So proud of you.
Look at you, honey, rolling in high cotton.
Thank you.
Listen, I'm just so excited that you're here.
And needless to say I just, I admire you so much.
I respect you so much.
And I'm so excited that you're here.
Like you seriously have added so much inspiration to my journey.
What you've done for dance, what you've
given back to the community, it's been incredible.
I was there from your beginning.
I was there 2008.
Yes.
Yeah.
You should have won.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
It was actually one of the best things that never happened
to me to be quite honest.
So y'all, Debbie was--
or Mrs. Allen-- sorry, it's weird for me to say Debbie.
I'm sorry.
Debbie, I'm OK.
She was a judge on So You Think You Can
Dance the year that I competed.
It was amazing.
And it was-- yeah, that was the year that shifted everything.
I appreciate you.
And then I have to say congratulations too.
You are the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors
before that.
I mean, that is--
That is so grand.
How does that feel?
tWitch, it was just so grand to be in that company.
Dick Van Dyke, Midori, Joan Baez, Garth Brooks.
And I've worked at the Kennedy Center
for two decades as an artist-in-residence.
I've done so many productions.
So when they called me, I thought they just
wanted me to do something.
And then it was--
Deborah Rutter said you've been unanimously elected.
And I just got very emotional because I just never
thought I would win this kind of honor.
And I was there with my whole family.
Right.
Absolutely.
So many surprises.
And even your granddaughters got to be there as well, right?
Yes.
Shiloh and Avea, Vivian's daughters were there.
They were the life of the party everywhere.
She had them in outfits everywhere.
Oh yeah, there we are looking like the Royal family, honey.
Yes we were.
And speaking of monumental too, you even got
to meet with the president beforehand, right?
Yes.
President Biden was so--
I think he was excited to have people in the White House.
I think we were the first group of people, not just one on one,
to come in there.
He took us all up in the private office.
Child, I didn't know they had a pool back there.
[LAUGHTER]
It was so hot.
I was going to take off my dress and jump in.
But calm down, Debbie Allen.
They gave us-- they have cookies every day that somebody bakes.
And he was just so generous and spent much more time with us
than we expected.
It was lovely.
But isn't that beautiful too though?
Because obviously you started in dance and dance
has paved such an incredible path for you and your future.
And you've always been involved in dance.
It's been in the early part of your life, right?
Four years old I can remember dancing for all the family
gatherings and dancing to the trees and the birds
in the backyard.
And yeah it's always been a part of my life.
And I think that's a blessing.
Because you know, we're from that dance world.
So we are born on the pejorative.
Do it again.
Not good enough.
Criticism.
But at the end of the day, we come out
with such joy when we own it.
You know we own it.
You know, you know honey because you were owning it, baby.
[LAUGHTER]
You were owning it every time, every time.
And what's great about that too Mrs. Allen
is you've taken all of that passion and all of that love
and you have DaDa Academy now, your dance Academy, Debbie
Allen Dance Academy.
And now you're going to be opening a middle school.
I am.
You've got to tell us about that.
That's incredible.
Oh gosh.
So the Debbie Ellen dance Academy
is truly a dream come true for these children
to have that safe haven where they can go and nurture
and learn and be creative.
And now after 10 years, I've wanted to have a middle school,
we're opening the Debbie Ellen Middle School.
And it's a small class of not more than 15.
But the greatest academic and musical theater and dance
program that you're going to find.
Starting at the sixth grade.
So they're all 10-year-olds.
And that's when I got to get them,
you know, right then and there.
So, I mean, in the middle of this pandemic I am,
with my husband and everybody, we were capital campaigning,
trying to build a building.
But you know, we know we're going to get there
because it's for these kids.
It's for them.
This oasis of their cultural identity
that they can explore and change and meet other people from all
over the world.
Now Instagram has opened me to the whole world.
I have students in Russia, in Germany, in China every week.
My first class I had 30,000 people in my first Instagram
class.
And I just gave it as a gift from COVID
shutting down Grey's Anatomy the dance Academy.
I said, we can't let this lick us,
because that's the dance world.
You know child, we gypsies.
We gone dance somewhere.
Absolutely.
Of course.
And even in the midst of this Mrs. Allen, you also
you mentioned Grey's Anatomy.
You've been there for 10 seasons.
And really, I mean, you've starred in it,
you've done an executive producer,
you've directed, and also just changed the way
that the show also moves forward too.
You've got to be proud of that as well.
Well you know it was a blessing and a great responsibility
that Shonda Rhimes gave me to continue
the relevance of the show, the inclusivity of the show.
So I started hiring 50% women female directors.
This is before me too or any of that.
Because as a woman I know I've always
had my own challenges getting work
and they just need the opportunity.
So I found women.
I hired Black men.
I still hired some cute white boys.
I didn't leave them out.
And when I first got there we went to a 12 hour day.
It was a well oiled machine.
It just needed some energy and joy.
Absolutely.
And this last year was pretty amazing
that we dealt with COVID.
Our writers, Ellen Pompeo, my God, we had her.
She's suffered COVID and survived.
And that was a great and very difficult
story to tell of her in that place between life and death.
And the beach became her safe place.
And we brought back McDreamy.
I love it.
And all the wonderful people that we
had missed so many years.
It was great.
Absolutely.
I mean how can you all not be inspired right now?
Seriously.
How can you not be inspired?
We're going to take a quick break
and then we're going to play a game when we come back.
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos, like videos
of me getting scared or saying embarrassing things,
like ball peen hammer.
And also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities,
if you're into that sort of thing.
God.
[MUSIC PLAYING]