Speaker 1: And That's what You Really Missed with Jenna and Kevin
Speaker 1: an iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 2: Welcome to You and That's what You Really miss Podcast,
Speaker 2: The Guest Edition.
Speaker 1: We have a very very very special guest today. We
Speaker 1: have the assistant choreographer who then became the choreographer on Glee,
Speaker 1: Brook Lifton, half of the choreography team with Zach Woodley,
Speaker 1: mom of dad, mom and dad brother's sister. The choreography
Speaker 1: department of two. For most of it really was sort
Speaker 1: of like I don't know, extended family, yes, only we
Speaker 1: were so close to them and we talked to Brooke
Speaker 1: and you're going to hear just how Brooke and Zach
Speaker 1: were a part of every single aspect of the show.
Speaker 1: And it's fascinating because they're sort of like the unsung heroes.
Speaker 1: I think, oh total Glee and people don't realize how
Speaker 1: much they had to do.
Speaker 3: And without them, we wouldn't we wouldn't have Glee. So
Speaker 3: get ready, buckle up, we get into it. This is
Speaker 3: Brook Lipton, Part one. Brook Lipton, Everyone, Hi you guys.
Speaker 1: I run and Zach choreographed Glee for forever from the
Speaker 1: very beginning.
Speaker 4: I'm actually one of twelve, only one of twelve who
Speaker 4: actually made it from the beginning to the end, there
Speaker 4: was like there was like an award that like, you know,
Speaker 4: when it was like always trying to find silly things
Speaker 4: to do, it was like, yeah, because from the pilots
Speaker 4: of the last episode, because also people take breaks, they
Speaker 4: came back, they were off, they had an episode off, whatever,
Speaker 4: it was, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was there even when Zach left, you were you
Speaker 1: were there.
Speaker 4: I was there. I was there top to bottom, which
Speaker 4: I love every second.
Speaker 1: If people don't know, Brooke is one of the most
Speaker 1: incredible dancers on the face of the earth.
Speaker 4: Thank you. Everybody lie it's a lie, but thank you
Speaker 4: it's not. I'll take everyone has to also realized my
Speaker 4: said like I'm so dry and sarcastic that I'm very
Speaker 4: negative too. But I really love you guys so much
Speaker 4: so when I keep putting myself down, you know, it's
Speaker 4: just that's that's my that's my natural defense.
Speaker 1: The same family.
Speaker 2: Great, Okay, so along having danced in Hollywood and in
Speaker 2: LA for such a long time, you've worked with literally everybody.
Speaker 2: I particularly know you as the Brittany dancer. But yes,
Speaker 2: you also served as the assistant choreographer on for all
Speaker 2: how many.
Speaker 4: Episodes we do episodes, I don't know, like music number count.
Speaker 4: I used to think it was seven forty nine, That's
Speaker 4: why I told everyone, but then Andrew said it was
Speaker 4: seven forty one, So I don't know if it s
Speaker 4: in the state. We were in this same boat. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I started as an assistant, and then I moved up
Speaker 4: to the associate. Then I went to choreographer, then co choreographer,
Speaker 4: so my title changed time well, but honestly, mostly we
Speaker 4: were department of two, like it was me and Zach,
Speaker 4: you know, and then eventually it was like, oh, we
Speaker 4: need maybe a little help, or then it was like,
Speaker 4: oh my gosh, more help is like it was help,
Speaker 4: but it also there's only so many things you could do,
Speaker 4: it's crazy. So yeah, we were probably the biggest, smallest
Speaker 4: department that's right.
Speaker 1: Ever that sounds, and you had a completely like your
Speaker 1: relationship the show and then to us was also unique
Speaker 1: in that way, like we had a completely the crew.
Speaker 1: The rest of the crew saw us and you all
Speaker 1: on set like the hundreds of people, but you had
Speaker 1: to put up with us other time.
Speaker 4: No, No, okay, it's like I mean, okay, so I've
Speaker 4: been listening since show Man's and stuff. It's like and
Speaker 4: I just every time I listen, I'm like, does anyone
Speaker 4: get it? Like I know there's people out there and
Speaker 4: they're listening, and they're like, now they're getting this inside
Speaker 4: scoop And then they're listening to you know, Ryan and Brian,
Speaker 4: Ryan and Brian who Brad and I it like they
Speaker 4: just should have just be one big name. But basically,
Speaker 4: like as everyone's still telling these stories, I'm like, you
Speaker 4: weren't you weren't there, You weren't there, Like it's so
Speaker 4: still hard to explain to everybody what it really means.
Speaker 4: And it's so I feel like we were the biggest
Speaker 4: apartment that was so invested into the production side. Like
Speaker 4: there's very departments that were in those concept meetings, you know,
Speaker 4: so when it comes out and then because sometimes the
Speaker 4: scripts used to say and they danced, yes, you know,
Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden that's like you know
Speaker 4: a page is a line is like you know you
Speaker 4: know it by a minute. And also like there's this
Speaker 4: little squares like and they and they danced joyfully or whatever,
Speaker 4: like at the beginning, we didn't know how things were. So,
Speaker 4: you know, Zach being in all those meetings, like we
Speaker 4: were in that whole side of a lot of the
Speaker 4: development and trying to make something out of it. But
Speaker 4: then so with you guys, with the actors, and then
Speaker 4: totally and with the production of the guy, you know,
Speaker 4: sitting there from when they're building the sets and trying
Speaker 4: things out, Like we were just so hands on with
Speaker 4: all departments.
Speaker 2: It's like.
Speaker 4: We were we were in the mix of everything. I
Speaker 4: feel like we got we got to deal with all
Speaker 4: that stuff, so we got to do with some of
Speaker 4: the fun stuff like the performance, and we went on
Speaker 4: I mean describe it as fun, I don't know, but
Speaker 4: like the flashy, the knowing on tour, making a movie,
Speaker 4: going to the White House, going to Europe, you know,
Speaker 4: like all the crazy, insane stuff. But then also still
Speaker 4: trying to you know, decide how those ramps were going
Speaker 4: to work when we were wheeling down those or how
Speaker 4: you're going to dance in water or with fire, or
Speaker 4: do you remember the pool? Do you remember that we
Speaker 4: couldn't touch the bottom of the floor of the pool.
Speaker 4: And so we went and they rented out the YMC
Speaker 4: and we're like, our tims are like this.
Speaker 1: I forgot that part that it was really.
Speaker 4: Really just I mean, so I think my next question
Speaker 4: is should I just come on the show every week
Speaker 4: and just break down all those numbers with you guys
Speaker 4: every week and tell you it reminds you of the
Speaker 4: insane stories of.
Speaker 1: Guys were like for lack of a better analogy or metaphor,
Speaker 1: like the grout, like you filled all the gaps between
Speaker 1: all the different departments that managing us were like without
Speaker 1: the two of you, nothing, there would be nothing to
Speaker 1: shoot well waits numbers.
Speaker 4: Without the amazing like we had an incredible crew and
Speaker 4: that was that was the thing that was so cool
Speaker 4: is that you know, we would get there would be
Speaker 4: a script with this idea or a piece of paper
Speaker 4: and then usually Zach would be like okay, like and
Speaker 4: and you know what was really important, you know, especially
Speaker 4: to him, was like we never repeated things. It was
Speaker 4: always brand new, even when we did even when we
Speaker 4: did stuff, and it was like supposed to be Madonna
Speaker 4: or Brittany, and like obviously I knew all the Brittany choreography.
