Welcome to The Mix - a fusion dance podcast, where we dive into the world of blending dances and all that comes with it
We’re talking about everything from: the highs of nailing that perfect combo to the lows, dance chemistry, musicality, emotional and mental challenges, and more.
And if you’re new to the dance scene, don’t worry: we’ve got you covered with practical tips to help you get started, feel comfortable, and most importantly, have fun.
So, come on in, we can’t wait to dance with you!
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#37: The Problem With How We Learn Dance, featuring Mayuri Bhandari
Monday, November 9, 2026 • Duration 46:56
What happens when your identity, your culture, your activism, and your art all show up on the dance floor?
In this episode of the Fusion Dance Podcast, we sit down with Mayuri Bhandari - artist, activist, actress, producer, and professor - for a conversation that goes far beyond just dance.
Mayuri shares how being an Indian woman navigating spaces where she was often the only person of color shaped the way she thinks about art, representation, research, and cultural appropriation.
In this episode, we explore:
What happens when you're constantly the only person of color in the room, and how that can shape your relationship with your own identity
Why Mayuri sees art, academia, and activism as three interconnected parts of the same conversation
What can happen when we accept the stories we're given,without asking who originally told them.
What does respect actually look like on a crowded dance floor? (Sometimes the answer has less to do with dance technique than we realize).
Why the dance floor can become a mirror for society, plus what our behavior with a partner reveals about us
Why choreography can actually create MORE freedom to let go - not less
Where the line between cultural appreciation and appropriation gets complicated and why research matters.
What happens when you reclaim a practice that has been separated from its roots? Mayuri shares the story behind her one-woman show, The Anti-Yogi.
Share this with a friend that you know would love this episode!
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here: https://bit.ly/Social-Dance-LA
—
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW US! 👍
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
#36: What Makes a Dance Weekender Actually Worth It
Monday, October 26, 2026 • Duration 50:39
If you've ever come home from a dance weekender, festival, or congress with sore feet, a full heart, and a million thoughts about what worked and what didn't, this one's for you.
We attended the Los Angeles Bachata Festival and Camp Hollywood (Swing). In this episode, we're talking about what makes a dance weekender truly great, why house parties hit differently, and what it means to dance honestly.
In this episode, we talk about:
What the key ingredients of a dance weekender are: workshops, socials, performances, and sometimes concerts
Why a great dancer isn't automatically a great teacher, and how to spot instruction that's worth your money
How crowded ballrooms can hurt the learning experience in workshops
Why outdoor social dancing feels like a backyard party, and why that makes it less intimidating and more community focused
What "bird energy" is, and how taking up space, moving with intention can add a magnetic quality to your dancing
How true connection happens when partners actually listen and respond to each other
What makes a weekender successful: great music, quality instructors with real insight, and smart marketing that gets people in the door
What makes a house party special: comfort, community, and human connection
We’d like to hear from you! What dance weekender events have been the best for you and why?
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at
#35: Are You Really Dancing…or Protecting Yourself?, featuring Jackson Xia
Monday, October 12, 2026 • Duration 51:27
What if dance is actually giving you access to a part of yourself that you haven’t felt safe expressing?
In this episode of the Fusion Dance Podcast, we sit down with Jackson Xia for a personal conversation about dance, emotional growth, intimacy, and the surprising ways movement can help us understand ourselves.
Jackson has explored everything from breaking, locking, and house to hustle, krump, pole, bachata, zouk, and Chinese classical dance. And along the way, he discovered:
Different dances can unlock different parts of who we are.
Some helped him find confidence. Others gave him access to joy, freedom, anger, sensuality, or human connection.
In this episode, we explore:
Which dance he discovered that helped him express joy, freedom, sensuality, and anger that he couldn’t express in words
Why is anger sometimes the emotion that gets permission to exist, especially for men
Why he avoided romantic relationships for a decade and how following in partner dancing begin to change the way he understood intimacy and closeness
Why joy is one of the most vulnerable emotions to feel and what happens when you've learned that good things don't last
And what does it mean to have an honest dance with someone?
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at
#34: The Fastest Way to Expand Your Dance Vocabulary
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 • Duration 35:36
What if the next dance style you learn could completely change the way you currently dance?
Not every class is going to give you the same benefits. Sometimes you need more musicality. Sometimes you need better connection. Sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone and learn an entirely different movement.
In this episode, we get into cross-training for dancers, and which styles can help you strengthen specific skills.
