'Étoile' has been cancelled, but no one blends dance and humour as brilliantly as Marguerite Derricks
One of the most devastating entertainment losses of the year is certainly the cancellation of the show Étoile after just one season, from Gilmore Girls, Bunheads and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and her husband Dan Palladino. But with that puzzling move from Prime Video, there's no better time to celebrate all the talent in the short lived series.
That includes Marguerite Derricks, an incredibly beloved and impressive choreographer who's worked on Palladino's previous projects. Additionally, she's contributed her talents to the series Behind The Candelabra and movies including Showgirls, 13 Going On 30 and the Austin Powers franchise.
But in terms of what makes the Palladinos such effective collaborators, Derricks stressed that they way they shoot dance in their shows is done in a way where there's a real "marriage of the camera with movement."
"For a choreographer, there's nothing greater than that," Derricks told Yahoo. "On Bunheads I started to play with them that way, and it's carried on through four different TV series."
"It's just made me such a better choreographer. ... I wish every choreographer would find collaborators like Amy and Dan, because there's nothing like it."
One example of how Étoile really makes the dance in the show an integrated part of the story is the Swan Lake moment with Tiler Peck in Episode. It's a dance moment, but written in a way that's injected with humour.
"That was written by Dan Palladino and ... when they sent me the outline for the script I literally was laughing out loud," Derricks shared. "I couldn't wait to attack that and to have Tiler Peck be the one that got run over by the swans, it was just such a gas."
"Their comedy genius is always on the page and then I just put it into motion. I've worked with comedians my whole life, so it's something that I really, really enjoy, but it's always there on the page. There's never, a question mark for me with Amy and Dan, they're so clear."
Another highlight is a piece choreographed by Gideon Glick's character Tobias Bell in Étoile. A character that's hysterical with his quirkiness, brought out in the character's choreography as well.
"That was my big voice in the show," Derricks said. "I love Gideon Glick. He is the coolest, craziest human being. He would come and watch me and he thought I was funny because I kind of stalked the dancers like a lion. And so he wanted to pick up on that."
"And I studied him and I like his quirks, and I wanted to make sure that that's what was driving me a lot with the choreography. So I the two of us, we kind of became one, we became Tobias together."
While Étoile certainly isn't a show that requires the audience to have a dance background to enjoy, there was still such a commitment on the show to make its dance spaces and dancers feel real. What the dancers are doing before classes, what they're doing in the hallways, every detail was thought of to make these moments look authentic.
"That was the first thing [Amy] talked about with every department head, we all knew that was our marching orders," Derricks explained. "I kind of had a little bit of a sense of that from working on Bunheads with her, but now we were going from a young kids school to the professional world, and so ... we did our research to make sure that everything was really up to par."
"Tiler Peck was a student of mine. I would call Tiler and ask her questions, and it was very important to us that, when this show came out, that the ballet world would give us a thumbs up on it. ... There's been so many shows out there that have been done in a way where it's not authentic. So for me right now, the feedback I'm getting from the ballet world is the greatest thing that I could have ever hoped for."
Much of what happens in the "Hollywoodization" of dance, specifically ballet in film and TV, largely sees talented dancers be nameless and on the periphery of the project. But in Étoile, Sherman-Palladino made wanted to use there dancers to their full potential, and crediting them for their work.
"That was the most exciting thing for me," Derricks said.
"Every single dancer that came into our show, [Amy] read them for parts. She wanted to cast the dancers. She wanted to hear their voices. I want to scream from the rafters, because that's happening more and more, but it really happened on [this] show. ... Dancers are so great at telling stories without speaking, so just get comfortable with talking as well. I'm very proud of that. ... The dancers were getting lines, they were so excited."
A core element of Étoile is that dancer was very much used to tell the story, it's an integral part of the narrative. But it also immerses the audience in a dance world many haven't had any exposure to, portraying ballet dancers in a different light and as more fully formed characters, held up by brilliant and unique choreography from Derricks.
"Ballet is sexy, ballet is strong. Ballet dancers are like football players, the athleticism that they have," Derricks stressed. "I want people to see ballet in a whole different way."
"There's a lot of wonderful choreographers out there now doing out the about box, beautiful work, but for somebody that doesn't know ballet, I hope that we can reach a greater audience and turn them on to all sides of ballet."
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