Wicked | Featurette: The Ozdust Ballroom - video Dailymotion

At university, the awkward Elphaba befriends the popular Galinda and practices sorcery in the hopes of meeting her idol, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Transcript

00:00It wasn't enough just to have a piece of choreography.

00:05It needed to show the pain that she was enduring,

00:09but also the surrender to being okay with being alone.

00:13When I move as Elphaba,

00:17I feel free is the first word that comes to mind

00:21because she's consistently defying convention.

00:24It's one of those moments that can't feel choreographed.

00:27This has to look like Elphaba's doing this in real time for the first time.

00:33I love there was a turn where you started to get a little bit frightened by her.

00:37We had to create that language with Cynthia.

00:39So Cynthia finding the sharp edges and finding how her fingers move,

00:43that really informed everything.

00:45So to see that spirit rise inside of her.

00:48She put that hat back on.

00:50She put it on and it wasn't choreographed,

00:54but the dialogue that she's having is,

00:57there's a change in me.

00:59We can look at what she's saying,

01:01but we can't understand until Galinda comes in and validates her.

01:05And now we can all say, okay, I get it.

01:08It's a moment of connecting.

01:11Their instincts are incredible.

01:13They're so deep in those characters

01:15that it really was the easiest part of this piece.

01:19This actually happened in rehearsal.

01:21It was a moment that she thought was never going to happen again,

01:24but they reached across and a tear, like on cue,

01:27poured out of Cynthia's eye and Ari just gave it a little wipe.

01:30It was so powerful.

01:32Everyone in the room felt it with her.

01:36Everyone was just kind of holding space for Elphaba in that room,

01:40and you could hear a pin drop every second of that entire day.

01:46The most special moment to have experienced.

01:50It really does feel like magic.