A version of this story about the choreography of “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” first appeared in the comedy series theme from TheWrap Awards Magazine.
As the old song goes, “Grease” is time, place, and motion, and the latter is provided for the Paramount+ prequel series “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” by none other than Jamal Sims, the choreographer of the program and one of its director. The first stumbling block was how to weave a new dance language with that of a film that almost everyone knows.
“It really was one of the movies that made me want to be a dancer,” Sims, who as a choreographer has worked on everything from the Oscars to “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to “Glamour.” to the “Step Up” franchise, he said. “You know, we didn’t have a lot of musicals when she came out. And then seeing John Travolta on screen killing him really inspired me to want to dance. I learned every step of the ‘Grease’ VHS tape back and forth. And so when this project came up, I realized that I already had the Patricia Birch movement in my bones.”
Birch was the famous choreographer for the original 1978 film, and then, in an extremely rare case at the time, the director of 1982’s “Grease 2,” which she also choreographed. (The sequel is now considered a cult classic in many circles.) But Sims’ challenge on “Pink Ladies” was how to redesign the dance to shape the series from One Foot Back, One Foot Back. the present medium.
“The way we dance today is often choreographed to the lyrics, right?” Sims said. “It wasn’t always like this in the early days. They really listened to the music and let the dance and movement shape the story.”
The series fittingly presents his fusion of choreographic styles with a newer, more pop-infused version of the Barry Gibb-penned song “Grease” – an elaborate number set in, where else, a drive-in!
“The hardest part about this is that everyone was so glued to the original, we love it. AND [executive music producer] Justin Tranter came up with a couple of different versions, so he wouldn’t get caught up in the disco version, like me. He kept saying, ‘I need to hear it through the guitar, boy!’”
And so she launched the stunning, sweeping opening number, ushering in wall-to-wall musical numbers with doo-wop, girl-pop and everything in between that just won’t stop, all filtered through a feminist lens where the Pink Ladies give as good as they get. (Think: Amy Winehouse or Taylor Swift v. “Beauty School Dropout.”) The new young, diverse, and mostly unknown cast helped set the tone for Sims and her collaborators.
“Everyone came with different skill levels. Some of them have been doing this all their lives, some started dancing right before they got the job,” Sims said. He credits TikTok and social media in part for the fervent and renewed passion for dance. “What we really had to do was strip everyone of everything they knew and really start teaching 1950s vocabulary.”
Considering how much the younger generation revels in TikTok challenges and flash mobs, Sims still hopes there’s a chance to get deeply involved in the form again, much like when he grew up watching the likes of Michael Jackson, a hero. his with whom he worked. in the “Remember the Time” music video with Eddie Murphy and Iman.
“I think what film and television are doing right now is being able to show dancing from head to toe, in a way that we can’t experience it for, you know, 15 seconds,” Sims said. “There’s really nothing you want when you’re immersed in that world. When you look at a small phone, I don’t know if you get the same experience.”
Read more of the comedy series edition here.
