'Absolutely surreal:' Lizzo backup dancer Arianna Davis brings the heat at hometown show

Arianna Davis, a Warren Central graduate and Indianapolis native, performed onstage with Lizzo during her tour stop in the city Tuesday. Davis was a contestant on "Watch Out for the Big Grrrls," a competition show where Lizzo selected her newest backup dancers, called "Big Grrrls."

In the course of the show, Davis was selected as a backup dancer and set off on tour with Lizzo in September. On Tuesday night, she returned to Indianapolis and the stage at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

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Here's what she had to say about touring, performing in her hometown and advice she'd give her younger self:

This interview has been edited for content, brevity and clarity.

Q: What is it like to be on tour? What is your routine? What's the energy like?

A: The energy is amazing. I'm on tour with my best friends. So it's just like, being around family 24/7, which makes the experience just heightened even more.

I'd say my favorite part of tour is the bus. I love the tour bus. My bunk is so comfortable in the bus. So we basically just drive from city to city. Sometimes we have off days, sometimes we don't. We do our show. We spend the whole day getting ready for the show. We do the show and then our bus call is at ... 12 a.m. And then we head to the next city.

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Q: What was it like to go on stage in your hometown?

A: Oh, God, it was absolutely surreal. Right before I went on stage, I started getting butterflies in my stomach. And I was freaking out a little bit.

I had realized that the Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which is where we were performing, is the same place that I had my high school graduation. So it was weird to know that I had walked across the stage and got my diploma in the same place that I'm dancing with Lizzo on "The Special Tour," so it was kind of a full circle moment.

It was also crazy because pretty much everyone I knew was at the concert. I mean, all the way to, my mom's co-workers were there. Ten of her co-workers came and they had signs with my face on them. There was so many people from my dance studio there. .... Family, friends, godsisters, everybody was there.

There was even a little girl that had a picture of us, me and her, on her shirt, and then the back of her shirt had lyrics to the song that I released not too long ago. It had one of the lyrics for my song so I was like, 'Oh, that's so sweet.' So many people came out to support me and it was absolutely crazy. I got teary-eyed on stage.

Q: At one point in the show, you hugged Lizzo and she gave you a little shout out. Were you expecting that to happen?

A: No, I wasn't quite expecting it to happen. I think she did a similar thing with Ashley (Williams) in Detroit, which is Ashley's hometown. But I wasn't expecting her to do it for so long. I was out there for a minute.

Q: What were you feeling in that moment?

A: Just really happy. Nervous because I had to get to the next number, and all I was thinking about was, "Ooh, I got to make sure I'm doing my job right, after I get off the stage." So I didn't quite get to soak that moment in a lot.

But there was a moment that I did get to soak it in. It was at the end of the first number that I come out and dance in, when we're just standing there on stage and Lizzo introduces herself to the crowd and the just absolute roar from Indianapolis was so loud. And I knew that a lot of people were there for me, too, so it just made me get a little teary-eyed in that moment.

Q: What has been the hardest thing about being on tour, being on stage so far?

A: There's this one specific part of the show where we do two whole numbers, and then we run down the stairs and run right back up and do three more numbers with no breaks. It's the part where you run down the stairs to run back up the stairs. You only get like five seconds to do it and you don't get any water breaks. That is probably the hardest part of tour, getting through that specific part of the show.

Q: What's your favorite number to perform in?

A: "Rumors." is my favorite. I just like the choreography. It's a good number. I also like any number that we go down to the "B stage," the smaller stage.

Q: You mentioned earlier this full circle moment with your high school graduation being at Gainbridge and then returning there to tour with Lizzo. What would you tell your high school self in that moment, not knowing what the future might hold?

A: I remember graduation. I remember being so ready to leave high school, but also being surrounded by so many people that didn't treat me well, so many fellow students that didn't treat me well.

So I would just probably say to myself: Hang on, you're gonna find your people. You just have to keep going. The people that are you're surrounded with right now are not the whole entire world and you will find people that love you for who you are and a whole community of people that will come to a tour just to support you.

Hang in there. You'll find your people and things are gonna go up from here.

Contact IndyStar trending reporter Claire Rafford at crafford@gannett.com or on Twitter @clairerafford.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Arianna Davis brings the heat in hometown show with Lizzo