MSP 190: Danielle Guillermo

PODCAST 190: Danielle Guillermo

Release Date: 12.4.25

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The Dancer’s Entrepreneurial Leap with Danielle Guillermo

Episode 190: Show Notes

A dancer’s career is often shorter than many others, and for the most part, there comes a time when the performer must pivot and find other ways to find value and joy in their craft. Joining us today is Danielle Guillermo, a former dancer turned dance consultant, as well as brand strategist and web designer. We begin with Danielle’s background and how she got into the world of dance before learning how her home and school support structures gave her the confidence needed to excel in performance. Then, we examine how her career goals have evolved since high school, how being rejected from Juilliard was a blessing in disguise, her role at the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and other early-career experiences, and everything that happened to instigate the second phase of her career. We also discover how Danielle began building websites, her journey as a brand strategist, why she chose the teaching route, and why it’s possible (and healthy) for artists to have financial aspirations without compromising their art. To end, Danielle walks us through Dance News Daily — the news hub she built for the entire dance community — and we discover what she has planned for the near future as well as how to connect with her and her work.

Key Points From This Episode:

Danielle Guillermo describes who she is and how she got into the world of dance.
What drew her to ballet, and a journey through her time at dance school.
How her support structures gave her confidence that she previously had to fake.
The goals she had when growing up in dance school and how they’ve evolved.
Rejected from Juilliard: The ups and downs of her dancing education after high school.
The start of her career and her experience at Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.
Her European adventure, and everything that happened post-DCDC 2.
How Danielle’s performance career ended and why she chose to focus full-time on teaching.
Breaking Glass: How she approached a career crossroads at the age of 31.
How artists can also have aspirations of financial freedom without compromising their art.
Danielle’s website-building career and how it’s transformed her and her client’s lives.
The importance of building a personal brand and making it visible to the right people.
Unpacking Dance News Daily – a news hub for the entire dance community.
Danielle’s upcoming projects and what she’s focused on moving forward.
How to connect with Danielle Guillermo and her work.

Additional Notes about Danielle’s first dance jog:

“In my first company position, I was paid $283 per week in NYC. I was fortunate to find an apartment for $300/ month with a roommate. It was 2002, and it was a miracle to find such a deal in Manhattan. Everything was tight but with $25/week from my parents and a nice social network, my needs both physical and social were met. I never felt trapped at home unable to have fun. We also did a bit of touring and had our expenses and per diem covered.” Read more on her BLOG

ABOUT Danielle

Amber Sloan is a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Choreography Fellow whose work has been presented across the United States, Mexico City, Mexico, and locally at venues including Kestrels, Arts On Site, Roulette Theater, Dixon Place, 92Y Harkness Dance Center, Art House Productions, South Orange PAC, Smush Gallery, the EstroGenius Festival, and in a 21-year commissioning relationship with the DanceNow Festival. She was a Monira Foundation Performance Resident at Mana Contemporary, an Artist in Residence at Union Street Dance, an Emerging New Jersey Commissioned Choreographer for Dance on the Lawn, and a Schonberg Fellow at The Yard on Martha’s Vineyard. She has been awarded space grants from Gibney Dance Center, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Spoke the Hub, and her work has been annually supported by the Jerome Robbins Foundation since 2009.

As a performer, Amber has been a member of The Bang Group since 2002, and has performed in works by Doug Elkins, Keely Garfield, Sara Hook, Stephan Koplowitz, and James Waring, as staged by Richard Colton. She serves on the faculty of the Ailey School as the dance composition teacher for the Professional Division program. She has been a guest teacher at Marymount Manhattan College, DeSales University, Muhlenberg College, Holy Cross, Salem State, American Ballet Theatre’s Summer Intensive, Boston Ballet Summer Program, The Yard, Gibney Dance Center, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange.

Amber is the Assistant Executive Director of Arts On Site, a women-led nonprofit organization founded in 2016 to support artists and build community. She co-directs Women in Motion NYC, an organization whose mission is to foster female choreographers through the commissioning of new work, producing, and mentoring, and she serves on the advisory board of Art Omi: Dance. Amber holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was honored with the Beverly Blossom/Carey Erickson Alumni Dance Award.