Kicking It Real

About Kicking It Real

What does it take to dance on Broadway, kick with the Rockettes, or book the job you've chased for years? And who are you once you get it? I'm Gabby Roberts, a former Rockette who heard "no" five times before I heard "yes." I talk with dancers about the parts of a dance career nobody posts: auditions, rejection, burnout, money, and life after the job ends. Every guest leaves with a real moment of being seen, and a chance to impact YOU. This dance podcast is where the highlight reel ends and the honest, in-progress stuff begins. Come for the stories, stay for the "same, me too" moments 🤍

Publisher

GABBY ROBERTS

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

28 Oct 2025

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

65 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   14 Oct 2026

   54. from Rockette to Broadway to TV host: getting cut twice, Dancing With the Stars and why it's never a pivot with Amanda Kloots

   Amanda Kloots got cut from the Rockettes twice before she booked it. What came after: 16 years of performing, Broadway, a fitness brand, Dancing with the Stars, five seasons co-hosting The Talk, and now her own podcast. And she says none of it was a pivot. Two former Rockettes, one conversation. We get into what changed between her second and third Rockette audition, surviving the five show day era, and why she left the line for Broadway because she wanted her own character instead of being one of 36. She shares the AK! Rope classes nobody came to for eight months, the Cats cut that made her go all in on her business, and why she calls every career move an enhancement. Then we go behind the scenes of Dancing with the Stars: why every week is like learning a brand new sport, the advice she gave her friend Jenna Dewan before this season, and why she feels like a better dancer now than ever. Plus what the Rockettes taught her about hosting live TV, how she preps for interviews, why she waited three years to start her grief podcast, whether she'd come back to Broadway as Roxie, and what she'd tell 18 year old Amanda walking into her first audition. If you've ever stepped away from dance and wondered if you're still a dancer, this one is for you. Stay in the loop with me 🤍 Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod (https://www.instagram.com/kickingitrealpod/?hl=en) @potentiallygabby (https://www.instagram.com/potentiallygabby/?hl=en) Find Amanda here 👇🏼 Instagram: @amandakloots (https://www.instagram.com/amandakloots/?hl=en) Podcast: Good Grief (https://open.spotify.com/show/033UAia6qo3nZAMHRhhrP6?si=1acddd1681644d9e) Proper Health: properhealth.com (https://properhealth.com/)

2. 

   7 Oct 2026

   53. reinventing your dance career: cruise ships to Broadway to professor, why burnout is really boredom & how to choose a dance college with Lindsey Hanson

   Lindsey Hanson has performed on Broadway, on the Radio City stage, on Sesame Street, and on cruise ships doing trapeze. And every time she got to the top of one corner of the dance world, she started over in a new one, on purpose. She danced with a contemporary jazz company through the Joffrey Ballet School, then cruise ships, then musical theater, then TV and film, and then played the White Queen in Third Rail Projects' Then She Fell. While she was still on tour, she earned her MFA from Montclair State. Today she's a newly tenured dance professor at Hope College, her alma mater, and she's wrapping up a year of four site-specific works made in worship spaces, funded by a $250,000 grant from Creative Arts Collective: Holland, a bird's-eye dance film, 22 dancers in New York, and a fourth in Grand Rapids. We get into the night she learned a duet, lifts and all, 30 minutes before curtain on a ship, what it's like to find your mark at Radio City when the show is a magic act, the thesis premiere COVID cancelled that went on to 13 film festivals, and the three words that got her through grad school: action cures fear. She also pulls back the curtain on how grants actually work and why burnout might really be boredom. Then we go deep on choosing a dance college. BFA vs BA vs conservatory, what to ask on a campus visit, why your professors are your first network, and why "the industry" is so much bigger than you think. If you're auditioning for college this fall, or you're scared to start over at something new, this one is for you. Stay in the loop with me 🤍 Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod (https://www.instagram.com/kickingitrealpod/?hl=en) @potentiallygabby (https://www.instagram.com/potentiallygabby/?hl=en) Find Lindsey here 👇🏼 Instagram: @lindseyhandsoncollective (https://www.instagram.com/lindseyhansoncollective/?hl=en) Website: lindseyhansoncollective.com (https://www.lindseyhansoncollective.com/)

3. 

   30 Sept 2026

   52. why Broadway vets can't get auditions right now: celebrity casting, rejection, and starting a side business with Mary Page Nance

   Mary Page Nance is living proof of something every artist finds out eventually: talent can get you into the room, but your willingness to stay uncomfortable decides what you do once you're in it. She trained in modern dance at SUNY Purchase, made her Broadway debut in the original company of Finding Neverland, swung twenty tracks in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, and went on to the original companies of A Beautiful Noise and Lempicka. She also runs Monocle Productions, her custom event entertainment company, and a page of mary, her handmade paper goods business. And somewhere in the middle of all that, while she was already working on Broadway, she went back to acting school. We get into why the open calls she spent years showing up to were never real auditions, the email that got her into an Andy Blankenbuehler master class for free, and the first audition where the room was actually expecting her. We talk about what it feels like to go on for a role on a Broadway stage while quietly guessing, and why she went home early on opening night to make a 9:30 a.m. acting class in Brooklyn. If you've heard no so many times lately that you've started to wonder whether you're the problem, this one is for you. Stay in the loop with me 🤍 Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabby Find Mary Page here 👇🏼 Instagram: @marypagenance TikTok: @marypagenance Monocle Productions: @monoclenyc a page of mary: @apageofmary Her Wicked and Lempicka card designs are at The Drama Book Shop in NYC. Sarah Kleist's business course for multi-hyphenate artists: sarahkleist.com

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.6 / 5

10 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

16 ratings

Contact Kicking It Real

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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