Choreographer For Beyonce & Kendrick Lamar Earns Two Emmy Nods

Two-time Emmy-nominated choreographer and California native, Charm La’Donna, is finally being recognized for her work.

She is behind the seller performances of Beyoncé‘s Christmas Day NFL’s halftime show and Kendrick Lamar’s iconic Super Bowl performance.

Due to her stellar performances, La’Donna joins three other black women with Emmy nominations for choreography. Debbie Allen, Chloe Arnold, and her mentor Fatima Robinson were also black women who received nominations.

She received two nominations for outstanding choreography for reality programming, one for each performance. Both Kendrick and Beyoncé‘s performances have not only been successful, but also the most talked about moments from the past year.

La’Donna is also no stranger to collaborating with popular musicians. She has worked with The Weeknd, Meghan Trainor, Dua Lipa, and Selena Gomez. She’s also received other award nominations for MTV’s Video Music Awards for Kendrick Lamar‘s Not Like Us video.

“The Beyoncé bowl was my first time working with Beyoncé, and it was just a beyond amazing experience for me,” La’Donna says. She later mentions how grateful she was to experience this. “ I’m so grateful and blessed to be able to work with amazing artists across the board — Beyoncé and Kendrick included. I feel like every project that I work on has some impact on me,” she said.

Despite being seen on a global scale, La’Donna remains humble and grateful.

“I don’t even know if I have the words to be honest. The first thing I say is that I’m blessed and grateful, but I’m still in shock. It’s an honor just to be acknowledged on this type of platform; it’s definitely a dream come true,” she said.

Dancing has become a staple in La’Donna’s life. At the age of three, she started training, and her career immediately started. At age 10, she began appearing in videos, and by age 17, she became one of Madonna‘s dancers.

She’s attended many schools, such as Regina School of Arts and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. She attended the University of California for college, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in world art and cultures.

“I love the work that goes into creating art for whoever to see you’re talking to the little girl who used to choreograph in her room by herself and now I see my work all over the world,” La’Donna says.

Hip-hop and R&B inspire her performances. She wants to be seen as more than a choreographer; she wants to tell stories alongside the performances. 

“I call myself a hybrid. I have trained in many different styles of art forms of dance, and I feel like all the styles that I have been able to study are blended well and put through me, so I take my experiences. I look at the world and I’m able to blend it in my body, and God allows me to move and put it out,” She says.

In the upcoming future, La’Donna wants to look into working in TV in film and be a mentor for dancers and learn how to direct.

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