Why We Dance

In this intimate episode of Why We Dance, Mia Tate welcomes Mx. Antoine Hunter—an award‑winning Deaf dancer, choreographer, teacher, advocate, and the founder of the Urban Jazz Dance Company and the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. Antoine describes movement as breath, meditation, and survival. They share memories of growing up Deaf in a hearing world, facing bullying and isolation, and...

 In this episode of Why We Dance , Montana Tucker joins host Mia Tate for a conversation that lives in the body: a conversation about lineage, loss, visibility, and the deep human need to move when standing still is too heavy. Montana has been dancing since childhood — inspired by Britney Spears VHS tapes, trained at her mother’s Pop Stars dance company, and performing behind artists like Ashanti...

The body is not static. Neither is identity. In this episode of Why We Dance , Mia Tate welcomes Viktoria Modesta for a bold and expansive conversation about movement as authorship, creativity as survival, and the freedom found in refusing fixed forms. Viktoria shares her early life in Latvia and the medical challenges that shaped her relationship with her body from a young age. She reflects on im...

Presence as Craft. Movement as Meaning. In this episode of Why We Dance , Mia Tate welcomes Will Swenson for an intimate conversation that looks beyond the spotlight and inside the life of an actor shaped by movement, memory, and truth. From their shared high school years in Salt Lake City to Will’s acclaimed career on Broadway, the conversation traces the arc of a life lived in performance. Will...

Freedom as Practice. Movement as Choice. In this episode of Why We Dance , Mia Tate welcomes Aaron Walton for a reflective and wide-ranging conversation about freedom—not as a destination, but as something lived, practiced, and earned through motion. Aaron shares how growing up in a musically rich household shaped his earliest relationship to rhythm and expression, long before his career in advert...

Movement as Meaning. Dance as Belonging. In this episode of Why We Dance , Mia Tate welcomes Alice Sheppard for a powerful conversation about redefining dance through disability culture, collaboration, and lived experience. Alice shares her unconventional path into dance, beginning in academia with music and medieval studies before movement reshaped how she understood her body and the world around...

Movement as Courage. Dance as Truth. In this powerful episode of Why We Dance , Mia Tate welcomes Mallika Sarabhai—world-renowned Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi dancer, actress, author, and fearless activist—for a conversation that stretches far beyond the stage. Mallika reflects on growing up in an extraordinary family deeply rooted in Mahatma Gandhi’s movement, her early resistance to becoming a da...

Lights, Camera, Dance! In the premiere episode of Why We Dance , actress Musetta Vander interviews the show’s host, Mia Tate—not to talk about dance, but to uncover what dance has rescued, restored, and revealed in Mia’s life and why she created this show.  Mia opens up about the seasons that nearly broke her—divorce, health scares, and the slow, quiet unraveling that happens when you drift away f...

I'm Mia Tate, a professional dancer and filmmaker, and on my podcast Why We Dance. We dive into the heart humor, and why behind movement. Each week I get to sit down with dancers. artists, and everyday Inspirations. These are soulful chats, wild stories and unfiltered truths. This is your open invitation to feel the stories behind what moves us. This is Why We Dance with me, Mia Tate. Coming soon...