Mariah Carey’s Christmas tour featured this dancing Urbandale alum

What Urbandale High School alum Hannah Oyibo wants most in life is to perform with Beyoncé.

But this winter, she received an unexpected gift: the chance to dance on "All I Want For Christmas Is You" legend Mariah Carey's tour.

Alongside Carey, Oyibo performed on 16 tour dates, including the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and New York City's iconic Madison Square Garden.

The Urbandale native hopes her story can inspire young people from her hometown to chase their dreams.

"You don't have to keep yourself boxed in," Oyibo told the Register.

How the Urbandale High School show choir influenced Oyibo

Oyibo attended Olmsted Elementary School and Urbandale Middle School before her freshman year at Urbandale High School. In middle school, she watched Beyoncé's Super Bowl XLVII halftime show in New Orleans. The performance changed her life and helped her pursue dancing as a career.

At Urbandale, she was in the school’s competitive show choir and participated in the Vitality choir through sophomore year. After her junior year, she joined Studio, the school's premier show choir. As a senior, she led her peers in a dance captain-type role to help students learn choreography.

“I loved show choir because I feel like that’s when I was really living out being a performer. That’s when I realized I loved being in front of a large crowd,” Oyibo said.

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She also was a member of the Jaywalkers Dance Team and took competitive dance classes at Johnston Dance Academy.

Oyibo dropped out of Iowa to chase Los Angeles dance dreams

After high school, her parents encouraged her to go to college. Oyibo enrolled at the University of Iowa, but she dropped out after her freshman year.

For a semester, she worked to figure out what she wanted and eventually returned to campus. Then, the psychology and dance major dropped out again after her junior year.

In the fall of 2019, Oyibo moved out to Los Angeles. Her first dance job was performing with rappers Young Thug and Gunna at Chicago summer music festival Lollapalooza.

She has since worked with several stars including Lauren Jauregui from girl group Fifth Harmony, Disney child star-turned-R&B singer Coco Jones, and female rapper Flo Milli.

Eventually, Oyibo signed with dance talent agency Clear Talent. Then, an unexpected gift arrived.

Urbandale grad gets chance of a lifetime after call from agent

In September, Oyibo’s agency sent out an audition call for Mariah Carey’s Christmas tour. It wasn’t on Oyibo’s radar.

“Mariah Carey has never been in my list of people I want to dance for but it was one of those blessings in disguise,” she said.

The audition process was different for her and Oyibo felt like she had a chance at making the tour. Then, a few days later, she got a call from her agent.

“She calls me and tells me I booked the tour. It was a crazy feeling and it didn’t feel real at first,” Oyibo said.

The next day, she had tour rehearsal. The whole process took just seven days.

How performing on Mariah Carey's tour went for Urbandale High grad

Oyibo enjoyed her time performing on Carey's tour, which provided her with a number of memorable life experiences such as Carey buying the dancers Thanksgiving dinner since they were away from their families.

She also enjoyed getting to perform next to Carey as she belted "All I Want For Christmas Is You," arguably the most known Christmas song by a modern popstar.

"It was so cool to perform that song during Christmastime in arenas. This is like so iconic and an experience I'm never going to forget," Oyibo said. "I've heard that song ever since I was little at Christmas. It was surreal."

Now, the Iowa native is one step closer to taking her dance dreams from the Queen of Christmas to Queen Bey.

"I think it's inspiring for other people in Iowa who have big dreams and really don't think they can happen," Oyibo said.

Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram or reach out at jstahl@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa native Hannah Oyibo dances on Mariah Carey's 2023 Christmas tour