Speaker 4: We didn't just take it. I mean obviously there was
Speaker 4: moments in time where it was iconic and it was
Speaker 4: like we need this step, We needed this move because
Speaker 4: if we're trying to dance like a certain artist, everybody
Speaker 4: knew this in the music video, you wanted whatever, that
Speaker 4: one step was to reference things. But it was you know,
Speaker 4: that's a really big thing in the in the choreography
Speaker 4: in the world right now about stealing and taking and cobby, right,
Speaker 4: which huge breakthrough, you know. But but that was also
Speaker 4: in the front of our mind constantly as things were
Speaker 4: always going. You know, that was really important that it
Speaker 4: wasn't just oh, copy and paste, but we had these
Speaker 4: departments that like everybody knew how important it was to
Speaker 4: make this project, make it make We all wanted to
Speaker 4: make Ryan happy, you know, we always wanted to get
Speaker 4: that result that and because it was it was just
Speaker 4: a sparkle, it's like, how do we get this? And
Speaker 4: it's like, so you're working with Lou, You're working with
Speaker 4: you know, all the set like the set deck, coming
Speaker 4: into our rooms at five a clock, setting up steel deck,
Speaker 4: trying to you know, we're trying to get everybody together
Speaker 4: because everybody wanted their parts to be important and to
Speaker 4: help and to get that final project. And so yeah,
Speaker 4: we were probably the most invested and we were the
Speaker 4: clowns like we had to make everybody happy, and like,
Speaker 4: you know, the dance was actually the most exciting thing
Speaker 4: that happened. It was the break of whether you're.
Speaker 1: Shooting or that it was of the show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean you were sitting in the choir room
Speaker 4: with okay, quiet on set, the air conditioning goes off,
Speaker 4: and you're just like trying to get through the scene work.
Speaker 4: It was like music's on, we can dance, we can play.
Speaker 4: Have you guys even talked about my platform? No, you
Speaker 4: guys remember how big my platform was that they used
Speaker 4: to build that I would do the dances in front
Speaker 4: of you for like the first season.
Speaker 1: The first season, there was so much trial and error
Speaker 1: of figuring out what the hell we were doing. How
Speaker 1: did this like come to you in the first place? Like,
Speaker 1: how did it all start?
Speaker 4: I had I auditioned to be in vocal adrenaline. Do
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: That's my job on the floor.
Speaker 4: So okay, So let's go way back. So Zach and
Speaker 4: I have known each other since I was fifteen, dance
Speaker 4: competitions things like that. We used to teach together. He
Speaker 4: was my He was my pretend husband when we would
Speaker 4: travel on planes because I would travel with my babies
Speaker 4: and so he'd be like, we have to get bored first.
Speaker 4: So we forever did this. I went and I auditioned
Speaker 4: for Vocal Adrenaline. He called me I think that afternoon
Speaker 4: and was like, I love you. But Ryan is one
Speaker 4: hundred percent is high school, so this is not television
Speaker 4: high school, so you can't be I was twenty eight
Speaker 4: at the time. He's like, you can't play high school,
Speaker 4: like you're old, and I was like, yeah, I know,
Speaker 4: but but you know, like so like my sister who's
Speaker 4: five years younger than me, like she was in Vocal Adrenaline.
Speaker 4: So he was like, but would you like to assist me?
Speaker 4: So it's like do you want to work for three
Speaker 4: days or do you want to work for six? And
Speaker 4: I was like six, of course, and he was like okay, great,
Speaker 4: let's meet at Starbucks. We got to talk about the
Speaker 4: main group and I was like cool and.
Speaker 1: He was like so because so excited to hear because
Speaker 1: this is sid like we don't know about.
Speaker 4: Oh, I have so many stories. You don't know about
Speaker 4: the tin shed could talk.
Speaker 2: Oh glad it doesn't. I'm glad it doesn't. Okay, you
Speaker 2: meet at Starbucks.
Speaker 4: So we meet at Starbucks and he's like, so he's
Speaker 4: explaining the show and talking about you guys, and he's like,
Speaker 4: I got yeah, he was probably rehearsals for with what
Speaker 4: a week with you guys before I joined maybe or so, yeah,
Speaker 4: are you sure?
Speaker 1: I don't know if we have that much time without you,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe.
Speaker 4: You might have done They might have done Twila before me, Like,
Speaker 4: I don't know, you I was. I was there for Tila.
Speaker 1: We're definitely there for Twila, but you were definitely we
Speaker 1: might have had that first week when we were first
Speaker 1: Remember when.
Speaker 2: You were just getting into the wheelchair, Zach was helping
Speaker 2: you and I remember Brooke not.
Speaker 4: No, I was. I definitely. I definitely missed a week
Speaker 4: or so. And so he.
Speaker 1: Comes in and he is not too much in that
Speaker 1: first week.
Speaker 4: No, we have We held hands and we walked in
Speaker 4: straight lines. I tried to that on the beats. You
Speaker 4: guys talk about the nine versions of it, but it
Speaker 4: was like we just were trying to walk. But it
Speaker 4: was so cute. So okay, So we get there and
Speaker 4: he's like, so we have this misfit group and he's like,
Speaker 4: you know, tall and short and this and that, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, great, and I was like, and he plays
Speaker 4: don't stop believing, and I'm like in the parking lot
Speaker 4: like jamming, and like I'm showing you like rock and roll,
Speaker 4: and like I'm like bouncing my shoulders and and and
Speaker 4: like slapping my thighs like we you know, did it.
Speaker 4: And he's like, yeah, I'm so glad you're excited about that.
Speaker 4: But I don't think we can do any of that.
Speaker 4: Like it was just he was like, we are it
Speaker 4: is going back. It is we have to go back
Speaker 4: to there, not dancers or not not dancers or not,
Speaker 4: and we have to get that feeling and like but
Speaker 4: I think I was just so excited about it too,
Speaker 4: and he was also so excited to have that like
Speaker 4: energy of being excited. And then we walked into the
Speaker 4: room and it's like, okay, we have to hold dance
Speaker 4: Like okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, like did he warn you properly about the groups.
Speaker 4: To dance?
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm sure he did not. I mean it was
Speaker 1: he warned. Like do you know if he was warned
Speaker 1: by like Casting a Ryan or anyone.
Speaker 4: Well, no, because this is the whole thing is that
Speaker 4: you guys did an audition to dance because no one
Speaker 4: thought about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I thought about audition because I was like,
Speaker 1: they're only checking singing and acting, but how is there
Speaker 1: not like a dance? And I felt fine about me.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I'll be able to pick up
Speaker 1: a five, six, seven, eight.
Speaker 4: But and then that's the whole fun Like again, that
Speaker 4: the whole fun thing of listen to you guys talk
Speaker 4: to everybody about it is like that's you know, Zach
Speaker 4: had these amazing relationships with everybody, with Robert and it's like, okay,
Speaker 4: so you guys got to ask, you know, you got
Speaker 4: to make a move a little bit. Can they can
Speaker 4: they do things?
