Jenna Ortega Choreographed Wednesday's Ultra-Goth Dance Scene Herself
If you've already caught Tim Burton's new take on "The Addams Family" on Netflix, you'll know there's a clear frontrunner for the best part of "Wednesday." The series is a supernatural teen-drama, focusing on Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) as she adjusts to life at the boarding school Nevermore Academy. Soon after arrival, she finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery — one that involves a distinctly monstrous culprit.
The standout moment in "Wednesday" takes place in the show's fourth episode, "Woe What A Night," when the confidently macabre teen breaks it down on the dance floor to The Cramps' "Goo Goo Muck."
This all happens during the Nevermore Academy's annual dance, aptly called "the Rave'N" — another nod to American author Edgar Allan Poe. Wednesday attends the event reluctantly, but upon arrival, makes a point to stand out from the crowd, going against the suggested dress code and generally strutting her stuff.
The dance sequence itself is vividly shot, with Wednesday unabashedly showing off her somewhat unorthodox moves with grim committal and intentional vigor. The scene embodies everything fans like about this take on "The Addams Family" — it's stylish, it's weird, it's cool, and it's a lot of fun.
Ortega's Wednesday doesn't care about fitting in with the crowd, and the imagery this sequence creates is an excellent expression of that. She, dressed in her signature black, dances alone, literally surrounded by a sea of peers in white — all while her bewildered date Tyler (Hunter Doohan) watches. It's no wonder Netflix made the clip available online.
Jenna Ortega choreographed her dance in Wednesday
Ortega's dance in "Wednesday" is a great moment that's at once kooky and graceful, spooky and fun — basically everything you'd expect from the famous goth girl character. It's memorable, it's unique, and it's easily one of the show's standout moments. Now, a behind-the-scenes featurette shared via Netflix on Twitter, reveals that Ortega herself put together the moves for Wednesday's dance. "I actually felt really insecure about this," the actor admitted. "I choreographed that myself."
Ortega clearly doesn't need to feel insecure, though, and not just because the dance sequence is a highlight of the show's first season. On her own Twitter account, the "Scream" and "X" actor revealed the inspirations behind the eccentric dance moves, and they're deep cuts that show that she definitely did her homework. Among them? Siouxsie and the Banshees lead singer Siouxsie Sioux, new wave musician Lene Lovich, "Beau Travail" actor Denis Lavant, and Bob Fosse's moves from "The Rich Man's Frug," a musical number in the 1969 film "Sweet Charity."
The end result? A dance that feels distinctly '60s and a little punk rock — all without relying on over-used moves. It's a great moment for the character that, intentionally or no, pays homage to previous iterations of "The Addams Family." The go-go vibes evoke the original sitcom that aired from 1964 to 1966, while the more dramatic elements bring to mind the Mamushka dance scene from the 1991 movie.
Wednesday has always had rhythm
The actor also wrote that she took inspiration from "archival footage of goths dancing in clubs in the 80's [sic]" and from Lisa Loring, who famously played a six-year-old version of Wednesday Addams in the popular 1960s TV version of "The Addams Family." In an episode of the classic series, Loring demonstrated a dance called "The Drew" for Ted Cassidy's Lurch, and broke it down with a series of impressive arm-swinging, leg-wiggling moves. Ortega's Wednesday incorporates a similar movement into her complex routine, which is hilariously intimidating thanks to the stone-faced look she maintains while throwing her whole body into a series of dramatic movements.
They really did it... The mad lads did it, it's the little things, man :') https://t.co/HIhmfLuBss pic.twitter.com/xAIUcOWFet
— Joongi 🎄 (@Joongi__) November 26, 2022
"We've talked about this for the last two days, this is like all we've been talking about," Ortega's co-star and dance partner (if you can call Tyler's confused response a dance at all) Hunter Doohan reveals in the Netflix clip — and with good reason!
The series about Wednesday spending her teen years sleuthing around supernatural boarding school Nevermore Academy is far from perfect, but spirited scenes like this one — and Ortega's pitch-perfect performance in general — still make it pop. Ortega deserves a lot of credit for her part in the series. She manages to imbue her deadpan teen sleuth with a lot of personality, making what could be a one-note character into someone the audience cares about. It remains to be seen if the show will get renewed by Netflix; if it does, hopefully we'll get another excuse for Ortega to get groovy on the dance floor.
All episodes of "Wednesday" season 1 are available now on Netflix.