Meet Charity Baroni Litzenberg

Little did I know that answering a phone call would change my entire life. “Hi, this is Taylor Swift’s manager, we were wondering if you were available for the next 6 months and if you could fly in tomorrow to Nashville to start rehearsals” I was living in LA at the time pursuing a career as a professional dancer, my hometown being Nashville. I obviously accepted the job as Taylor’s background dancer that started as a 6-month job and ended up being over 3 years of my life. Because of this, my life, my passion, and my purpose changed forever. I started training in a dance studio in Nashville starting at the age of 17. I was a late trainer in dance but an early pursuer of performance and absolutely loved it. I grew up performing with my sisters at my dad’s concerts, I also learned to love performing when I was a competitive gymnast and while playing sports in high school. Fast forward 10 years from my gymnastics competitions and I was on stages touring all over the world and on award’s shows and halftime shows as a background dancer, performing with the biggest pop artists of our time. I am honored to say I danced for Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Flo Rida, to name a few. I never took what I was doing lightly. Once I lived almost a decade of performing and experiencing all of the great, hard, and dramatic behind the scenes of that beautiful and wild lifestyle, I moved back to Nashville and pursued choreography and teaching dance. I eventually started performance coaching and even helped the USA Women’s gymnastics national and Olympic team members with performance and dance. Seeing the process of the biggest artists and athletes in the world, I also witnessed that they are still human…I gleaned from them and now share my experiences to enhance dancers’ and artists’ experience and performance. Also seeing the reality and vulnerability of that world, I went to school in Nashville and received my Bachelor of Arts in counseling. I congruently started a brand to build a community for those of us who struggle with perfectionism (especially if you grew up in a perfectionistic household, have ever been in the entertainment industry, and also now that I am a new mom!). My brand is called “Ain’t No Perfect” and I sell shirts and different merchandise with this message printed on it in order to spread community and awareness that we are not alone and also that perfection does not exist. I share proceeds of these items with different charities every month! I created this brand to remind us to TAKE A DEEP BREATH and be a human, and help other humans do the same.

It was not a smooth road at all. I was told “no” many many times. I was told to lose weight many times or that I wasn’t good enough or skinny enough or “you name it” enough in my professional career. I auditioned and trained a lot. I was defeated a lot. I was almost fired from a job for being a normal weight because when I originally auditioned, I was sick and had lost weight. I was fired from a job for having too many curves. I experienced hardships and depression and loneliness and anxiety. Life on the road presents a lot that no one would imagine. A lot of isolation and monotony. Life as a continual auditioner does the same. You are constantly putting yourself in the line of fire of “not enough.” Choreographers experience that as well. You start being defined and defining your own worth by “what” you are and who you work for instead of who you are. I had to really learn how to find my identity outside of what others told me. I struggled a lot with mental health due to a lot of different things and also trauma, and that is actually what eventually brought me back to Nashville from LA. In Nashville, an obstacle in the entertainment industry is the higher-ups trying to taking advantage of people who just want to work, and not paying them a rate that they are worth. No matter what city or vocation, there are obstacles. I am thankful to have a strong foundation and community to remind me of my value no matter what my resume says or what the scale says or a what paycheck says.