Dream come true

Mariah Chandler’s dance career has been a dream come true. Chandler’s performed with Billie Eilish at Coachella, worked with Beyoncé and been a member of the Dana Foglia Dance Company since 2018.

Chandler graduated from Oakland University in 2015 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and quickly moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams.

She was confident enough to make the move to LA after completing a mentorship program with the Dana Foglia Dance Company between her junior and senior year at Oakland.

“I was obsessed with the Dana Foglia Dance Company, I loved them so much,” Chandler said. “At one point I felt, ‘If I can take just one class from Dana Foglia then my life will be complete.’ I was at OU when she released this prompt to submit for a three-month mentorship program, and I submitted thinking that she would never see it because she's Dana Foglia. And I got it, so I came out to Los Angeles, and I stayed here for three months, and it was a really great opportunity for me to get a full taste of what it's like to live here.

“Getting that three months out in LA was crucial, and we got to work with Dana and the company, one-on-one, lots of training,” Chandler added. “We had performance opportunities. So after that was complete, I came back to Michigan and I finished my degree. I took my last final at Oakland on August 30 and on August 31 I was driving to Los Angeles in my car. I wasted no time.”

When Chandler moved to Los Angeles, she was able to book various jobs and stay afloat thanks to a few “side hustles.” She then caught a huge break in her career when she officially joined the Dana Foglia Dance Company in 2018.

“Every opportunity I could, I kept training with her,” Chandler said. “If she was having a class or an intensive, I would try to sign up for it. I started working for her on the technical side, helping with her social media because it allowed me to train more with her.

“In 2018, she pulled me aside, I was taking pictures for her social media that day, and she said, ‘Hey, come outside for a second.’ And I was thinking, ‘Okay, what did I do?’ She said, ‘Hey, I was just wondering if you wanted to be an apprentice in the show this upcoming month?’ And then I was crying all these tears because if someone had asked me, ‘Would you rather dance for Dana Foglia or for Beyoncé?’ I would have said Dana Foglia, because I just have so much respect for her. And dance jobs versus dance company is like night and day. Usually you're not really utilizing your full training on a gig, whereas someone like Dana Foglia, I know her work, it’s so athletic and technical. All the things I worked on at OU, I'm applying in that company 100%. It was just a huge moment, and very emotional. And she got emotional, and I got emotional, and it was just beautiful, the beginning of such a beautiful era of my life.”

Mariah Chandler credits Oakland University for giving her the skills to succeed as a professional dancer.

Chandler performs with her company and also has an agent that helps her book other jobs like dancing for Billie Eilish at Coachella.

“Dancing for Billie Eilish at Coachella was a huge highlight for me, that is a time that I will remember for the rest of my life,” Chandler said. “Most dancers will agree that Billie Eilish’s music is very inspiring for dancers. She has even mentioned in interviews that she’s always thinking of dancers when she’s creating music because she was a dancer growing up. It was incredible.

“The little things that we take for granted living out here for so long, ‘college Mariah’ would have been freaking out over,” Chandler said with a laugh. “For example, our rehearsals were on Universal’s lot in the filming spaces where they film shows and stuff. And we would rehearse with her at the Kia Forum Stadium. She was so kind and considerate and sweet. It was overall, just an amazing experience. And to perform on a stage with that many people, thousands of people in front of you, was crazy, but it was awesome. I thought, ‘Wow, this feels very full circle, because I've always loved her.’ I've always thought Billie needs dancers, and we were her first dancers.”

Working with artists like Eilish and Beyoncé was something Chandler always imagined doing when she was younger, so she had to make sure to enjoy the moment.

“I've had Billie Eilish and Beyoncé on my vision board since I was probably 12 years old, so just very full circle moments where you're like, ‘How did I get here?’ Chandler said. "Let me take it in for a second, instead of being stressed about remembering everything, and does my costume fit? It’s about do I have the energy and is my mind clear? It’s like you're looking at Billie Eilish, or you're looking at Beyoncé, come back down to Earth.”

Chandler couldn’t say much about the project she worked on with Beyoncé, but she really enjoyed working with the multi-platinum and multi-award winning artist.

“She’s very kind, very sweet and supportive,” Chandler said of Beyoncé. “She would always watch our rehearsals and say, ‘Wow, you guys look so great.’ I did not expect her to be so down to earth. She’s just so kind.”

Chandler has also worked on several different music videos and done work with the LA Follies, who perform at private events and functions.

“Music videos are so different from performances,” Chandler said. “You are on set for at least 12 hours. If you're lucky, it'll be one day. If you're not as lucky, it'll be a few days, and you're usually dancing the whole time. You get some breaks for meals, but it’s always. ‘Okay, let's do it again. Okay, let's do it again. Okay, let's do a zoomed in version. Okay, let's do it wide, let's do singles, let's do improv, let's do poses.’ Just the amount of work that goes into making a music video is crazy. It's wild. And the cameras pick up everything in such a unique way. You have a makeup artist that comes and does your makeup in a very specific way, so that it shows up on the screen.”

Chandler said her time at Oakland helped prepare her for the long days of shooting a music video and she’s so thankful for her time at OU.

“I think the biggest, most outstanding thing that I would say prepared me for what I do now, would be the discipline of long hours, lots of training, keep your head down and keep working,” Chandler said. “Stay in your lane and work on your craft without there necessarily being a sole focus on the outcome, because that's something I've learned a little bit the hard way. But you have to love the process. Being at OU for all four years, you're training and working on technique, your training and working on choreography, which is awesome. I utilize that every week. I teach at a dance studio, just being able to improvise. That's a big one that college taught me was improv, which you use all the time out here. I mean, sometimes an audition is only improv, being able to work with people as a team.

“I think OU really set me up in a physical way, in a mental way, but in a literal way. It also allowed me to build a resume properly. It allowed me to have a base of knowledge so that I feel qualified, and that I can trust myself walking into a room that I know what I'm doing and I know how to navigate, because I learned that at Oakland University.”

Chandler said she would encourage young dancers to go to Oakland and develop their skills before trying to dance professionally full time.

“I’m so thankful I went to Oakland,” Chandler said. “If anyone were to ask me I would say, ‘Go to Oakland.’ The faculty are amazing. They're incredible. They care about you. I think they're really good about sitting you down and asking you what your goals are, and giving you the tools you need to get to that goal. You get a lot of individualized attention, which is so important, even if you're young and able as a dancer, there are just things that you need to learn before you do all the things that we're doing out here. And I see people skip that part and come out here and they are confused.

“I loved everything about OU, even outside of the dance program,” Chandler added. “I loved living on campus. I thought that the campus was just a beautiful place to be and a beautiful place to walk around.”

To learn more about the Oakland dance program visit https://www.oakland.edu/smtd/programs-and-majors/dance/

Mariah Chandler is a member of the Dana Foglia Dance Company.