Speaker 5: Is that?
Speaker 4: You know, it's the same thing we talk about Corey.
Speaker 4: Everyone was so excited because they're like, he has rhythm,
Speaker 4: he plays the drums, and it was like, that's a
Speaker 4: different rhythm.
Speaker 6: Ye correlated, right, he's musical, musical musical. But yeah, so
Speaker 6: but I think, oh gosh.
Speaker 4: That diagonal at the end, Oh we never got it.
Speaker 4: We never know, never got it, never got it.
Speaker 1: That's okay. Well, it's also insane to me to see
Speaker 1: the growth of like we just watched an episode where
Speaker 1: there's like eighty of us on stage and we're all
Speaker 1: moving everybody's like locked in doing the right thing, and
Speaker 1: to think that we could not get a diagonal with
Speaker 1: five people.
Speaker 4: Well, also part of the whole show that was crazy
Speaker 4: too is that, you know, you guys have talked about
Speaker 4: the progression of it moving so fast. It was like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 4: there are these misfits, and then like by episode two
Speaker 4: it's like, oh, we have a full performance number. It's
Speaker 4: like it's like where what happened to sit down rocking
Speaker 4: the boat? Like we're just doing disco, really bad disco,
Speaker 4: and now we're heartfelt and you know, moving, like moving,
Speaker 4: moving some of the most iconic numbers like now we're
Speaker 4: moving and going to craziness. And then it's like two
Speaker 4: weeks later, it's like we're sectionals.
Speaker 1: It's like a month to figure out how to do
Speaker 1: a bad diagonal line. Yeah, exactly a line.
Speaker 4: But it became a well oiled machine to the point
Speaker 4: where there was literally dance doubles. But not you guys
Speaker 4: ever having dance doubles. But yes, the process of figuring
Speaker 4: out how to get everybody in.
Speaker 1: The room skeleton crew only got worse.
Speaker 4: We could talk about tour.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh we will. So after that first, I
Speaker 1: mean what would did the show, because like you said,
Speaker 1: there would be descriptions and in the pilot that they dance,
Speaker 1: or Ryan would come in and be like Twila or
Speaker 1: Ryan would come and be like, I just want up.
Speaker 1: I want something up.
Speaker 4: It needs to be more and more lifting like, and.
Speaker 1: You're like lifts but not lifts like.
Speaker 2: He couldn't explain it, but he had a feeling and
Speaker 2: then you guys had to turn the feeling into dance basically.
Speaker 4: Well and I and again that's like the one. I mean,
Speaker 4: Zach is just a genius. You know, he's like the
Speaker 4: most unrecognized. I mean, everyone who knows him knows he
Speaker 4: is just the biggest angel in the heart and the
Speaker 4: smartest and most talented person. And I think only gets
Speaker 4: the hardest jobs in the whole white world, you know,
Speaker 4: only it's he only does the impossible and makes it
Speaker 4: unbelievable and that's what is so special. And so he's
Speaker 4: also I mean, this is this was my first job
Speaker 4: coming in onto more of the choreography side. So I
Speaker 4: was still like because if you guys remember during a pilot,
Speaker 4: I was still dancing with Brittany, So I was rehearsing
Speaker 4: like the circus video because I was like, I gotta leave,
Speaker 4: I gotta go to set. I got.
Speaker 1: I was so exciting. It was so fun. I mean
Speaker 1: I not like when I first started coming to LA
Speaker 1: and my mom and I were here for like pilot
Speaker 1: season or something, and we saw a tour bus on
Speaker 1: like Los Sienega or something in Hollywood and we're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that is the most beautiful tour bus.
Speaker 1: Who do you think it is. I'm like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Let's follow it for a couple of blocks, like psychos,
Speaker 1: and we followed it to this hotel and it.
Speaker 4: Was large. No, it was when we were in Hollywood.
Speaker 4: How do you know it was me?
Speaker 1: Because I recognize your hair because like you're the one
Speaker 1: with the hair, the red hair hair, And I didn't
Speaker 1: put it together un till you know, we were in
Speaker 1: throws a rehearsal, and then you admitted that you had
Speaker 1: to like go to like the Spring because you were
Speaker 1: like you and Zach are also like the most humble,
Speaker 1: like self deprecating people on the planet. You would never
Speaker 1: talk about your achievements and how great you are, but
Speaker 1: we can. And it came out you were one of
Speaker 1: like Britney's longtime dancers and you had to go do
Speaker 1: the circus video and it was like light bulb, Holy shit.
Speaker 1: I stopped her years ago and like, now you know,
Speaker 1: you're our choreographer. And it was just a very weird. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 4: You are a psycho? Yes, no, yes, no, it was.
Speaker 4: It was just it was one of those things. It
Speaker 4: was like kind of crazy and like at the same time,
Speaker 4: because this was just way at the beginning, like we
Speaker 4: were just still working on other projects and things and
Speaker 4: going and then yeah, when the once the pilot finished,
Speaker 4: you know, we were they were about to go back
Speaker 4: on the next tour, and I just send promo with her,
Speaker 4: so I was like in Japan and it was over
Speaker 4: in Europe and they were like, yeah, so we're getting
Speaker 4: ready to you know, set up the next tour, and
Speaker 4: I was like, yeah, okay, and I was kind of
Speaker 4: like I kind of have this other show, you know,
Speaker 4: so like I basically stopped doing Brittany to do Glee
Speaker 4: because you know, at that point, my kids were now
Speaker 4: four and six, and going back on the road again
Speaker 4: was a lot and that would have been my third
Speaker 4: world tour, and it was like or I can be
Speaker 4: at home who knew that sort of sort of like
Speaker 4: fifteen hours a day living in Long Beach, but you know,
Speaker 4: excited for Chick fil A when it came by. But
Speaker 4: it was it was like the it was the like
Speaker 4: unquestionable decision, like this is was exciting to be. I
Speaker 4: wanted to be working with Zach. I wanted to be
Speaker 4: doing this next adventure. And don't regret that at all,
Speaker 4: you know, like I did the other one. I did
Speaker 4: that job. So now I was ready to come and
Speaker 4: play with you guys. So because it was special, like
Speaker 4: even the pilot was so fun. I don't know, and
Speaker 4: I know you I don't know if you guys know.
Speaker 4: Originally a vocal Adrenaline was four minutes long, that first number, yes,
Speaker 4: And we choreographed the whole thing and Zach was always
Speaker 4: a big fan of cutting everything. Make it shorter, make
Speaker 4: it shorter, make it short. He's like, I'm the person
Speaker 4: in the room who loves dance the most, and I
Speaker 4: don't want to see it. So he was very much
Speaker 4: like this, this can't be. We got it down to
Speaker 4: three minutes, so they all came in. They cut it
Speaker 4: down to three minutes, so they shot it at three
Speaker 4: minutes and then when it was on the edit, it
Speaker 4: was a minute dance, you know, so that kind of
Speaker 4: shows you how much I know, like how much dancing
Speaker 4: was actually done.
Speaker 2: And having an intense number that is.
Speaker 4: And so we played, you know, we were good caught
Speaker 4: bad cop an opposite for you guys for the actors,
Speaker 4: and we were for the dancers. So for the dancers,
Speaker 4: Zach was bad cop. I mean no, for you guys,
Speaker 4: he was bad cop and I was I was good cop.
