When it comes to watching your favorite entertainer, there are so many components that come together to bring their songs, performance, and personalities to life. Choreography is a major component! We sat down with Jasmine “JB” Badie who has worked with Sabrina Carpenter, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Ariana Grande, and Megan Thee Stallion to name a few!
We sat down with this noted Creative Director and Choreographer to find out about how she got into the industry, the importance of movement, her creative process, and more!
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you enjoyed dance and movement?
JASMINE BADIE: I don’t know if there was one exact moment where I realized it. I think I understood the feeling before I understood what I could actually do with it. Music would make me see things — a certain sound could give me an idea, a character, an attitude, a whole visual. Movement eventually became the way I could get those ideas out of my head and make them real.
What’s funny is that I didn’t start out feeling like the strongest dancer in the room. I actually struggled a lot when I first started training. So my relationship with movement wasn’t built from, “Oh, I’m naturally great at this.” I had to find my own confidence in it, and I think that journey is a big part of why I create the way I do now.
AM: At what point did you realize that you wanted to be a choreographer and what do you love about doing it?
JB: I think I realized I had more to offer as a creator when the opportunity just kept knocking at my door. Eventually, I decided to walk in.
I’ve always believed you should wear as many hats as you can, get as much experience as you can and learn everything possible in the field you’re passionate about. Sometimes you’re so focused on one dream coming true that you don’t realize you’re also watering these other inspirations you never even knew you had.
That’s what happened for me. Dance opened the door, but through dancing I was learning so much more — about music, artists, performance, staging, storytelling and eventually what I wanted to create. Choreography became another way for me to use everything I had been picking up along the way.
What I love now is being able to see an idea become something real. Something can start in my head or in a rehearsal room and eventually end up on an arena stage, in a music video, or become a moment people want to recreate themselves. That’s still really special to me.
AM: Can you tell me where you trained and how you would define your style?
JB: My training was a little unconventional. I didn’t grow up in a studio training from the time I was three years old. When I started taking classes, I was actually SUPER insecure. Remembering choreography was hard for me and I would get in my own head about how I looked or what everybody else in the room might be thinking.
Once I moved to LA, I took as many classes as I could from different teachers and went to conventions like Monsters of Hip Hop. I wanted to learn, but eventually I realized part of my training had nothing to do with learning another step. It was learning to trust myself. Once I stopped looking around the room for validation, I realized, “Oh wait, I’m a performer.”
I don’t know that I would define my style by one genre. I think you can definitely feel where I’m from in my movement — Atlanta is always going to be in me — but I’m much more interested in how something feels. I like personality. I like groove. I like a little sauce. And I want the person doing my choreography to still look like themselves.
I also feel like if you have the ear for music and genuinely love the art form, you can do any style you put your mind to. For me, it’s less about putting yourself in a box and more about understanding the music, continuing to learn and being willing to stretch yourself creatively.
AM: Who have been some of the people that you have worked with?
JB: Whew! I’ve been blessed. Between my career as a dancer and my work as a choreographer and creative, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some incredible artists — Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Pharrell and N.E.R.D., Megan Thee Stallion, Ariana Grande, Missy Elliott, Cardi B, Tate McRae, Victoria Monét, Rihanna and so many others. The list really makes me stop sometimes and say, “Girl… look at your life.” LOL.
And I’ve been fortunate to experience this industry from different sides of the room. Being a dancer first gave me an education that I still use as a choreographer today. Working with so many different kinds of artists also taught me very quickly that there isn’t one formula for being great. I think all of those experiences helped shape the creator I eventually became.
AM: You are a creative director, choreographer, and creative architect behind Sabrina Carpenter’s most talked about performances. How did you connect with her and when you are working with someone, what is your creative process when it comes to bringing your visions to life?
JB: Sabrina and I started working together when I was hired to choreograph Fast Times. We started rehearsing in October 2021, and honestly, it was kismet from there.
We clicked FAST. We’re both Tauruses, so it was very much, “Ohhhh, you get it, get it, got it!” LOL. And she has the same birthday as my sister, which I’ve always found so special. There were just these little connections from the beginning. But beyond that, I saw soooo much for her. I saw possibility. I saw where we could go creatively, and thankfully she trusted me enough to go there with her.
My process now is very instinctual, but it’s also incredibly detailed. I pay attention to the person in front of me. I want to know what makes them comfortable, what makes them uncomfortable, what they naturally do well and what we can pull out of them that maybe they haven’t seen yet.
I’m also a HUGE movie buff, especially old films. I’m obsessed with raw cinematography — when something can be captured so artistically and delicately and then you pair that with good writing? Ugh, it fills me up. I think that naturally affects the way I create. I’m not just thinking about an eight-count. I’m thinking about what you’re seeing, what you’re feeling and what the whole picture is saying.
AM: How do you approach working with someone for a music video, a multi city tour, or an intimate performance?
JB: I think the biggest difference is understanding what each space is asking from you.
With a music video, I have the luxury of the camera. I can make something really small feel huge because I know exactly what you’re going to see. We can do another take. We can change an angle. We can catch that ONE little moment perfectly.
A tour is completely different because whatever we create has to survive. LOL. This person has to do it over and over again, sometimes for months. So now I’m thinking about the whole journey — where we’re giving energy, where we’re conserving it, what happens between songs, how the artist feels physically and whether the person in the very back of the arena is still getting a show.
