The Choreographer Behind Your Favorite TikTok Dances

An old song making fresh rounds on TikTok? A new tune suddenly going viral? GiaNina Paolantonio might’ve had something to do with that. Simply put, the 20-year-old choreographer knows how to captivate an audience. She’s been on social media since she was nine years old, first as a talented member of “Dance Moms” season eight, and now as an artist in her own right. She’s been in the public eye from a young age, but Paolantonio’s experience has made her uniquely comfortable in the spotlight. It’s also given her a talent for helping some of your favorite artists go viral themselves.

Case in point: Paolantonio started choreographing to Jennifer Lopez’s “On the Floor” at 4 a.m. in her apartment gym. You’d likely know the 2011 hit if you heard it in the club (bonus points if you can still recite Pitbull’s rap bar-for-bar), but odds are it’s fallen off most playlists within the last decade. Still, something about the song inspired Paolantonio to dance. She finished a high-energy combination in a mere 30 minutes and taught it the next day at Playground LA. She later posted the combo on social media, and since March, it’s amassed over eight million views on TikTok alone.

“That was completely an accident,” Paolantonio tells Popsugar. “Every day I learn so much more about what it takes to make a viral dance, but if I’m being completely honest, every viral dance I’ve ever had has been on accident.”

While JLo didn’t specifically ask for Paolantonio to revive her club classic, there are plenty of artists who recognize the power of virality — and they use it to their advantage. “It started with Nessa Barrett,” Paolantonio says. “She had a song coming out and she was like, ‘I need you to do a dance class to it.'” Barrett (a former TikToker herself) even came to surprise students at one of these said dance classes. Since then, Paolantonio has also worked with Jenna Raine (see her “Roses” choreography here) and Jessie Murph (the singer-songwriter who recently opened the runway show for Sports Illustrated swim week), each time using their music to create viral moments and standout choreography.

“I do a lot of — they call them sound promos — which are basically brand deals, but for labels,” Paolantonio explains. She says she’s approached by an artist about once a month, or once every two months. “Labels love doing that nowadays because the artists are so open to it,” she says. “I’ve been so lucky with the artists that now come at me like, ‘Hey, I have a new song coming out. I’d love for you to make a TikTok dance or teach a dance class, do a real dance’ — whatever it may be.”

It might be a little jarring to learn that these TikTok trends don’t always happen 100 percent organically. But rest assured, the artistic process remains authentic (even if there’s a little extra marketing involved). “I have no strategy,” Paolantonio says. “I’m doing what I love and I’m posting it. That’s all it is.”

“The artistry of it is genuine and there is no strategy.”

If it seems like a dream job, it’s because it is. Even with social media constantly evolving, Paolantonio is happy with the direction dance is headed. While we might still think of TikTok dances as the simplistic sound bytes we attempted to re-create from our bedrooms during COVID lockdown, the reality is that TikTok dance and “real,” technical choreography are becoming increasingly similar. “TikTok dance has turned into real dance, which is so fun for me,” Paolantonio says. “You’re really showing your true talent on a platform that is your job.”

But social media is not the only industry that’s changing. Labels are undoubtedly getting more creative with marketing and promotion . . . Paolantonio is just happy to be a part of it. But while she can help you go viral, she refuses to approach dance from a clinical lens (and maybe that’s the key). “The artistry of it is genuine and there is no strategy. That’s what makes it fun and easy. And that’s why over the past five years, I haven’t been burnt out from any of it,” she says.

“Before, it was even a huge thing to do this and make a living off of it, I wanted it,” Paolantonio says. “I feel lucky that I’ve never let anything ruin it for me.”

Chandler Plante (she/her) is an assistant health and fitness editor for PS. She has over four years of professional journalism experience, previously working as an editorial assistant for People magazine and contributing to Ladygunn, Millie, and Bustle Digital Group.