Few stars have captivated the music world over the past 12 months like Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar — and both have tapped Compton-bred choreographer Charm La’Donna to help bring their culture-shifting songs to life.
A protégée of famed choreographer Fatima Robinson, the 37-year-old started as a backup dancer for Madonna’s Confessions Tour in 2006 while in her senior year at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. She has since worked (and won MTV Video Music Awards) with Rosalía and Dua Lipa, but this year she’s experiencing a first: At the Emmy Awards on Sept. 14, she’ll compete against herself in outstanding choreography for variety or reality programming with Beyoncé Bowl and Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
One week prior (Sept. 7), she’ll aim for her third best choreography Moonperson with Lamar’s “Not Like Us” at the VMAs. She says with a laugh about doubling up on Emmy nominations, “I had my teary-eyed moment, and then I noticed [and said], ‘Oh, my God. Not me going against myself!’ ”
“Not Like Us” Music Video
As a victory lap in his beef with Drake, Lamar dropped the triumphant, Dave Free-helmed music video for “Not Like Us,” featuring crip walking and clowning. “It’s an honor to create with [dancer] Tommy the Clown because it’s homegrown,” La’Donna says. “L.A. makes up so many of the nuances of who I am and my art.” La’Donna was “listening as a fan like everybody else” when she got the “surreal” call to choreograph the video, extending her history with Lamar, which includes a stint as his sole female dancer on his 2017 DAMN. tour. “I feel the music and get inspired by the dancers in the room,” she says. “Being myself and allowing my moves to come out organically is my storytelling.”
Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show
For the first halftime show headlined by a solo rapper, La’Donna used her previous Super Bowl experience (she choreographed The Weeknd’s 2021 performance) and held freestyle-dominant auditions that examined “ability, potential and camaraderie.” Lamar’s cinematic show, which featured SZA and Samuel L. Jackson, used his career-spanning setlist and dance formations to offer a critique of America, relying on nuance over spectacle. From his flare jeans to his cheeky smile, there were many viral moments — few as replicated as Lamar’s jig down the gridiron to “Not Like Us.” To translate that energy to 133.5 million viewers (according to the NFL), La’Donna choreographed for the cameras, too: “I paid extra care and attention to where [they] were and what each one was doing.”
Beyoncé Bowl
Beyoncé saved her first Cowboy Carter-era performance for Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL halftime show in Houston. For the occasion, she rallied special guests (including Shaboozey and Post Malone, as well as her daughter Blue Ivy) and tapped hundreds of dancers, instrumentalists, cheerleaders and rodeo cultural figures. To help the performance flow seamlessly, Queen Bey looked to an all-star team of choreographers comprised of La’Donna, Tyrik Patterson, Christopher Grant and Parris Goebel. “When dealing with thousands of people and props, I remove the pressure of any expectations outside of doing my best and being my best self in that space,” La’Donna says, stressing the show’s ambitious scale.
This story appears in the Aug. 30, 2025, issue of Billboard.
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