Hey guys it's Ruthie from Playbill Video! I am here on the stage of the Imperial Theatre
at Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 with the Tony nominated choreographer
Sam Pinkleton! How are you?
Great, how are you?
I'm so excited because today I get to learn your choreography
I'm more excited than you are
What was your vision for bringing Great Comet to life through dance?
There were a few things that were really, really important right out of the gate, one was filling this room
filling this room, you know where we're standing is where they did Gypsy and Dreamgirls
and we had to do that plus that
No livelier does it get than Balaga, the number we're going to be learning today
tell me about when you heard that piece of music and the movement that we're going to learn today
yeah Balaga is our 14-minute dance party, and we're not going to learn all 14 minutes
it is a true throwdown middle of the night party
it should be just that total total delirium of partying
Where's Balaga?
Balaga is over there and we're going to celebrate that by just doing you're gonna turn in
your arms are gonna start up and then they're gonna go out and then they're
going to come into your shoulders, so then we're going to point again so we
just did our turn, we're gonna point again and we're gonna like show up our fists a little bit
We can't do Great Comet unless we have a little bit of running up and down the stairs
so at the end of these you're going to run up the
stairs and meet Azudi and when you get there bow I got again and it's like
every time you point to Balaga your arms get even longer
you're so excited about him and most people in the room now do
this like lasso thing but Azudi's going to do that with you so you're going to spin around a lot
so the lasso is a spin
just as many as you can
last Balaga and then we're going to do a little shower handles move so you're going
I forgot the most important part
the egg shakers
you're facing Lauren already you just went yeah yeah yeah
you're gonna kick cross kick down
then like a little slightly deranged showgirl style
and we're going to just do a little like out a little like dirty croc show off with hands
you're gonna face upstage
you're gonna hop that way you're gonna go hop hop hop hop
Yes, exactly!
Ready?
Ready
Yes!
Whoo, that was such a workout! I'm not even faking breathing hard right now!
I hope you guys did this at home with us and that you are breathing hard right now
Sam, thank you so much for having us here and thank you to Lauren and Azudi
for being here and teaching this choreography come see this amazing show
at the Imperial Theatre in New York, GreatCometOnBroadway.com for your tickets
and for more Playbill Video, visit Playbill.com/Video