Kenny Ortega has choreographed some of the biggest TV and movie performances of the past 30 years, like Ferris Bueller’s epic parade lip sync and Winifred Sanderson’s enchanting moves in Hocus Pocus. Right before his latest, Disney Channel’s Descendants, makes its debut, he looks back on all the dances that got him there.
"Try a Little Tenderness," Pretty in Pink (1986)
One of the most iconic moments in the John Hughes classic comes at Trax record store when Duckie (Jon Cryer) fully commits to what looks like a spontaneous dance to Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness." But it was actually a partly choreographed number, courtesy of a young Kenny Ortega.
"It was sort of put together after a spontaneous workshop that we did right in that record shop. I went in there in advance and played with some ideas, and Jonathan really took to them and was such a good sport and such a great collaborator and brought his incredible personality — Duckie times 10. It wasn't traditionally choreographed. I showed him some things and he took hold of it. That was born of the moment."
"Twist and Shout," Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
When Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) played hooky, he went big and did not go home. And his biggest, most over-the-top moment comes when he takes over the annual Von Steuben Day Parade in the streets in the Chicago, first lip-synching to Wayne Newton's cover of "Danke Schoen" and then going for it with this Beatles classic. After Hughes worked with Ortega on Pretty in Pink, the iconic director called Ortega in again, this time to not only choreograph Ferris' parade performance, but to direct it as well.
"That was a really special invitation from John Hughes, the king of Chicago and the king of movies in the ’80s. We just had a really good rapport and he called me up and asked me to direct and choreograph that scene. So John Hughes got me my DGA card. The scene was all John's idea and then he gave me a lot of freedom in how I approached it and how I built it. He wanted Ferris to take over the streets of Chicago. We preshot some of the elements of that number, but we moved the float right into a real existing parade, so we had 10 to 12 cameras on it and we had one shot to get it right. If I remember correctly, I think it was sort of Matthew's introduction to dance. I don't think he'd ever done musical performance in film before, and now look at him!"
"The Time of My Life," Dirty Dancing (1987)
When screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein went to find a choreographer for what became one of the most legendary dancing movies in history, she landed Ortega, who had been trained by Gene Kelly. He brought in his assistant Miranda Garrison and worked with ballroom dancer and choreographer Doriana Sanchez to help create the quick-stepping world of Kellerman's. And there's no number as memorable as Baby (Jennifer Grey) and Johnny's (Patrick Swayze) final dance to Bill Medley's "The Time of My Life."
"Having grown up in the '60s, dance was a way for us to communicate. Those were rough times, and the title of the movie came before the story. I remember being in the gymnasium at a Saturday night dance at my school and a teacher said if there was ever any dirty dancing, the lights would come on and the music would turn off and the dance would be over. And every time, the lights would come on and the music would turn off and the dance would be over.
"Dancing was a way for us to awaken and discover and to come to know one another in a different way. We wanted to use it in that respect in the movie. We didn't have to show lovemaking because dance took the responsibility for that. As this relationship built and as Johnny and Baby came together, the dance came together. We wanted 'Time of My Life' to show that. Patrick [Swayze] came to us as an accomplished soloist in ballet and Jennifer wasn't a technical dancer. I think she liked dancing, but she was more of the dancer at the beginning of the movie.
"We just went up into the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Carolinas, and we closed the doors, put on the music, and we partied.
"In that scene, Max, the owner of the hotel, says, 'Times are changing' — not just on the mountain top, but in the country. Things that were perhaps taboo or less accepted were changing. The dance stood as a symbol of that."
"King of New York," Newsies (1992)
The Disney movie musical marked Ortega's feature directorial debut. The film — which starred a young Christian Bale — was a flop, but has since developed such a cult following, it's been resurrected for Broadway.
"That was a movie that people discovered, and found, and they just would not let it go away. It was my first film as a director and Peggy Holmes and I choreographed that, and she's gone on to become a director. Alan Menken and J.A.C. [Redford] had written it and because of our schedule, we had to drop some things from the movie. And that was one of the things that was dropped, and we were devastated. It just felt right, organic to the movie, to the storytelling and where the characters were, and finally the studio said, 'OK. Look, if you can rehearse it in a weekend and shoot it in a day, we can do it.' So we did and shot it in one afternoon on the stage. And I'm so thrilled we did."
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