The dancer opens up to ET about collaborating on the book with her late husband, Stephen 'tWitch' Boss, before his death in 2022.
It's a new year, which means a new mindset for Allison Holker. After a year of unimaginable grief and trauma, the So You Think You Can Dance judge is looking forward to a new beginning for her and her family.
Chatting with ET's Nischelle Turner ahead of the release of her new children's book, Keep Dancing Through, the mom of three reflects on how she's embracing a new chapter after losing her husband, Stephen "tWitch" Boss, in December 2022.
"I'm feeling confident, I'm feeling strong, my kids are doing well so I feel like 2024 [will be] so much bigger for us," the dancer optimistically predicts. "It feels like a fresh start. I said the other day, it feels like a new beginning for us, and of course, we're still gonna have lows and still have moments, but it really feels like we're in a new trajectory and a new chapter for ourselves."
Holker is already gearing up for a novel experience: the release of the children's book she wrote with her late husband.
A picture book featuring Holker, Boss and their children -- Weslie, 15, Maddox, 7, Zaia, 3 -- Keep Dancing Through: A Boss Family Groove is described as a "heartfelt celebration of family and their motto that encourages readers young and old to dance to a beat that’s all their own."
The book's synopsis reads: "Mom, Dad, Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia groove through the ups and downs of a typical day, from spilled milk at the breakfast table to a tough day at school to a rained-out game. A reminder of the power of dance, this Boss Family Groove embodies the importance of spreading love and kindness with every song."
Holker tells ET that she always wanted to write a children's book after having her eldest daughter, but "life kind of gets away from you," and the idea was forgotten until she and Boss welcomed their younger kids.
"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is the time to write this book of where our family is now. It's grown so much and now I have a beautiful husband; this is gonna be something wonderful for our family to look back on,'" the dancer recalls. "That spark that I had with Weslie kind of reignited with all of us, which is really special about the book, it really is just a true and tried example of what our days were and what we'll continue to do."
The choreographer refers to the book as a passion project for her whole family and shares that the "meaning" has changed with the death of her husband and co-writer.
"Now it has such a different meaning 'cause it's a way for my kids to look back on what we had, you know? We had something so fantastic and so special, and it takes you through a day of our life," Holker adds. "I hope that this book, for my children and so many others, can really represent such a beautiful side of what we have and those beautiful memories and the way we walked through life. Affirmations for myself and my late husband were such a big thing in the way we lifted our own spirits, and we were teaching that to our kids, and that's really what this book is trying to do. I hope I can get other kids to do the same thing."
Holker explains the lessons she and Boss were hoping Keep Dancing Through can teach families, saying the book strives to help children and parents learn that "channeling conversation" with one another is vital in daily communication.
"Getting them to find this encouragement through mishaps or conflict in the family but then also just having fun through it. You have to, as a parent, have those big conversations... just dance it off, shake it off and have a good time together," she continues. "As a parent, I've always tried to find that ebb and flow of serious conversations -- being strict and really creating a next generation with morals and stuff but then also being like, 'Ok, we had the big talk, can we just have some fun and you're still a kid!'"
"Even on a deeper side, conversation really helps you to learn and grow, I'm a firm believer in that now. But sometimes you gotta shake the actual emotion off physically, so that's really what's also encouraging," she shares.
Holker tells ET that the book is completely unchanged from what she and Boss wrote before his death, saying, "I believe in God and I think God works in really wonderful, magical, mysterious ways, and when we were talking about this book after 2022, I couldn't have been more grateful that this is where Stephen and I were together as individuals and as a team because we believed in so much in affirmations but what we always believed was we were gonna keep dancing through."
"So I'm gonna keep that messaging for my kids," she says. "And when we were talking about it, I was like, 'The only thing I can do is keep dancing through, but the only message I can teach other people and try and instill in them is to keep dancing through,' and I stand behind it. I'm so proud of that and I just think that the universe gave us something really special to hopefully help other people."
Holker and Boss frequently shared videos of themselves dancing with friends, family and their children to their social media pages, a tradition that the dancer restarted several months after the Ellen DeGeneres Show star's death.
"It's been a hard year for every one of my kids, expectedly, so I try to be as patient as I can and converse with them in many different ways 'cause they're all very different and they require different kinds of conversations," Holker shares. "But then there's a time where conversation isn't what's warranted or wanted. I just put on music, and we go wild. It's like in our house when we start dancing, it's just freedom. I just allow my kids to be kids and express themselves through movement, and you can feel so much angst leaving their body."
She adds, "I have found it to be a really healing thing for us individually, and I'll say this. It's not just for the younger, but it's also for Weslie, who's 15, and she puts her coolness to the side and just lets loose, and I have to admit it's quite common to see that in our household."
Admitting that she didn't dance for "almost five months" after Boss' death, Holker tells ET that it was hard for her to get back into the habit since dancing was "so close to every memory I really share with Stephen."
"There [were] parts of me that didn't know if I was ready," she confesses. "It almost felt like maybe if I dance for the first time it's my final release of him. I don't know if I was trying to hold onto him or if I was scared to share that with him. I'm not sure which one it was but it took me a very long time to do it. I called my friend Brittany Russell and I was like, 'I think I'm ready to dance,' but I didn't want to do it alone, I was too scared to do it alone. She came over, and we danced, and I feel like I just got so much off of me, and I actually felt so connected to Stephen, and I felt so connected to myself and to her and my home... It was such a great release for myself. I say the word freedom but [it was] also healing and it gave me a sense of remembering who I am and who I still can be."
Keep Dancing Through: A Boss Family Groove is now available to purchase wherever books are sold.
RELATED CONTENT:
