Show & Tell: Meet Ivy Michelle Williams of Tabu

Q: As a kid, you discovered gymnastics before dancing?
A: I started out as a gymnast, and then dancing, and I decided to stick with dancing. I loved it so much.

Q: By the time you got to college, were you considering a career in dance?

A: I majored in economics and I was thinking about marketing for arts companies or nonprofits or something like that. But when I started interviewing for jobs, it just didn't feel right. I had a few good interviews. Then I remember one lady asking me, "What do you love to do?" And I'm thinking, "Hmm, what do I love to do?"

Q: This was an interviewer?

A: Yeah. And I started talking to her, and we started talking about dancing, because she dances at her church, and she was, like, "I think you really should pursue your dreams. This will always be there in some form or fashion." I was, like, "Hmm. You're correct." (Laughs)

Q: So you returned to dancing?

A: I continued dancing the whole time, so I had never left it. I auditioned for Disney - I knew that was probably a good way to go - and that happened to work out.

Q: What show did you perform in?

A: "Tarzan Rocks!" (at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla.) It was a fun show. I was in that for close to two years.

Q: And when it closed?

A: I auditioned at Radio City, I auditioned for a few Broadway shows and I auditioned for Stiletto Entertainment (which produces shows for Holland America cruise ships). They called me first and I said, "I'll take it."

Q: Did you ever have moments while performing on cruises that you said, "I could be making big money in an office somewhere"?

A: No. On cruise ships, I got to meet a lot of people. They ask you for your story and you hear theirs, and you hear people who didn't pursue their dream, and you're, like, "It can wait."

Q: When you moved to Las Vegas (in 2008), did you have a job lined up?

A: No. I had a budget of how much I would spend until it ran out. ... When I was picked up by "Donny and Marie" (in which she also dances), that was at the very end.

Q: So, you dance in Donny and Marie's show and also go-go dance at Tabu. Do you ever feel tempted to slip a bit of Donny and Marie choreography into your go-go performances?

A: You know, we change things in our numbers (laughs). ... On the go-go box, people never know.