Speaker 4: So he was. He would be so hard on you,
Speaker 4: and then I would come and be like, it's okay,
Speaker 4: you didn't need work on this, and I would like
Speaker 4: I was like, hug kisses because it's like, don't you
Speaker 4: mean to them? They try it, and He's like, no,
Speaker 4: they need to be Like he was just broom and
Speaker 4: with the dancers it was totally opposite. He just was
Speaker 4: having the time of his life. And I kept being like,
Speaker 4: they're messing up, like they need to be cleaner, totally,
Speaker 4: like totally change the way we talk, Like we don't
Speaker 4: talk the way we used to. You know. Jah, you
Speaker 4: guys mentioned heads and holes and just so fun. Look,
Speaker 4: I'm only repeating the things you guys have said, like totally.
Speaker 2: And Zach was also infamous for not knowing the lyrics
Speaker 2: to words of songs, and.
Speaker 1: So he would make up his own to fit the
Speaker 1: dance mooth.
Speaker 7: So like he'd be like, they're not in knees, yes,
Speaker 7: I mean, but that I don't know if that's just
Speaker 7: a trait that both I had most choreographers dancers.
Speaker 4: Like we do, but like I mean, I have all
Speaker 4: bad words for every song.
Speaker 1: It's so helpful though, because like if I can't count.
Speaker 4: Yes, this is also we just had so much fun
Speaker 4: and like make you laugh. So pilot happens. I'm bad cop,
Speaker 4: I'm trying to get everybody. Midway through the last day
Speaker 4: of shooting, one of our dancers goes down kind of
Speaker 4: throws out her neck like and everyone's like, can't you
Speaker 4: just finish? And they're like, no, she can't finish. And
Speaker 4: as she's getting wheelchaired off or like taking the shoes
Speaker 4: off of her, trying to get the costume. Because the
Speaker 4: whole thing was partnered, there were thirty vocal adrenaline dancers,
Speaker 4: guys and girls, so I had to step in. So
Speaker 4: if you watch the pilot, you can see blonde red,
Speaker 4: blonde red, and so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just thought I thought you were in the
Speaker 1: whole thing. No, That's why I was like, wait.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So then what happened? Well, because I'm in all
Speaker 4: those pictures. There's like there's like these vocal adrenaline picture
Speaker 4: It's like me and Ryan are like all post in
Speaker 4: costume like zax Is, which also fun fact. Uh you
Speaker 4: know when they show vocal adrenalines like feet stretching and
Speaker 4: doing that little those sax feet, those were like jims out.
Speaker 4: They're like, oh, we need these shots later, and they
Speaker 4: like put costumes on them. But it was lunch break,
Speaker 4: and I knew the dance obviously, but I hadn't been
Speaker 4: put into staging and doing all this thing. And then
Speaker 4: lunch break thirty dancers. No one would come help me,
Speaker 4: Like I kept texting like but we were like anyone
Speaker 4: can someone come in like review? And I'm like, I
Speaker 4: guess I was too mean to them.
Speaker 1: I was telling them that.
Speaker 4: I get now now I'm like now I'm in and
Speaker 4: work things and I'm like god, like everyone, okay, this,
Speaker 4: are you warm enough? Do you want my blanket? Do
Speaker 4: you do? Like? What can I do?
Speaker 1: But remember at that moment so well, because what was
Speaker 1: also magical about how you and Zach were with us.
Speaker 1: You also built such like a great community of dancers
Speaker 1: on the show, and so many of those dancers in
Speaker 1: Vocal Adrenaline I had known previously to Glee, And so
Speaker 1: that day that you guys shot Rehab, I remember hanging
Speaker 1: out like back with all the Vocal Adrenaline people and
Speaker 1: then finding out that one of them went down and
Speaker 1: then you were stepping in. I was like, because it
Speaker 1: was the we hadn't you guys were.
Speaker 4: All you guys were all hanging out. You're all hanging
Speaker 4: out having lunch, and I'm sure I'm stressing out and trying.
Speaker 1: To re alert she knows, she's fine.
Speaker 4: No, it was. It was an awesome group and and
Speaker 4: I think, you know, one of my favorite things to do,
Speaker 4: because in general, I did a lot of uh. I
Speaker 4: went like the cat like. The way that the casting
Speaker 4: worked is like I was still out in the world teaching,
Speaker 4: so I was constantly being like, oh, I know all
Speaker 4: these eighteen year olds because we really needed eighteen year olds,
Speaker 4: people who had never worked in the industry before. So
Speaker 4: when all that auditioning and things and bringing people in,
Speaker 4: like we gave so many people their first jobs. We
Speaker 4: got so many people to become into SAG and so
Speaker 4: like it was like a average of like over five
Speaker 4: hundred dancers a year would get jobs doing that, which
Speaker 4: was so cool, Like it was so cool. And I
Speaker 4: remember the first time like but we did safety Dance
Speaker 4: and I was like, ah, we got to hire fifty people.
Speaker 4: Like that was always so special. I think that was
Speaker 4: part of some of my favorite memory or like moments,
Speaker 4: is how many dancers we got it in employ and
Speaker 4: at the same time working with production not trying to
Speaker 4: be greedy about it. So it was like that that
Speaker 4: would be that would happen. A seed would come up
Speaker 4: and be like, okay, well how many dancers do you
Speaker 4: think and so we would be like we would go,
Speaker 4: I think it needs twelve and they would say, okay,
Speaker 4: well I think eight and be like, okay, can we
Speaker 4: get ten, you know, like we are you know, or
Speaker 4: you know what eight is great here, We're going to
Speaker 4: need four more, you know, to work with like whatever
Speaker 4: the budget and how many we could really get into it,
Speaker 4: like how many can we sell this for? You know,
Speaker 4: because we never went back to thirty dancers for vocal adrenaline,
Speaker 4: you know, then it got down to It was twenty
Speaker 4: four and twenty two some episodes. It was six, you know,
Speaker 4: like you know, it was like what could we mask
Speaker 4: for all those things? But it was, you know, the
Speaker 4: more the merrier.
Speaker 1: Did you know Heather from before?
Speaker 4: Heather and I grew up at the same dance studio. Yeah,
Speaker 4: because so we're both from Phoenix and we both were.
Speaker 1: You guys, yeah, like two of the best. I don't
Speaker 1: know what, and you both have like this a similar
Speaker 1: essence about you of like when you're dancing in a group,
Speaker 1: you can't you find you guys, and you can't take
Speaker 1: your eyes off. I don't know what it is, but
Speaker 1: you both have that same thing.
Speaker 4: Well, we grow. So we grew up at the same
Speaker 4: dance studio, so it was dance connection. It was in
Speaker 4: Arizona and are It was all about performance. It was
Speaker 4: like the attitude is look at me and don't look
Speaker 4: at anybody else, and the person next to you is
Speaker 4: they need to have that same attitude. So there needs
Speaker 4: to be three of you up on stage all go
Speaker 4: in look at me and don't look at everybody else,
Speaker 4: and knowing that like the people next to me are
Speaker 4: dancing the same way. So it's look at us. So,
Speaker 4: I mean that's how we grew up. It was you
Speaker 4: stare at yourself, and that you stare at yourself in
Speaker 4: the mirror and you make sure that that person is
Speaker 4: staring at you and looks hot. It does. It's It's
Speaker 4: one of the things I still try and teach, because
Speaker 4: I still am out there going to teach you. But
Speaker 4: it's much harder now because we look at our phones
Speaker 4: more than we look at ourselves.
