put together all the required information and submitted their audition tape just before the second deadline. I was so shocked that within one hour of submitting their audition tape, I received an email saying the producers wanted them to come to Los Angeles for a live audition. Later, when Charity and Andrés were rehearsing on set for ‘World Of Dance,’ the casting producer came to me and told me that from the day she saw their audition, she knew there was something very special about the two of them. Derek Hough also said this of Charity in a recent Instagram post. ‘I first saw @charity_dance blow everyone’s minds on ‘World Of Dance.’ Ever since, she has become an important part of my productions! She is an incredibly unique talent with unlimited ability and a heart of gold.'”
Anderson added what makes Reid a unique dancer, in her opinion. “Passion, humility, dedication, tireless hard work, fearlessness, and perfectionism,” she said.
For more information about the tour, and for tickets, click here.
