Lizzie Anderson dancing on Sesame Street Live

Lizzie Anderson started her dream of professional dancing in Custer over 20 years ago. Now, she’s dancing her way across the nation on “Sesame Street Live” for her third tour.
Growing up, Anderson said being part of the performing arts wasn’t a huge thing. 
“We only had a couple of places to train, but at the same time, you see all these amazing people in Custer who make their dreams come true and go do amazing things. I always knew that I grew up in just the best town and with the most supportive community around me,” said Anderson. 
As a result, Anderson grew up dancing and singing. At 3 years old, she started dancing at the Custer YMCA. Later, she switched to Lo-Ru West Dance Studio under the tutelage of Robin Prior, focusing on ballet, tap and jazz. 
“Ever since I did ‘The Nutcracker’ at Lo-Ru West Dance Studio, I was like, ‘Dancing is what I want to do. It’s my dream, and I’m gonna make it happen,’” said Anderson. 
Anderson played Clara, and her brother, Luke, was the Nutcracker. 
“There was this little documentary that played at the end of the ‘Barbie Nutcracker’ movie, and it shadowed a New York City ballet dancer and what their life was like when they’re training for ‘The Nutcracker.’ And I just remember having all these rehearsals, and all I could think about was like, ‘That’s who I am. I’m part of the New York City Ballet. I’m doing the exact same thing that these people are doing.’”
Anderson also did competition dance out of a studio in Rapid City.
“I think my favorite thing is just being able to express either a story or an emotion through movement. I think that’s a really powerful thing that you don’t really get to experience until you try it,” Anderson said. “So to me, dance is like the most empowering thing, because you get to tell your story or tell your feelings and expressions through movement, which is so powerful.” 
After graduating from Custer High School in 2018, Anderson headed to Oklahoma City University (OCU) to major in Dance and Arts Management. 
“It was a really nice mixture of both taking dance technique classes and training every day in the same styles. OCU is known for musical theater, so we did a little bit more of musical theater jazz. So it was musical theater tap, musical theater jazz and then ballet. Those were the main focuses,” said Anderson. 
However, a few years into college, COVID-19 tore through the dance industry, leaving Anderson uncertain if she wanted to perform after graduation. 
“It was really difficult, because dance is so hands-on and in person. It’s about connection with your teacher, with your classmates, and we just lost all of that. It was just all gone. We did a lot of virtual classes from our dorm room kitchens and a lot of online pre-recorded classes and online virtual performances,” Anderson said. “But everything was just so separated. It just felt like the most distant thing from dance that I had ever experienced or felt before. I guess that’s a reason why I also lost hope in having a career in it. It was just like, is this how the industry is going to be forever from here on out? Or is this a temporary thing?”
Instead, she began considering arts administration and teaching as a career with performing on the side. Right after graduation, Anderson went to Northwestern University in Chicago to get a Master of Science in Leadership for Creative Enterprises. For the first six months, Anderson said she didn’t dance. It was the first time she had ever taken a break, and she hated it. So after Christmas break, she made it her goal to immerse herself in the dance community. 
“As soon as I switched my mindset to be more open to being part of the dance community, instead of just focusing on arts management, thing after thing after thing just started happening,” she said. “I started teaching classes in Chicago. I taught all different styles, but mostly musical theater and tap. Then, I auditioned for my first two shows in Chicago, and I got both of them after my first two auditions.” 
One of the shows was “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” where she served as the dance captain and was in the ensemble. After that, Anderson started opening up to the idea of auditioning in New York. 
When she graduated in the fall of 2023, Anderson started sending in tapes and auditioning for roles online while simultaneously teaching in Sioux Falls at Dance Gallery of South Dakota. There, she taught every style of dance while flying back and forth to New York for callbacks for a year. 
“That was when I got a final callback for ‘Sesame Street Live.’ Then, in the following fall of 2024 is when I started with them. I have been with Sesame Street ever since. I’ve toured 47 of the 50 states with the show and performed in some of the country’s most iconic and largest venues,” said Anderson. 
Anderson is now on her third U.S. national tour with the show. Her first tour was September through December of 2024, the second tour was March through June of 2025 and the third tour is October through December of 2025. 
“I usually do choreography and different kinds of workshops and teaching around the country, and then I’ll come back. My role in the show is what we call the tall swing. There are short and tall characters in the show, so I’m the tall swing, and I am the dance captain,” said Anderson. 
Through this role, Anderson has played Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Count von Count, Rosita, Cookie Monster and a neighborhood friend. At any point, she has to be ready to jump into the roles if someone gets sick or calls out. 
As the dance captain, Anderson leads warm-ups and goes through choreography or re-blocking for smaller stages. For the one-nighters, the cast travels on a 12-passenger bus, which they sleep on overnight. When they wake up, they move into the new venue and prepare for the show, which is an hour and a half long. After that, they either explore the town or get back on the bus. 
Some of Anderson’s favorite places to perform have been in Memphis, Tenn., Chicago, Ill., Seattle, Wash., and Long Island and Staten Island, N.Y. 
“That’s the closest I’d ever been to performing in New York City, which is one of my dreams and goals,” said Anderson. 
Along the way, Anderson connected with the show director Jaimie Selke, and they worked together on remounting the second leg of Sesame Street. Selke then asked Anderson to be her remount choreographer for the U.S. premiere of “Gabby’s Dollhouse Live” this past August in Los Angeles. 
“Gabby’s Dollhouse Live” opened in September and will tour the United States through April. 
“Gabby Dollhouse is based off of the TV show. It’s a popular educational kids’ TV show right now about this girl named Gabby, and she has this dollhouse that she shrinks down to with all of her dollhouse friends. They’re all cats, and they go on adventures in each and every episode with different learning opportunities and different life lessons,” said Anderson. 
The show toured in Australia before coming to the United States, and Anderson was given the opportunity to look at the choreography that had already been done and figure out ways to enhance and build upon it. She spent a month rehearsing with the show before the tour began. 
“I think one of my favorite parts was just getting to meet all new actors from the West Coast, because I had never worked with actors from LA,” said Anderson. “And then getting to rehearse and lead rehearsals was something I had never done on that scale and capacity before. But then also getting to do your own original work on a national tour was something that I never imagined would happen this year.”
In the future, Anderson said she would love to continue touring as it is something she really enjoys. Her next dream is to do a Broadway national tour. From there, she would love to have her own performing arts company with her own studio. 
Despite her national performance, Anderson still returns to Custer frequently to visit her dad Paul, her mom, Jennie, and her mom’s, fiancé Ronnie Richards, who travel to see her shows when they can. 
“I’m so grateful to have the most supportive family and parents. My brother is also a professional dancer, and so getting to pursue our dreams together is really special and important to me, but there’s not a show that I know my parents will ever miss, because they are the most supportive and loving people on this earth, and I’m so grateful for all the hours that they drove me to dance and took me to try new studios and try new things to be able to get what we needed to go professional,” said Anderson 
Aside from the holidays, Anderson’s favorite time to come home to Custer is in July “because Custer is the most magical in summer.” 
“I feel like every step of the way, I’ve always had support from the Custer community. I meet a lot of other actors, and a lot of them don’t have that kind of experience where I’m like, ‘If my tour ever came through the Black Hills,’ I’m like, ‘I’m positive the whole town of Custer would come just because it’s the most supportive and kind community.’ And I’m so grateful to still be a part of it as an adult, even though I don’t live there full-time,” Anderson said. “I’m always grateful that I have Custer to call home.”