Speaker 1: But also from a Zona.
Speaker 4: No, she's from Texas.
Speaker 1: I knew that, but.
Speaker 4: You know, dancers like Haley, like I you know, I
Speaker 4: was teaching her at twelve, so you know, and then
Speaker 4: my sister and then like just a lot of the
Speaker 4: people who all came through we've known for so long.
Speaker 4: So like that's the whole thing. Like that was Haley's
Speaker 4: first job coming.
Speaker 1: Out to She was so like little when she came
Speaker 1: with us. Yeah, she was the youngest one out of everyone,
Speaker 1: and we were all so like protective of her.
Speaker 4: Now all married.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Yeah, you mentioned before that you got to you
Speaker 8: and Zach got to sit in because you were navigating
Speaker 8: all these different departments that you get.
Speaker 1: You got to sit in some of those production meetings
Speaker 1: or all of the production meetings to figure out what
Speaker 1: does this one little line mean in the script and
Speaker 1: how is going to look on screen? What were those
Speaker 1: meetings like, because we were never ever privy to anything.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, so I so I really did end up
Speaker 4: doing tone stuff until he left, So I wasn't. I
Speaker 4: wasn't doing tone meetings until season five. It was more
Speaker 4: of like, so it would be a department head, so
Speaker 4: you know original tone means. So that was like Zach
Speaker 4: was there, Mark Hutman, Lou It would be like the Okay,
Speaker 4: we need some costume, we need to know what's going on.
Speaker 4: And that was just breaking things down. Ooh, I'm thinking this,
Speaker 4: I'm thinking this, I'm thinking this, And that's not where
Speaker 4: you really asked necessarily all the questions. That wasn't where
Speaker 4: you start saying, Okay, I need twelve answers, I need
Speaker 4: this danswers. It was like, okay, I see this happening here.
Speaker 4: And then those meetings broke down and the next thing
Speaker 4: is you get to a production meeting, so now that
Speaker 4: all of this department head's going to walk away take
Speaker 4: all that information, then you got to kind of break
Speaker 4: down what do we really need? How are you how
Speaker 4: are we going to make this work? How are we
Speaker 4: going to make this different? And then you kind of
Speaker 4: then that next step is present and you know, mechanics
Speaker 4: of working your way through everybody like can we do this?
Speaker 4: Can we do this? How about this? This is our idea?
Speaker 4: And then you present the next step. You know, then
Speaker 4: then they present the stage looking the way they do,
Speaker 4: or they get the drawings of the costumes. Ours was
Speaker 4: always harder because it was like we did we never present.
Speaker 4: We just were asking can we get can we get
Speaker 4: some dancers? And then it's like could we get the
Speaker 4: set made? I mean even the risers that was that
Speaker 4: was a production because do you guys remember your baby risers?
Speaker 1: Yes, because the first I remember even getting them period
Speaker 1: was a thing, and then we got like a version
Speaker 1: of them. Sorry you talk about.
Speaker 4: It, Yeah, you know, you're absolutely right. So there was
Speaker 4: two sets of risers because vocal adrenalines. Risers were foot
Speaker 4: so it's a full foot step up and you guys
Speaker 4: couldn't It wasn't that you couldn't handle it. I'll say
Speaker 4: more that the choir room didn't allow it. We maybe
Speaker 4: didn't need it. Well yeah, maybe a little bit of both.
Speaker 4: But well, that's a progression of we just trying to
Speaker 4: get step up to getting those things, but trying to
Speaker 4: figure out how many inches you guys could dance and
Speaker 4: step up and do levels and where we can make
Speaker 4: the difference. And then eventually you guys did graduate and
Speaker 4: you got full risers and you guys made it. You
Speaker 4: guys did the whole thing. But it was funny because
Speaker 4: you did like this six inch riser and like it
Speaker 4: didn't help because Corey was still you know, Frankentine and
Speaker 4: then you had Tater Tot down on the floor wheeling around,
Speaker 4: and you know, it was all the levels were crazy.
Speaker 4: I loved it.
Speaker 1: I'm so interested in like because you talk about all
Speaker 1: these different departments presenting what they had to do, you
Speaker 1: guys asking for things, and Ryan was so involved and
Speaker 1: so much of he'd come into our rehearsals he'd personally approve,
Speaker 1: especially in the beginning. Yes, yeah, everything, oh yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: So there was a short line that seemed like all
Speaker 1: of you had to learn with each other because these
Speaker 1: things also weren't happening like, oh, make a presentation, you
Speaker 1: have a week to do it. It was like things
Speaker 1: were getting turned around on like an afternoon or the
Speaker 1: next day. So like, what I mean, what was it
Speaker 1: like developing that sort of shorthand with Ryan and with
Speaker 1: the other departments. Because also, again a lot of these
Speaker 1: people had all come from TV were not used to
Speaker 1: shooting musical numbers. You guys were so used to doing
Speaker 1: musical numbers, but maybe not at this rate and with
Speaker 1: different levels of expertise in your students. So like I
Speaker 1: felt like you were all balancing and meeting in the
Speaker 1: middle of Okay, we're coming together to create this thing
Speaker 1: that is wholly unique, and we all have to learn
Speaker 1: how much each department or Ryan needs from us to
Speaker 1: be able to tell you, to convince you that we
Speaker 1: know what we're doing.
Speaker 4: Well. I honestly it was I think so much of
Speaker 4: it was easy at the beginning, you know. Okay, so
Speaker 4: working with Lou who did costumes, she understood that they
Speaker 4: had a stretch, you know, that that you couldn't have
Speaker 4: you needed to have a gusset and things, or if
Speaker 4: you you know, you couldn't get a suit on if
Speaker 4: your guys's arms didn't go past here, or that it
Speaker 4: was worth the money to spend, you know, to buy
Speaker 4: an eighty dollars dance shoe, then to buy the thirty
Speaker 4: dollars dance shoe from you know wherever, or the fake heel,
Speaker 4: but then they broke, you know, so working with people
Speaker 4: who knew where the w earth was in the value.
Speaker 4: And I think that also comes from obviously we had
Speaker 4: an amazing production, you know, like we had Kenneth who
Speaker 4: basically understood how to fix all these departments and say
Speaker 4: where we could spend the money and do all this stuff,
Speaker 4: because it was important to spend the money, like it
Speaker 4: was important to spend the money to make this work.
Speaker 4: And I think that's why this show did work, is
Speaker 4: because as a department you felt valued and loved in
Speaker 4: the sense of instead of I don't feel like we
Speaker 4: had a super fight like how dare you? But also
Speaker 4: in a site of like a respectful And I think
Speaker 4: that's something I take with me with everything I do.
