Charm La'donna Tells Stories Through Movement

Source: Rodin Eckenroth / Gett

Celebrity choreographer Charm La’donna has helped stars like Dua Lipa, Lil Baby, Kendrick Lamar, and The Weeknd craft stories with their steps, gestures, and twirls for years. 

La’donna thinks through how bodies can make maximum impact on screens during music videos for songs like “Not Like Us.” Her vision reaches tour stops, and Super Bowl half-time performances. Whether you’re sipping a beer in the den or straining to see from the stands, her creativity has impacted you. 

When she knows something is pertinent to her story-telling, she stands “ten toes down” and lets the critics have their say. When asked how she felt about lending her creativity to Kendrick’s then-upcoming Halftime performance, she candidly revealed,

“I feel like the kid that’s just going to like Disneyland for the first time and you like, lay out your clothes,” she said with a chuckle. “I feel like that every day knowing that, I’m a part of such a big production, such an iconic moment, for me, for culture for everybody from where I’m from.” 

The choreographer-to-director pipeline is ripe with successful transitions from Debbie Allen to Princess Mhoon. La’donna’s expertise is right on time as dance moments return to center stage in movies. Sometimes, they’re a gag. Sometimes, they’re eerie. But in projects like Saltburn, Wednesday, and Severance dance scenes are moving the plot forward in new ways.

“I think that push, that narrative in itself, brings something special to film,” she says. La’donna particularly appreciated the way dance let audiences into the mind of The Joker. 

“I learned so much about his character just from watching him, in that moment,” she says. “It just stuck with me.” 

Triumphing Through Trust 

La’donna has signed with the WME agency and is in the process of working on her upcoming film. “What excites me the most about making that leap is that I will be able to tell stories in a different way,” she tells HelloBeautiful. “Dance is a story, but it’s not the only story.”

Filmmaking, like dance, is a collaborative effort. It requires working with people who understand your vision and respect your desire to expand the way you apply it. “If I didn’t have that space or trusted people around me, I wouldn’t be able to say, okay, I’m ready to direct,” says La’donna. 

Today, she’s working on turning some of the many books she totes in her carry-on with her favorite sunscreen, serums, and passport holder into strong adaptations. When she’s not gearing up for her next crack at the big game her noise is in a 60s novel she’d love to bring to life. 

With the entertainment industry rapidly shrinking, it can be scary to step out of a lane where you’re considered an expert. For Black women, who have to work harder to be respected in the workplace, branching out is even more risky. A strong support system is helping La’donna with that. “It’s trusting yourself, it’s trusting your craft. It’s trusting the people you have around you,” she says. 

“I can move on,” she continued. “Directing has always been a dream of mine but I could never find time to read the stories, to write the stories, because I was always engulfed in, also, what I love – choreography.” 

She built trust with her team by listening to them and not being afraid to share her own creative goals. She released a single “Queen” in 2021, stepping into the spotlight by carving room for herself. 

“I let some things go, and I trusted my team and I started saying no to certain projects,” she explained. “I was able to open up the space for God to work and move in different ways and open up different doors for me.” 

Source: Bryan Bedder / Getty

Taking It In Stride 

She not only trusts her team, she supports them. Pop culture might paint choreographers as barking banshees, but that’s not her style. La’donna holds space for those who stumble. “It’s not about mistakes. People make mistakes all the time, even in auditions people make mistakes. I don’t not hire you because you make a mistake,” she says, 

Withstanding critique can be tough in collaborative art forms. You can go from working step-by-step with someone to throwing shade at one another. La’donna relies on spiritual hygiene to keep from getting overwhelmed. “I’m dealing with new people, different people all the time. So, keeping my spiritual awareness, my closeness to God is very important for me,” she explained. 

She’s open to opinions but she doesn’t define herself by them.

Turning Inward

When the lights go out and the scores are tallied she moves on to the next moment. “Once I release the art, I let it go,” she says. Trying to control everything didn’t work for her. “I was wearing myself out,” she says. 

She takes time for massages, long calls from her mother, and naps these days. She is dedicated to excellence but not at the expense of achieving balance.  La’donna intends to be a person fully-formed person and a multi-faceted artist. 

“I’ve kind of separated myself, and I’m just like all right, I’m just gonna move through, do what I do best pray before I walk up in there, pray after I leave and just keep moving.” 

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