In case you missed the billboards popping up over the Twin Cities, Lizzo's new Amazon Prime show, Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, is premiering Friday, March 25. (For what it’s worth, it has been a huge week for Lizzo announcements: she’s hosting and performing on Saturday Night Live on April 16, and she announced on The Late Late Show With James Corden that she’ll be releasing the new single “About Damn Time” on April 14.)

Across eight episodes of Watch Out for the Big Grrrls, Lizzo is auditioning new Big Grrrls to join her next world tour with the help of folks including choreographer Tanisha Scott and original Big Grrrl dancers Chawntá Marie Van, Grace Holden, and Shirlene Quigley. It's not so much an elimination contest as a dance boot camp—and yes, the dancing is fierce, as one would expect after seeing her live performances.

Even more emphasized than the dancing, though, is Lizzo's desire to use Watch Out for the Big Grrrls as another opportunity to break women free from a sizeist world. And in my conversation with Chawntá Marie, it was clear: Lizzo's mission is not only important, but it's life-changing.

How did you first get connected with Lizzo?

Long story short, I was cast as a dancer for the BET Awards. At the time, her choreographer, Jemel [McWilliams], that Sunday, he asked me, "What are you doing after this? … One of Lizzo's dancers got injured"—which was Grace Anne [Holden], actually. She was injured at the time, and he needed someone to step in. …

It was a two-week tour in Europe, and I had three days to learn the tour. … The dancers were so amazing there. They were literally calling out my spacing as we were dancing around: "Okay, Chawntá, move this way! Now backwards!" They really showed me so much love in that time because they knew what I was up against. And then Grace Anne came back, and of course I was sad, but I knew these three weeks were such an amazing three weeks of my life, and I was ready to go forward to whatever was next. And then Lizzo said, "I feel like I've gained a Big Grrrl, and I can't let her go," and we had to make a show for five ladies. It was only supposed to be four, and she created a spot for me. And that is one of the most amazing things I can say about her.

What is your role on Watch Out for the Big Grrrls?

I am considered the big sister of the house [along with Grace Holden]. … I'm basically their support system, an original Big Grrrl, someone they can talk to, and they ask me so many different kinds of questions. Because I choreographed on them and I also had to work next to them, I was also that hardcore, stern big sister, as well, too. And that's just my personality. People say that I'm crazy, but I say I'm passionate.

But I am. I'm passionate about what I do, I'm passionate about the work, and I'm passionate about what Lizzo gives to the world and what she does, and she's passionate about her work. … I was that person who made sure her vision, her heart, her story was reflected onto the dancers because it was reflected so much onto me when I got thrown in there.

Can you go more into why her vision is so important to carry through to her dancers? Why it's not just about technique?

Well she already has shaken the dance world, not just the world, of course, the dance world, looking for plus-size, curvy women and giving us opportunity to be part of her vision but in a positive way—for us to learn how to love ourselves; for us to wake up, look in the mirror, and say positive things to ourselves.

When I first started working with Lizzo, I came from a dance world where, you know, being body conscious and aware of your body was something very important. I tried to lose weight and do all these crazy things to fit in. I did it the right way, and I did it right the wrong way a lot of times, and I saw that my body was just my body, to be very honest. There's this thing called genetics. … I was active. I didn't eat crazy. I did all the right things, and I saw that my friends' bodies were changing, and mine… It would change, but the genetics were still there.

Then I met this amazing woman that was so happy with her body, and showed it off, and was so confident, and I'm like, "I want to be like that." I want to wear just leggings and to put a shirt around my waist because I'm afraid of the attention that it will bring. I'm afraid that people will say this and that or, "Look her butt is too big." I want to just wear leggings and a T-shirt—it's so crazy, but that was my goal. Now I'm very confident. I love [my body], and I've grown to love it. Being surrounded by a woman that has just changed my mindset around my body, I'm so much happier and so much more confident.

Working out isn't to lose weight. It's for me to be healthy, for me to have stamina for these crazy, intense performances. We are dancing the full 90 minutes, you know what I mean? I'm not worried about the weight. I'm worried about having the stamina to do what I love, and that's shaken my world, and it's shaken the world of the dancers who are in this new show. They are all so beautiful, and you can just tell, after their experience of being around Lizzo, they have now grown to just love themselves.

I got a sneak peek of the show and was able to watch your lyrical choreography to one of Lizzo's unreleased songs. Could you tell me more about that experience?

When I heard the song, I mean, I completely passed out. The song itself is so stunning; it does all the work for you. … The piece is definitely about being vulnerable with myself and my experiences, my heart and love and my feelings for dance, and all of those things that… the fear that kept me from everything that I wanted to do. I kind of just broke the barriers in that.

What I had the ladies do was think about moments like that for them, the words that were probably said to them, the fear they had. I asked them to write the word out, and [I told them] that is the word that is going to be able to get you through this piece. That is the word that, after this dance, you will not let that be in your mind anymore. And you saw—we broke the barriers in that. And it was such a pivotal point of the show in their experience. After that, I feel like their minds were clear, they were so brand new, and they felt like they could do anything.

This interview has been edited for style, length, and clarity.

Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls is streaming on Amazon Prime starting Friday, March 25.

This feature is part of The Current’s 89 Days of Spring series, helping you enjoy the best of the season with weekly guides to events, entertainment, and recreation in the Twin Cities.