Allison Holker may have gotten her start as a professional dancer, but she’s now pulling back the curtain on how she makes the majority of her income off the ballroom floor.
“It just started this way of looking, like, ‘Wait, if we’re going to do this for fun, let’s make a business out of it,’” Holker, 37, said on the Sunday, May 4, episode of her “Between Us” podcast, adding that she makes the bulk of her money as an influencer. “Now, we sort of transitioned to where we get brand deals. I never intended on that happening. I feel like for dancers specifically, but also all content creators or influencers, we all started being seen and brands were like, ‘We want in on it.’”
She added, “It changed everything. For me, I would say that it became the majority of where I make my money and my growth with my family, which I’m so grateful for. I get to do what I love and get so many eyes, and then team up with brands that I love. I never really understood that’s where I was going to fall into, and I’ve been so fortunate and lucky to have that happen.”
Holker rose to fame in 2006 as a contestant on season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance, eventually returning for the first All-Stars competition where she met husband Stephen “tWitch” Boss.
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After Holker and Boss got married in 2013, she continued performing on shows such as SYTYCD and Dancing With the Stars. Holker and Boss, who died by suicide in 2022 at the age of 40, were also famous on social media for sharing videos of their family dancing at home. (Holker and Boss shared son Maddox and daughter Zaia, plus the late DJ helped raise Holker’s eldest daughter, Weslie, from a past relationship.)
“I think social media gave influencers or creatives a chance to make money individually and, kind of, take the power a little bit, but in a healthy way,” Holker said on her podcast, speaking to guest and fellow social media dancer Miranda Derrick. “It’s still collaborative with brands, but it gave you a lot to [hear], ‘We trust your idea because you already have a following, people trust you and if we can marry in this world together and create something awesome.’ It’s an opportunity for people to have ownership of their own content for the first time.”
Weslie, 16, is now starting to take an interest in social media and hopes to follow in her mother’s influencing footsteps. (Holker, meanwhile, has since shifted to focus on the “Between Us” podcast more instead of solely social media or dancing.)
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“I want to [post more], … but I’m in my junior year, so I’m giving myself a little bit of grace,” Weslie said on Sunday’s podcast episode. “I’ve really been planning with my friends [about] things we’re going to do [and] times we’re going to set aside and a schedule. As long as I just stick to the plan that we’ve already created [and] it’s not like I’m starting from nothing.”
She continued, “I already have a good following, but my content is just so different now. I want it to just be more of a job instead just for fun [and] to integrate the both.”
