Jenna Ortega choreographed Wednesday's dance scene by herself

28 November 2022, 12:18 | Updated: 19 April 2024, 09:35

Jenna Ortega and Wednesday cast react to her dance scene

By Katie Louise Smith

Jenna came up with the dance two nights before she was meant to shoot the scene.

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Is there anything Jenna Ortega can't do? In preparation for her starring role on Netflix's Wednesday, Jenna took cello lessons, fencing lessons, she learned archery, learned how to speak German, she went canoeing... Now it turns out that she choreographed one of the best scenes in the show.

In episode 4, Wednesday reluctantly attends Nevermore Academy's Rave'N dance with Tyler Galpin (Hunter Doohan) as her date. Of course, she wears black to an all-white themed party, and she doesn't quite dance in the same way her classmates do.

The Cramps’ ‘Goo Goo Muck’ starts blasting out of the speakers, and Wednesday takes to the floor in what only can be described as the most bizarre yet absolutely iconic dance routine you've ever seen in your life. Meanwhile, Tyler, Enid and the rest of the students watch on in a mix of amazement and bewilderment.

Jenna came up with that entire dance sequence by herself – and she had COVID when she did it too.

Jenna Ortega choreographed Wednesday's dance herself. Picture: Gregg DeGuire/WireImage, Netflix

Speaking to NME about the dance, Jenna revealed that she came up with the routine a few days before she actually filmed the scene.

"I kind of pulled from whatever I could," she said. "I realised two nights before I really gotta throw something together. I watched a lot of Fosse, I watched videos of goth clubs in the '80s, I watched Siouxsie and the Banshees because she was a reference made. Lene Lovich..."

In a short Netflix video of the cast watching the scene for the first time, Jenna also confessed that she felt "really insecure" about the whole thing too: "I choreographed this myself and I think it's very obvious that I'm not a dancer or choreographer."

And no wonder she felt insecure doing it... In a handful of photos shared by the official Wednesday Instagram account, one snap shows Jenna dancing by herself in the room, surrounded by the rest of the cast and a whole host of extras as the camera films her from above.

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On top of all of that, Jenna also choreographed the whole thing while she was struck down with COVID.

"It’s crazy because it was my first day with COVID so it was awful to film and I asked to redo it but we didn't have time," she told NME.

"Yeah, I woke up and – it’s weird, I never get sick and when I do it’s not very bad – I had the body aches. I felt like I’d been hit by a car and that a little goblin had been let loose in my throat and was scratching the walls of my esophagus."

"They were giving me medicine between takes because we were waiting on the positive result.”