And intimate performances are fun because you can let people come to you. You don’t always have to yell creatively. Sometimes a whisper is enough.
That’s really the challenge I love: figuring out how big or how small something needs to be without losing its impact.
AM: How important is fitness, endurance, strength, mobility, coordination, and recovery of the body when it comes to preparing women’s bodies for these incredible performances?
JB: EXTREMELY important. LOL.
What people see is the final two or three hours onstage. They don’t see everything the body has already done to get there.
Especially for women, we’re asking the body to do A LOT. Sing, dance, remember choreography, breathe correctly, run around a stage, sometimes do it in heels, change clothes in two minutes and then walk back out like none of that just happened. That’s an athlete to me.
So I don’t look at conditioning as separate from the performance. It is part of the performance. I want to know that when the lights come on, your body already understands the assignment. And recovery has to be respected just as much as training. You can’t constantly ask your body to give without giving something back to it.
AM: Where do you start when it comes to building a dance routine especially one that becomes a storytelling element to an entertainer’s arc that we can enjoy on stage?
JB: I usually sit with the song before I decide what it needs.
I want to know what catches me without forcing myself to find it. Sometimes it’s a lyric. Sometimes it’s something way underneath the track. Sometimes it’s literally a pause. And sometimes the thing that makes the most sense is not dancing at all.
Then I start asking myself what we haven’t seen yet. If we’re three songs into a show and I’ve already given you BIG, BIG, BIG, maybe the next moment needs to pull you in instead. I think choreography becomes storytelling when you stop treating every song like its own little island. Especially in a full show, I want one moment to lead you into the next. By the end, hopefully you didn’t just watch a bunch of dances — you went somewhere with us.
AM: As you have worked with so many people as well as creating iconic moments and dances from Ariana Grande, Beyonce, Megan Thee Stallion, Missy Elliott, Tate McRae, and Pharrell Williams to name a few — what are 3 performances that you are most proud of being part of?
JB: Oh this is MEAN. LOL. There are so many.
But right now, I would say Short n’ Sweet Tour first. Choreographing a sold-out arena tour is something I’m incredibly proud of. The amount of work and detail that goes into creating an entire show is completely different from creating one performance. Watching all of those pieces finally live together in front of thousands of people every night was very special.
Manchild would absolutely be another one. You create something in a room and hope people connect with it, but you can’t manufacture what happens after you let it go. Watching that dance go viral and then seeing it make its way into Fortnite was WILD. LOL. That’s when you realize something you made has officially left the room and belongs to everybody now.
And Sabrina’s Headlong performance at Coachella 2026. I’m just really proud of what we created there. Coachella gives you this huge canvas, and being able to create on that scale while still finding moments that felt specific was exciting.
And listen, I know you said three, but the BRIT Awards is getting an honorable mention because I LOVE that performance. LOL.
AM: How do you keep your body at its peak when it comes to being able to have the physical and mental resources needed to work with your clients?
JB: I play tennis whenever I can. I like that it gets my heart rate up without me standing on a treadmill staring at a wall thinking, “When is this OVER?” LOL. I’m competitive too, so give me a racket and now suddenly cardio is fun.
I also weight train with my trainer Oscar Cayetano. Strength has become really important to me because my work is physical even when I’m not the one performing. I can be on my feet for hours, demonstrating, rehearsing, traveling and then waking up to do it again.
Mentally, I’m still learning balance. I can get VERY locked into the work. So for me, taking care of myself sometimes means remembering that I am a human being outside of whatever I’m creating. Rest, getting quiet, playing tennis, watching a great movie — those things refill me too.
AM: What are 3 workouts that you do that we should consider placing in our fitness routines?
JB: I’m definitely a strength-training girl. I work my legs a lot because I need them! LOL. Squats are always in the mix.
I also focus on my arms and back. Push-ups are simple, but you feel them and you don’t need a bunch of equipment to do them.
And then core. Crunches, core work — all of it. I think having a strong center helps everything else, especially when your day requires you to be on your feet and moving as much as mine does.
So if we’re keeping it simple: squats, push-ups and crunches. You can do all three almost anywhere, so no excuses. LOL.
AM: How can choreography be a form of athletic training as well as building confidence?
JB: Anybody who thinks choreography isn’t athletic should come do a full-out rehearsal and then we’ll talk. LOL.
You’re using your entire body while your brain is doing ten things at once. You’re remembering movement, listening to music, thinking about timing, spacing, the people around you, your breath and what comes next. Then somebody says, “Again!”
But I think movement can do something even bigger for your confidence.
I know that personally because I wasn’t always confident in class. I used to worry so much about forgetting the steps or what somebody else thought about how I looked doing them. Eventually I realized I was giving everybody in the room more power over me than I was giving myself. When I stopped doing that, I found the performer in me.
SO yes, choreography trains the body, but learning to move without constantly judging yourself can train something else too. You start trusting yourself. And that confidence doesn’t have to stay in the dance studio.
IG @mssjb
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 90, 94, 100 Tommy Flannagan | PG 91, 97 Mason Rose | PG 98 COURTESY Jasmine Badie
Read the SEP ISSUE #129 of Athleisure Mag and see ON THE STAGE | Jasmine “JB” Badie in mag.