Speaker 4: So like, you know, I had like seventy five dancers
Speaker 4: on Lucifer and I just did you know, I just
Speaker 4: worked on that new Apple Paul Royal is coming out,
Speaker 4: Like we had seventy five dancers on that. And what
Speaker 4: I've learned from Glee is it's not just about being
Speaker 4: selfish it's not okay, I need seventy five d answers
Speaker 4: and I need two weeks of rehearsal. And it's like, no, okay,
Speaker 4: I can work with these twenty Like my days are
Speaker 4: going to be seventy five hours a day and I
Speaker 4: don't care, you know, but like I'm going to rehearse
Speaker 4: like this, and I can I can then flip flop
Speaker 4: one actor in and get them like that, like manage
Speaker 4: time management and knowing how to be smart about what
Speaker 4: is really needed and what is a necessity. And and
Speaker 4: I think we all respected each other in that so
Speaker 4: much that you you really went, okay, that's there's value
Speaker 4: in that. And you had to trust what our opinion
Speaker 4: and things were. If I said that's not safe. You
Speaker 4: know this floor is not going to be a safe floor.
Speaker 4: Well it looks pretty well, yeah, but they're going to fall,
Speaker 4: Like so what is it? What is another option? How
Speaker 4: do we make this not slippery? And do those things?
Speaker 4: But you had everybody who wanted the best product and
Speaker 4: the best job. No one had that ego, honestly, we
Speaker 4: I think sometimes the hardest thing was when the years
Speaker 4: and years go by, you get new people kind of
Speaker 4: coming in and everyone has these great ideas and you're
Speaker 4: kind of like, it really works like this, and they go, okay, great,
Speaker 4: it works like this, And you know that was you know,
Speaker 4: the only time that you had to go through changing
Speaker 4: you had to go we had more casts, we had
Speaker 4: more people, we had other things, but we really had
Speaker 4: an amazing group that wanted to make the top happy
Speaker 4: and knowing that also by treating departments well and and
Speaker 4: and that was going to be a smart way to
Speaker 4: do those things. So you know, we worked really hard.
Speaker 2: You worked hard, you guys works worked hard.
Speaker 4: We tried to make it's but also to make it
Speaker 4: look like it was easy, like it's not. It's also
Speaker 4: not my job to go this is so hard. This
Speaker 4: is so difficult. It's like, oh, you have seven numbers
Speaker 4: this episode, we don't have any music and you don't
Speaker 4: have oarsal time and we shoot tomorrow. Great, okay, cool,
Speaker 4: totally and we can do this, Like yeah, it was
Speaker 4: dance is great.
Speaker 2: So how did you guys manage the time given that
Speaker 2: that was usually the case.
Speaker 1: Well, especially as we got going, like as the season's
Speaker 1: because in the beginning we had more time.
Speaker 4: Oh no, more time, no, no, no, no, So we get
Speaker 4: a script, Nanda has music, and then we have no music,
Speaker 4: right because they have to create the music. So like
Speaker 4: it was also backwards still like we were the last
Speaker 4: department to get it. So that's where those demos would
Speaker 4: really come also in handy for us, like you guys
Speaker 4: were recording to demos. But if we didn't have a demo,
Speaker 4: we didn't know what the breakdown of the song was
Speaker 4: going to be. So we never like saw a song
Speaker 4: and said, oh, don't stop believing, let's just reverse and
Speaker 4: make something up because without knowing who's singing, where the
Speaker 4: storyline's going to be, Oh this is you know, this
Speaker 4: is already in Tina's dialogue. They're in a fight right
Speaker 4: now and they need to throw looks to each other
Speaker 4: or that we're not supposed to have, you know, Finn
Speaker 4: and Puck next to each other because they like yeah,
Speaker 4: like yeah, like mister, like mister, she would be choreographing
Speaker 4: and not putting people next to each other because now
Speaker 4: they're in a fight, doesn't matter, that's how. But we
Speaker 4: had to wait till we knew those moments or where
Speaker 4: those partnerships are going to be coming in, So we
Speaker 4: were guessing and then it was like how quickly could
Speaker 4: we get a demo? How quickly could we get a demo?
Speaker 4: Then can we get a breakdown? Then you know, sometimes
Speaker 4: we never got your guys is recording till the day
Speaker 4: of We never heard that stuff. It was like, well,
Speaker 4: I hope it sounds right. It always worked, it did,
Speaker 4: but it was that was sort of the magic, but
Speaker 4: we were it was never it was never super It
Speaker 4: was at the beginning because the scripts were a little
Speaker 4: bit more there and so music was a little bit faster,
Speaker 4: meaning we were ahead of the gate, yes, you know,
Speaker 4: or right on track, and then it got a little
Speaker 4: harder when we would get behind and it'd be like,
Speaker 4: well we got.
Speaker 1: This in the beginning when we had more time. It
Speaker 1: was so we probably didn't realize it either at the
Speaker 1: time how important that was for all of us in
Speaker 1: terms of like cohesion, because we had when the show
Speaker 1: got picked up after the pilot, we had that full
Speaker 1: month of like January when we were first in the
Speaker 1: Tin Shed boot camp boot camp and we didn't have
Speaker 1: episode well, we knew we had the first episode, so
Speaker 1: we knew we had push it and whatever else is
Speaker 1: in that episode, but we were you would like warm
Speaker 1: us up every day we'd show up, we'd do stretches,
Speaker 1: you would teach us rehab just to like, you know,
Speaker 1: that was yeah, that was all that was.
Speaker 4: So you know, that was Zach just going knowing that
Speaker 4: you guys had to learn also that how do you
Speaker 4: muscle memory? How do you start learning faster? How do
Speaker 4: you start picking up things. Here's a dance you guys
Speaker 4: are all obviously familiar with. Wasn't really what you were
Speaker 4: going to do, but it was what we were going
Speaker 4: to get you to doing. I mean, those those lifts
Speaker 4: were not overhead like we were doing. Eventually a vocal
Speaker 4: adrenale got psycho rehab really was the style that you
Speaker 4: guys got up to, you know. So it was getting
Speaker 4: to that stuff, which was great. You know, we loved
Speaker 4: sort of that time that never ever happened ever ever.
Speaker 4: But also, you know, the crazy thing too, was for
Speaker 4: the first thirteen episodes, you guys weren't on the air,
Speaker 4: so you had to I mean, it was the beauty
Speaker 4: of it. You had to trust us a little bit
Speaker 4: more and we could be meaner to you because we
Speaker 4: could just keep saying you look horrible, you look horrible.
Speaker 4: You look well but in a way, but you know
Speaker 4: that that no, I need more that projection like and
Speaker 4: never not saying like never being like, you guys did great,
Speaker 4: but never like patting you too much on the back,
Speaker 4: being like great, okay, good, we're moving on and we're
Speaker 4: moving harder.
Speaker 5: Like.
Speaker 4: So there was this constant push and there was a
Speaker 4: little bit of this fear in the sense of what
Speaker 4: it really looked like. And because you guys never got
Speaker 4: to see yourself on the screen, I feel like there
Speaker 4: was a nice control that we were like and then
Speaker 4: and then you guys, and then you guys aired, and
Speaker 4: then you were so good, Like it was like, oh,
Speaker 4: well we're so good. Look how good we like? It's
Speaker 4: like that was so hard like it was. It was
Speaker 4: a real sort of change because then there was a
Speaker 4: little bit of well, they're just going to edit it
Speaker 4: out if I look bad. Oh, they'll never do that,
Speaker 4: and that was poor part of like no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: that's not how it works. We don't want we don't
Speaker 4: want to edit, and we don't want to not have
Speaker 4: to have all those things were.
