# 32. from Canadian competition dance to Harry Potter in London's West End with Laura June Ness

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kicking-it-real-7560311/32-from-canadian-competition-dance-to-harry-potter-in-london-s-west-end-with-laura-june-ness
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/kicking-it-real-7560311/32-from-canadian-competition-dance-to-harry-potter-in-london-s-west-end-with-laura-june-ness.md
Podcast: [Kicking It Real](https://stenobird.com/podcast/kicking-it-real-7560311)
Published: 2026-05-13T12:33:54+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kicking-it-real-podcast/episodes/32--from-Canadian-competition-dance-to-Harry-Potter-in-Londons-West-End-with-Laura-June-Ness-e3j7dpo
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/10ad936d0/podcast/play/119829752/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-4-12%2F424011309-44100-2-a5f43c5f82a48.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kicking-it-real-7560311/episodes/32-from-canadian-competition-dance-to-harry-potter-in-london-s-west-end-with-laura-june-ness
Duration seconds: 4724

## Resource

This week I'm sitting down with Laura June Ness: Canadian dancer, aerialist, actress, and content creator who packed up her life and moved to London with no job lined up, no guarantee, and a whole lot of belief that it was possible. She's now in the cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at London's Palace Theatre on the West End. We get into her full journey from competition dance at Canadian Dance Company to her BFA at Toronto Metropolitan University, to Norwegian Cruise Line right out of school, three years as a featured aerialist at Tokyo Disney Resort, Disney Cruise Line post-pandemic, and eventually the leap to London that changed everything. We talk about what it actually takes to move to another country with no job lined up, how the West End audition world works versus Broadway and why it's nearly impossible to get seen without an agency, body image culture in Japan and what it taught her about not absorbing other people's standards, and the 10% of her circle who didn't support the move and why those people aren't in her life anymore. We also get into burnout, scarcity mindset, why the performing industry trains dancers to be bad at business, and learning to advocate for yourself in the audition room. And she drops one of the best lines this podcast has ever heard: "I'm learning to let myself be the villain in someone else's story." If you've ever told yourself no before anyone else got the chance to... this one's for you. Stay in the loop with me 👇🏼🤍 Instagram: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabby TikTok: @potentiallygabby Episode requests: kickingitrealpod@gmail.com Find Laura here 👇🏼 Instagram & TikTok: @laura.june.ness YouTube: @laurajuneness

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/kicking-it-real-7560311/episodes/32-from-canadian-competition-dance-to-harry-potter-in-london-s-west-end-with-laura-june-ness/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/kicking-it-real-7560311/32-from-canadian-competition-dance-to-harry-potter-in-london-s-west-end-with-laura-june-ness.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.