Carrie Ann is the National Celebrity
Spokesperson for an organization near
and dear to her heart, The Andréa Rizzo
Foundation, which provides grants to
fund dance therapy programming for
children with cancer and special needs.
Editor-in-Chief Gary Barg sat down with
Carrie Ann to talk about love of family,
caregiving, and sharing the joy of dance
with kids who need and deserve some joy
in their lives.
Gary Barg: Can
you tell me about the Andréa Rizzo
Foundation and how you became
directly involved?
Carrie Ann Inaba:
The Andréa Rizzo Foundation does
movement therapy for pediatric
cancer patients. I was working on
Dancing with the Stars, and there
was this woman sitting to my right
and next to a young lady who I could
tell was undergoing some sort of
treatment, maybe chemotherapy. This
woman had the brightest light—she
just kept smiling and smiling. I
went over to her during the
commercial break and asked who she
was. She introduced herself as
Susan Rizzo and she told me about
her foundation. I said, “Sign me
up!” and now I am their
spokesperson. I am very grateful
because she is the inspiration. I am
only here to help spread the word
and bring awareness to what she is
doing for the world.
Gary Barg: What
inspired Susan to start the
foundation?
Carrie Ann Inaba:
Her daughter, Andréa, had cancer
when she was a child and she had
movement therapy. She was
later diagnosed cancer free, was
doing great, and was moving on with
her life. She became a dance
therapist herself and was going to
give back in such a beautiful way,
and then was tragically killed in a
car accident. It is horrible, but
her mom is continuing on in her name
and it is a beautiful thing. When
you meet Susan, she has a very
bright light. I believe full
heartedly in what she is doing and I
support her in any way I can.
Gary Barg: How
does the therapy program work?
Carrie Ann Inaba:
Through movement therapy, you are
able to see where the children are
holding tension and where they are
holding fear. Through types of
movement, you can access their
emotional state. Then the emotions
are released through the session by
movement, by all different forms of
movement. Sometimes it is as simple
as rolling our eyes around in
circles; sometimes it is just
smiling and not smiling, depending
on the level of health of each
individual patient. A lot of them
come in and they have the IVs hooked
up to them. Some are actually still
in bed because they have had bone
marrow transplants. People are in
varying degrees of, I would not say
pain, but they are in different
stages of their illness.
Carrie Ann Inaba is not only a judge
for ABC’s top ten television program
Dancing with the Stars; she is also a
dancer, choreographer, actress, game
show host, and singer. When Carrie Ann
was living in Japan, she released three
singles and hosted a weekly radio and
television series. After returning to
America, she appeared as one of the “Fly
Girls” on the television series In
Living Color from 1990 to 1992. She also
appeared as a dancer during Madonna’s
1993 Girlie Show World Tour and was in
the Austin Powers films Goldmember and
The Spy Who Shagged Me.