Speaker 1: Just full of close ups like that is not what
Speaker 1: we're going right, right.
Speaker 4: But you guys also got better, and then that process
Speaker 4: was easier, but there was this sort of there was
Speaker 4: a magic, well there was magic at the beginning and
Speaker 4: then and then like a little of that like oh gosh,
Speaker 4: they're knowing that it's okay, and then it's like nope,
Speaker 4: we're doing We're going more and more and more. So
Speaker 4: like there was this little circle of time. But yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, it was it was. I mean, it's also
Speaker 4: just hard to figure out. How do you encor how
Speaker 4: do you incorporate a wheelchair to look like it's smooth
Speaker 4: in there? How do you put partners together of someone
Speaker 4: you know, how short Tina was compared to the guys
Speaker 4: were tall. You know, like nobody was misfit like we were.
Speaker 4: We were a misfit group.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say that's what it also
Speaker 1: felt like in the beginning when Ryan would come in
Speaker 1: or like all the department heads would come in and
Speaker 1: like watch the number. Andrew would come in with his
Speaker 1: iPad and film it to learn it himself. Where it
Speaker 1: felt like because Ryan would normally have a note or
Speaker 1: two and we would like tweak things, but we were
Speaker 1: all sort of figuring it out together. You guys are
Speaker 1: figuring out how to interpret the script. And then put
Speaker 1: it on us to like the adjusted depending on our ability,
Speaker 1: and then we were all together figuring out how do
Speaker 1: we make Ryan's vision right true? Because there were so
Speaker 1: many I mean, I think of that first season, there
Speaker 1: wasn't a number that did not get pre approved or
Speaker 1: pre seen by all the department, Like Lou and Mark
Speaker 1: would come in.
Speaker 2: And make seats in the front and yeah, we'd do it,
Speaker 2: perform it for that I think.
Speaker 4: I think it changed in the years later, like we
Speaker 4: would video it, send it out to everybody, then sometimes
Speaker 4: get that approval. We always tried to get the directors
Speaker 4: to come by, but again it started getting harder because
Speaker 4: the directors were shooting the episode as we're still in
Speaker 4: the rehearsal process. And then what the real hope was
Speaker 4: is that we did a rehearsal and there weren't going
Speaker 4: to be any changes. I mean, that was that was
Speaker 4: our real main goal was. It wasn't let's do this
Speaker 4: and let's see what happens. It's let's be smart enough
Speaker 4: that we don't get any notes.
Speaker 2: How often do you say you guys would get notes?
Speaker 2: I don't even remember, Like, how would you say most
Speaker 2: of the time towards like once we got to that groove.
Speaker 4: I don't think there was ever that many notes. I
Speaker 4: mean really past the beginning, there wasn't some major I'm
Speaker 4: trying to think if there's any major disasters. I mean,
Speaker 4: every once in a while there'd be like, right, like
Speaker 4: this is not what we were looking for, right, but
Speaker 4: but that's kind of more of like, well, but that's
Speaker 4: what we said we were doing, you know at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I know, we really try or more of like no,
Speaker 4: we need to add more like no, we actually want
Speaker 4: three super polls now in November, and would that have
Speaker 4: been fun? We did that. We we did that a
Speaker 4: lot later when we got to New York, like we
Speaker 4: went to the clubs and we had you guys just
Speaker 4: weren't always there.
Speaker 1: What's wild is that, like that New York faction vocal adrenaline,
Speaker 1: Like you weren't just choreographing new directions, You're also choreographing
Speaker 1: all these other people in styles like everyone had their
Speaker 1: own sort of like vibes like style identity and.
Speaker 4: Do you remember this? Besides, so at the beginning the
Speaker 4: dancer platform, So if we'll explain that what we're talking
Speaker 4: because I don't think we actually did.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, literally literally there.
Speaker 4: Was a dancer platform or broke platform or we kept calling,
Speaker 4: but I was behind the cameras up on a higher
Speaker 4: level to be doing like I looked like literally like
Speaker 4: waving lines, but I was dancing. And a lot of
Speaker 4: times I would have the godlike too, talking and screaming,
Speaker 4: like do you remember Jenna when it was the Christmas
Speaker 4: episode and it was Saturday morning and it was that
Speaker 4: Anthony was directing, and we were all in our pajamas
Speaker 4: and you had you hadn't even been to rehearsal, like
Speaker 4: and not in any fault of your own, but like
Speaker 4: you had you had never made it to literally rehearsal.
Speaker 4: And I'm like teaching you to dance, be like how
Speaker 4: do you feel? And then I'm like screaming over the
Speaker 4: microphone and like doing this and like and you look great,
Speaker 4: and you look great. And that became like another new
Speaker 4: norm of doing that sort of stuff.
Speaker 5: But when but but what happened is runs, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: We would do all the rehearsal together. Zach would be
Speaker 4: their shoot film, start to like get you guys, make
Speaker 4: sure everything was working, and then he would leave like
Speaker 4: not not really season one, but then later like he
Speaker 4: would go back to the studio and be working on
Speaker 4: the next song, and I would be staying there and
Speaker 4: watching you guys, like stay until you guys finished shooting.
Speaker 4: And that happened a lot, a lot, lot lot season two,
Speaker 4: season three because we were doing so much, or he
Speaker 4: would have another rehearsal, like he would go and start
Speaker 4: and have rehearsal. So that was also the crazy part
Speaker 4: is like we were also part of when you're talking
Speaker 4: about the numbers from the head to the tail, because
Speaker 4: we were there as it developed. We were there till
Speaker 4: the end, till it shot. Because you know, again most departments,
Speaker 4: you sit there, you build the set, the set, and
Speaker 4: then you know right and you go, great, it looks good.
Speaker 4: We shot it, boom and then you have you know,
Speaker 4: the art like you have the other departments take over
Speaker 4: for being on set for your stuff. Same thing with costumes, design,
Speaker 4: build great. Then you have your customers who are still
Speaker 4: there with you guys. But it was just us, so
Speaker 4: we were there till the end of those numbers. I
Speaker 4: mean I was also put into numbers because I need
Speaker 4: to help, especially the Turkey Lurky day. I was in
Speaker 4: Turkey Lurky because we never had anybody in there, so
Speaker 4: like we never had Sarah Jessica really come and Lisa
Speaker 4: and all there, and so I mean, just watch Turkey
Speaker 4: Lurkey because I know it's everyone's favorite. But like I
Speaker 4: opened the door and then like I'm always presenting my
Speaker 4: hand and then I'm like pulling people and then I'm
Speaker 4: like push it, like I And at the same time
Speaker 4: that that was happening. So that was in New York set,
Speaker 4: you guys were with the new New Directions shooting with
Speaker 4: Zach on the other set, so we didn't even have
Speaker 4: someone really like watching it, and I would kept being back,
Speaker 4: going back to here like is it like okay, I
Speaker 4: like is it ever working? Like are we checking on that?
