I don’t know about you, but I’m still shocked that Dani got cut from the competition this week for no good reason whatsoever. You may have been surprised by her early exit, but did you know this wasn’t her first time on a reality show? She was actually a quarterfinalist on America’s Got Talent! I talked to Dani about whether she would consider a third singing competition, which contestant she was closest with, and her plans for the future.
Ology: Hi Dani. So far the judges seem to be basing a lot of their decisions on the contestant’s personality, and your last chance performance was really good, but you were still sent home. So what do you think about that? Do you think it’s fair?
Dani: I mean, in retrospect as I look back on it, like if they were looking for a very like bubbly and like musical theater type of personality then I definitely wasn’t the right choice. But if they wanted - you know one thing I noticed was like in week one, Lea Michele actually gave me a comment that said, “You know who you are, just be more yourself with the performances.” And so going into week two I actually took that and decided okay, you know, I’m not going to try so hard. Instead I’m just going to be my chill, relaxed self. And actually that was the thing that they decided they didn’t - they didn’t necessarily want. Now obviously I feel like I have more personality than what was shown on the show. I don’t think that I really was able to show all of myself. But, you know, based on what they saw, I could see why they made that decision. I don’t - I mean in the end I see that it was actually what was best for me. I learned a lot when I went home and I just try to make a positive out of every situation. So in the end it all works out really well.
Is there anything that you wish you had an opportunity to sell to Ryan Murphy or do with the show that you weren’t able to? That you kind of wished, “Oh man, I wish I had done that?”
Definitely. I feel like the first few weeks everyone was in an adjustment period. I definitely feel like I was in my head a lot the first few weeks, just kind of getting myself used to it. I wish that I had had a chance to show some of my - a little more of my wit and my humor and kind of my rapping skills and singing. It was just a little bit more of my attitude that you would see in an everyday life situation with me.
Now you seem to have a different sort of energy and a different style of music than most of the people that are on Glee right now. So what sort of character did you see yourself kind of being on the show if you had made it on?
Well, I did see myself being an androgynous and kind of mysterious sort of character. And then as you get to know me, I can be like a truth teller, kind of honest, very honest and comfortable with myself. And I would - I feel like I would push my love interest and my friends beyond labels, you know, sexuality, talent, categories, and things like that. As far as musically I did feel like it would be cool to have a singer/songwriter in the mix. So that’s kind of what I wanted to do. I knew I would have to adapt to certain situations, but I really wanted to bring my vibe to the show.
Can you talk about some of the fears you had with your own dance ability and whether you knew it could be a disadvantage?
Well, I mean dancing has been something that I have gotten a little bit more comfortable with in the last year or so. But in high school, when I was in musical theater and I had a very hard time like keeping up with the choreography, it was always a challenge. So I knew coming in that there would be a dance ability week, and I knew - I mean I knew that it was going to be hard. I didn’t know that I was going to go home necessarily on dance ability week, but yeah, I mean I think it comes down to just really being able to like let go and not be so concerned with getting every move exactly right.
Who were you closest with out of the other contestants on the show?
I got very close with Ali. I’m rooting for her all the way. I mean, going in I actually told her - we met at callbacks and I found out, like we talked about our character ideas, like what we had in mind for our characters. And besides me, I was like, I could really see you on Glee. This is what I told her. I was like, I mean you really have a shot of it. Her personality and her talent is just like amazing.
You’ve been on two singing competitions. Would you consider going out for another one?
I don’t think so. I don’t think I’m going to go out for another show this time around. I mean who knows what will show up in my universe. But no, I think that I’m going to continue just - now I’m going to build a band, continue recording my music, release some music videos, and I have a documentary in mind that I want to start producing.
What would that be about?
Well, I have an idea to do a documentary about gender actually and kind of exploring how different cultures view gender and how society views the binary male/female gender categories. So it’s going to be kind of an exploration of that, and then like some insight into my personal journey with gender.
After being on both shows, how do you feel you’ve grown in order to care about your own unique career?
Essentially, exactly what I feel like I’ve been able to do is after having been on both of these shows, I feel like I know myself so much better as an artist and a performer. And both of them have pushed me in unique ways and have definitely been very humbling experiences because I’ve met so many amazing and very talented people. And yeah, I just feel like going forward I’m going to be really just be in touch with my music and creating really amazing songs. I actually had a cool kind of vision. It would be really neat if one day I released a song that was really popular and Glee actually did the song, you know, like a rendition of it.
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