Wicked | Featurette: Choreographer Christopher Scott - 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

00:00Here we go, here we go, you ready?

00:04Movement is an expression of your feelings, and so everybody's language is different.

00:09And so we want to speak as many languages as we can, so that everybody in that theater

00:12can feel like they're being spoken to.

00:16We saw thousands of people, and they're all shapes, all sizes, all ages.

00:22If you feel different, it's like you come to this audition, this is for you.

00:26We want you.

00:27We need you here.

00:29Dear Galinda, you are just too good.

00:32How do you stand it?

00:33I don't think I could.

00:35Finding Galinda's physicality was very important to me.

00:39We had many conversations about switching out little moments here and there, so that

00:43it leaned into the comedy.

00:46The best parts of choreographing for Ariana is when she's playing around, and you find

00:50out what she can really do.

00:51There was a moment in rehearsal, she kicks her leg, and it's like, wham, it's like all

00:54the way up to her head, and you're like, Ariana, that's amazing.

00:58Let's do that.

01:04Pull, pull, pull, and that's in your own style.

01:08You really got to explore the range of movement, what feels right, what doesn't feel right.

01:14It's Oz, so you're trying to create a language that isn't of this world.

01:18There's an opportunity here.

01:20Let's play with something.

01:22You have inspirations from, like, krump and flexing.

01:26There are b-boy dancers, there are parkour artists, there are people who do a lot of

01:30hip-hop.

01:31Beautiful shapes and elements of storytelling.

01:33I think there's a lot of stuff like shooting three legs, almost, to see the people that

01:36I think will look cool.

01:39It comes out of nowhere, it's fast.

01:41It's a quick combo, it's like two eight count.

01:44I never wanted anything to feel like there's any kind of limitations on movement.

01:48The way I choreographed this film isn't the traditional way, but I just love how it came

01:52together.

01:53It felt very personal to everybody.

01:56Every time like that, that's so much better.