Grew from Production Assistant to Assistant Production Manager across nine seasons of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
Dancing with the Stars is ABC’s celebrity dance competition, pairing celebrities with professional dancers to compete for the mirrorball trophy; the series has also streamed on Disney+ in recent seasons. I worked on the show across multiple seasons and specials, from Season 21 through Season 29 plus the Juniors and Athletes editions, progressing from Production Assistant to Assistant Production Coordinator and ultimately Assistant Production Manager. Over that run, I managed production logistics, scheduling, and stage load-in and load-out, filed contracts, releases, and film permits, tracked budgets and inventory across departments, and coordinated travel, equipment, and day-to-day needs for cast, crew, and production assistants.
Seasons Through the Years
Behind the Scenes
Where were you?
Los Angeles, California
What’s the moment things went sideways?
Live competition shows do not leave much room for error, so when something shifted, whether it was a wardrobe malfunction or a dancer needing extra rehearsal time, we had to adjust on the fly without slowing down the taping schedule.
A crew or cast story that still gets told
It was a tradition that the Coordinator and I started. There are months of prep work that go into the show before anything else, but there is a night when it feels real, and that’s when the cast wagons come in. Almost 20 wagons would get towed in during the evening, and that’s when the season felt real. The office would wrap, we would order a pizza, and the stage forklift would meet us in the parking lot. Around six p.m. all the trailers would drive in as we coordinated where each one would be placed. It felt like the last night of summer right before school started.
What would a viewer never guess?
How much rehearsal and schedule coordination happens behind a live show. Every minute is planned and rehearsed so many times to make sure all the lights, music, and cameras are in sync. At some point the cameras become part of the dance routine you see on stage.
What were you actually running day to day?
A typical day meant checking in with each department, from wardrobe to the dance floor build, tracking budgets and inventory, and making sure the live show schedule stayed on track from rehearsal through taping. The day could change so quickly, with small things always popping up, and it took a lot of quick thinking to fix them or follow through on whatever new ideas came up. That was the best part, since each day was always different.
What are you proudest of on this one?
This was the show that started my career. Getting to grow from Production Assistant to Assistant Production Manager over nine seasons taught me almost everything I know about how a live show comes together, and I am proud of how much I grew during that time. Working on a live show is such an amazing feeling of pride and accomplishment, because it takes the entire crew being on the same page and giving the performance everything they’ve got.