Whether you're a Westie, salsa dancer, hustler, Lindy hopper, tango dancer, or ballroom dancer, we're breaking down what you might want to try next.
We talk about what dances we recommend to stretch you or to compliment your current style:
Which dance can deepen your close embrace and groundedness or add new textures, timing, and footwork.
Which dance can teach you patience and the art of pausing
Which dance expands your musicality, rhythm, and movement vocabulary.
Which dance help you with openness and momentum from a partner
Why every dancer benefits from listening beyond melodies and lyrics and getting more comfortable dancing to rhythm, percussion, and instruments.
Cross-training is about learning different dance languages so you have more ways to communicate with your partner.
And that brings us to another big piece of the conversation: feedback.
Practicas give dancers a place to experiment, rotate partners, and actually talk about what they're experiencing: connection, technique, musicality, and more.
#33: I Danced 20 Hours a Week for a Month. Here’s What Happened
Thursday, September 17, 2026 • Duration 42:28
What happens when you dance 20 hours a week for an entire month?
One of us did an experiment and found out firsthand. And well… you learn A LOT. We’re going behind the scenes of an intensive month of dance training, and the surprising lessons that came out of it.
In this episode, we talk about:
Why “you have to train to engrain.”
How learning to lead made us a better follower in partner dance, and why its important to understand what your partner is experiencing on the other side of the dance.
Why safety comes before creativity: when a complicated or flashy move isn't worth it on the dance floor
The problem with overdancing: why trying too hard actually makes the dance harder for you.
Why technique matters more than creativity
Why the most versatile dancers make the best dancers: Learning different styles exposes you to different ways of connecting, moving, and interpreting the music’s rhythm, melody, instruments, and lyrics
Why you should speak up when something hurts. (Hint: Your partner's fun should never come at the expense of your body).
And maybe the biggest takeaway?
Sometimes it's better to be boring than unsafe.
Because once trust is broken on the dance floor, it's hard to get it back.
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🙏Shout out and THANK YOU to John Monday @johnmondaymusic who helped us out and edited this podcast episode!
RESOURCES:
#32: Why Trophies Don't Make Better Dancers (A Review of the ThrowDown Dance Event)
Wednesday, August 19, 2026 • Duration 01:25:52
This week we're taking you behind the scenes of our trip to The ThrowDown, a fusion dance weekender and competition in the bay area (Oakland) in California.
Yes, we competed.
Yes, we made finals…but that wasn't the shiny highlight of the weekend.
Instead, we found ourselves asking much bigger questions:
What actually makes someone a great fusion dancer?
How should competitions judge dancers in fusion?
What role does feedback play in helping communities grow?
In this episode we discuss:
- Why traveling outside your local dance scene is one of the fastest ways to grow and how traveling exposes you to possibilities your local scene can't always provide.
- Why inspiration is contagious and often what many dancers are missing to see what's possible
- We unpack our honest thoughts on everything - from social dances, the music, classes, , competitions to judging, registration logistics, DJ battles, etc. and how they were ran
- How Fusion University's practicas unexpectedly prepared us for competition and feedback.
- Why clear judging criteria matter if we want to shape the future of our dance
#31: Why Is Partner Dance So White? And How to Fix It, featuring Dave Harris
Wednesday, August 5, 2026 • Duration 47:52
Is partner dancing losing its roots? What happens when we stop caring or asking about where a dance came from?
This week, we're joined by Dave Harris for one of the most thought-provoking conversations we've had on the podcast. We dive into the intersections of dance, culture, history, identity, and what it really means to create an “inclusive place” - not just in theory, but in actual practice.
This isn't a surface-level conversation. It's an invitation to get curious on why there aren’t enough people of color in dance, challenge assumptions, and think more deeply about the future of fusion dance.
What we talk about in this episode:
1) Why aren't more people of color in partner dance?
The barriers that often go unseen.
Why saying "everyone is welcome" is *not* always enough.
Practical ways organizers and communities can create spaces where more people genuinely feel they belong.
2) Why dance, cooking, writing, and even sex have more in common than you think
3) When does fusion become colonial without organizers & teachers realizing it?
A thoughtful discussion on cultural exchange versus cultural extraction.
Why intention matters - but education matters too.
How honoring history can actually make us better dancers and humans
What gets lost when we separate a dance from the culture that helped shape it.
#30: Why Experienced Dancers Are Quietly Leaving
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 • Duration 38:26
It’s SEASON 2 of The Fusion Dance Podcast! We took a hiatus because we have been understaffed and overworked but we are back with more hot takes this time.
Is fusion dance losing its spark?
We have an honest conversation about the future of fusion, what makes dancers stay (or why many leave), and how DJs have more influence than you might think. From behind-the-booth lessons learned while DJing across the country to bigger questions about community growth, the concept of inclusivity, and vision, this episode challenges some of the thoughts people have about dance.
In this episode we talk about:
The DJ technique that instantly wins over a dance floor.
Why some fusion scenes stop growing (including LA's)
The uncomfortable truth about why dancers leave.
Are we making fusion too beginner-friendly?
What great organizers understand that others miss.
Our vision for the future of fusion dance.
Whether you're a dancer, DJ, organizer, or simply love thoughtful conversations about partner dancing, this episode is sure to get you thinking.
RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
#29: We Traveled To The Middle East! (& What It Taught Us About Dance)
Monday, November 3, 2025 • Duration 27:23
Welcome back to another episode of The Fusion Dance Podcast! Today, we’re going on a little journey - halfway across the world, actually.
In this episode, Trang shares her unforgettable adventure through the Middle East and what it revealed about connection, culture, and the way we move with one another through dance.
You’ll hear about :
The unexpected challenge of finding partner and social dances in a region where it’s not so common.
If people there dance differently or the same —and what stood out most
The #1 BIG epiphany Trang had, on how this trip to the Middle East connects to partner and fusion dance
So grab your headphones, and let’s dive into the insights that a trip across the world (and a few missed dance socials) can teach you.
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here:
#28: Our Honest Take on The Bay (SF/Oakland) and "City in Motion" Event
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 • Duration 01:12:23
We’re taking you behind the scenes of our recent trip to the San Francisco and Oakland fusion dance weekender — City In Motion.
We’re talking all about the highlights and lowlights from our experience, what made the Bay Area scene stand out, and how it compares to what we’re building right here in LA.
You’ll hear our honest thoughts on:
The vibe and style differences between LA and the Bay — is the Bay really that much better as people say?
What we saw at City In Motion that we’d love to bring back home to our local scene.
The growing conversation around contact improv on the social dance floor — how organizers view it and how dancers feel about it
Our favorite moment from the weekend that reminded us why we love this dance so much.
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here: https://bit.ly/Social-Dance-LA
—
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW US! 👍
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
Shout out and THANK YOU to Sammy @dudeist_priest__ who helped us out and edited this podcast episode!
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here: https://bit.ly/Social-Dance-LA
—
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW US! 👍
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here: https://bit.ly/Social-Dance-LA
—
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW US! 👍
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
- How the dance scene grows when organizers are willing to experiment.
If you've ever wondered whether competitions are "worth it," or you've been feeling stuck in your local dance scene, this conversation might be exactly that different perspective you've been looking for.
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here: https://bit.ly/Social-Dance-LA
—
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW US! 👍
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
What it's like to walk into a room where you're the minority.
The invisible emotional labor many dancers carry before they even step onto the dance floor.
Why belonging is about far more than receiving an invitation.
How empathy begins by listening to experiences different from our own.
5) Questions every dance community should be asking:
What voices are missing?
What kind of culture are we creating? —for today's dancers and the next generation?
This conversation may challenge you. It may make you uncomfortable in moments. And honestly? That's okay.
Some of the most meaningful growth happens when we're willing to stay curious instead of becoming defensive.
Whether you're a dancer, teacher, DJ, organizer, or someone who simply cares about building a stronger dance scene, we hope this episode sparks important and much needed conversations.
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RESOURCES:
• FU (Fusion University) is here! To be the first to know about our classes, practicas, demos, assessments, social community events, and more, sign up for our email newsletter here at https://forms.gle/6GaYzigG1FjVU5vQ6
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here: https://bit.ly/Social-Dance-LA
—
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW US! 👍
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
• Wondering on where to social dance in LA? Stay up-to-date on all the upcoming events in the LA area here: https://bit.ly/Social-Dance-LA
—
RATE, REVIEW, & FOLLOW US! 👍
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
This helps us support and reach more people just like you!
Listening on APPLE Podcasts?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastApple Scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select “Write a Review.” Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode!
Listening to this on SPOTIFY?
Go to https://bit.ly/FusionDancePodcastSpotify . Tap on the star icon underneath our podcast description to rate and help us out! (Rating is available on mobile app only).
