In this episode of Why We Dance, host Mia Tate sits down with writer-director Josef Kubota Wladyka to celebrate the release of his Sundance award-winning film Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
In this episode of Why We Dance, host Mia Tate sits down with writer-director Josef Kubota Wladyka to celebrate the release of his Sundance award-winning film Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! — a love letter to his mother, a ballroom dancer who says dance saved her life. Josef reflects on his B-boy days, finding film through an independent-movie set, learning from Spike Lee, and the magic, grief, and presence at the heart of his new film. Through it all runs one message: no matter how messy life gets, never stop dancing.
About Josef Kubota Wladyka
Josef Kubota Wladyka is a writer and director whose films draw their spark from real people and the worlds they live in. Raised in Falls Church, Virginia, by a Japanese mother and Polish father, he fell in love with movies as a kid, sneaking into the local multiplex with his brothers, and spent his teens as a B-boy before discovering filmmaking on the set of a small independent film. He earned his MFA from NYU’s graduate film program, where he studied under and worked alongside Spike Lee.
His debut feature, Manos Sucias, executive produced by Spike Lee, won Best New Narrative Director at the Tribeca Festival. His second, Catch the Fair One, starred world champion boxer Kali Reis in her screen debut. He has directed television around the world, including Tokyo Vice, Narcos, Fear the Walking Dead, and The Terror. His third feature, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! — co-written with longtime collaborator Nicholas Huynh, starring Rinko Kikuchi, and inspired by his mother’s lifelong love of ballroom — won the Directing Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and was released in theaters by Sony Pictures Classics on September 25, 2026. He lives in New York City.
Episode Timestamps
(01:08) Meet Josef Kubota Wladyka
(02:11) What movement means to him
(04:13) From ballroom to B-boy
(07:34) Watching his mom transform
(11:40) From B-boy to filmmaker
(18:17) Learning from Spike Lee
(20:47) Finding the worlds of his films
(28:04) Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
(29:36) Magic, fantasy, and floating
(33:06) Tokyo Vice and finding Japan
(36:48) Grief and the thin veil
(40:28) Putting your art into the world
(44:08) Mom's standing ovations at 82
(47:48) Writing Ha-Chan with Nicholas Huynh
(52:31) What's next
(58:09) Salsa and Orquesta de la Luz
(1:03:48) Go see it in theaters
Links & Resources
About Why We Dance
Why We Dance is a podcast hosted by Mia Tate, exploring the heart, humor, and ‘why’ behind movement. In each episode, we talk about the histories we inherit, the emotions we move through, and the ways dance helps us make sense of ourselves and the world. We invite dancers, creators, and embodied storytellers to share how movement shaped their lives, healed their wounds, and connected them to something larger.