Speaker 4: Do you guys know? Do you guys remember my I
Speaker 4: had to break down every number so for you know
Speaker 4: you talked about the scripting needs to see what it was.
Speaker 4: I used to make a football play of every single
Speaker 4: dance number. Yes, so every formation that you would be in,
Speaker 4: it would be x's and o's and then let's say
Speaker 4: so let's say it was vocal adrenaline and there was
Speaker 4: like only Jonathan Groff, which was what was this Jesse Jesse? Yeah,
Speaker 4: so like his would all be x's maybe for the guys,
Speaker 4: and sercles for the o's and then one big J.
Speaker 4: So you I would have every formation set up and
Speaker 4: then where he is, and then I would time code it,
Speaker 4: so like that was at thirty seconds, and then this
Speaker 4: one's like at four because poor poor Carol Banker and
Speaker 4: coor Babs like who needed to kind of follow.
Speaker 1: Along at supervisors, right, So.
Speaker 4: I so then I'm sitting there and we have those.
Speaker 4: But then for you guys, it was every single letter
Speaker 4: at every so every formation change.
Speaker 1: I did this. I had no idea.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah. And then every once in a while, like
Speaker 4: I would wouldn't do it ahead of time, and like
Speaker 4: we would get to set and we were rehearsing its.
Speaker 4: It's like, Breck, I'm like literally drawing the formations as
Speaker 4: we're going.
Speaker 1: How often did Za call you like post work hours
Speaker 1: to be like to talk like did you have homework?
Speaker 4: We left work on the phone and then we would
Speaker 4: talk all night and then we would laugh. I mean,
Speaker 4: but we also, like I feel very serious right now,
Speaker 4: we had the best time ever, laughing and hysterical and
Speaker 4: loving this and like, I mean, we were just so silly.
Speaker 4: We were just like we just had so much fun,
Speaker 4: Like we were always having fun. I enjoyed being at work.
Speaker 4: I enjoyed being around everybody and making everybody laugh and
Speaker 4: being silly. But no, we were twenty four to seven
Speaker 4: or we would finish the day, leave be at set
Speaker 4: for twelve hours and be like, oh my gosh, we
Speaker 4: got to talk about today, like we just got to
Speaker 4: talk about it.
Speaker 1: Like, well, Jenna and I lived together. It was so
Speaker 1: good because we would come home and sort of with
Speaker 1: each other debrief.
Speaker 4: Oh, we used to have the best meetings that we spaw.
Speaker 4: So basically this this was back when This Is War,
Speaker 4: when we were in the powerhouse, which was our So
Speaker 4: the reason why it was called the tin shep you
Speaker 4: guys said this because it was literally a tin ship
Speaker 4: because of the t it was so hot and the
Speaker 4: bathrooms were downstairs, so you had to pee every time
Speaker 4: you had to pee. It was a lot of pain.
Speaker 4: And then the powerhouse was an old powerhouse that they
Speaker 4: gutted for us, like they created that. It was huge.
Speaker 4: It was amazing huge. It's still there. I used I
Speaker 4: used it last year. It was so great. Oh my god,
Speaker 4: I want to slay home. It still has like some
Speaker 4: of the faux brick wall because when we made that
Speaker 4: in New York set and like left it, so it's
Speaker 4: still it's still all designs, but usually what it's what's
Speaker 4: sadly used for is a lot of like it used
Speaker 4: to be, like crew lunches would be in that room.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it's a big, big place to set up.
Speaker 4: It's like, oh fair, but we would we would be
Speaker 4: sitting there and we'd like just finish an episode and
Speaker 4: we're waiting for a script and waiting for music, and
Speaker 4: it was like, I think we should have our meeting
Speaker 4: today at the wee Saw. So we would go drive
Speaker 4: to the we Spaw and think.
Speaker 1: About the Koreans for people who don't know, Yes, l.
Speaker 4: A twenty four hour Koreans, the guys side, the girl's side,
Speaker 4: the family side.
Speaker 1: Going after the pandemic. But man, is.
Speaker 4: So good, so good to have our meetings there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you always just made us.
Speaker 2: I always personally enjoyed dance rehearsals most of the time because,
Speaker 2: like you would, it was like you guys were our friends,
Speaker 2: like as much as you were our you know, our
Speaker 2: teachers and our chorks, like co workers, like you were
Speaker 2: our friends. And so we always like it's like the
Speaker 2: relationship you have with your makeup artists, like it felt here.
Speaker 2: It's so intimate and personal and you know, you always
Speaker 2: like looked out for us, and we always laughed a lot.
Speaker 4: So it was just like like the most dances, like
Speaker 4: the most amazing thing ever, Like it really is one
Speaker 4: of those things where it just makes you so happy,
Speaker 4: you know, or I mean there was certainly some tears
Speaker 4: in that room, but lots of tears, but but not
Speaker 4: but it no matter how frustrating was, it was like
Speaker 4: that was the fun stuff, like you got to play,
Speaker 4: you gotta move. We didn't take it very seriously. You know,
Speaker 4: it's funny with you guys are breaking down these scripts
Speaker 4: when you're talking to everybody, Like when you're talking to everyone,
Speaker 4: it's like that wasn't for real. It's like we knew that.
Speaker 4: Like you can't watch he shows and be like what
Speaker 4: were they thinking? It was like right, we were thinking
Speaker 4: exactly what you should be, like this is a joke,
Speaker 4: like this is we're making fun of ourselves. We were
Speaker 4: being silly and like we did that. We did that
Speaker 4: when we were moving and playing and trying to Like again,
Speaker 4: the more that you guys laughed at yourself, and we
Speaker 4: laughed at the jokes and we laughed at how ridiculous
Speaker 4: it could be. The better it all was.
Speaker 1: But I think it worked because you and Zach were
Speaker 1: like that, Because could you imagine I can imagine all
Speaker 1: those hours in dance rehearsal with somebody who was like
Speaker 1: overly serious and be like really cleaning us up and
Speaker 1: making sure like you know, you were never going to
Speaker 1: you knew what you were going to get for us,
Speaker 1: and so like you would have gone crazy if you
Speaker 1: were that serious about all of it all the time.
Speaker 1: And it also felt like, to Jenna's point that like
Speaker 1: dance is sort of like an equalizer where you have
Speaker 1: to be vulnerable, because so many of us were not
Speaker 1: comfortable doing it and we weren't that good, but you
Speaker 1: and Zach were like there to catch us. So everybody,
Speaker 1: and especially because we had that time in the beginning
Speaker 1: to figure it all out together, everybody was sort of
Speaker 1: I don't know, more open to each other and those
Speaker 1: moments with you, guys, other than any other department, because
Speaker 1: I felt like you spent the most time with you,
Speaker 1: we could be the most honest with you. You guys could
Speaker 1: be honest with us or if there was this mutual
Speaker 1: respect and openness that like when you're on set, there's
Speaker 1: like a certain level of professionalism that we like, you know,
Speaker 1: the cameras are on.
Speaker 4: We had professionalism this show.
Speaker 1: But like when we were it was more like we're
Speaker 1: just kicking it. We're going to get it done. We
Speaker 1: always didn't we're.
Speaker 4: Going to get it. We're going to get it done.
Speaker 4: But you know that was I I feel like there
Speaker 4: was a place you didn't have to be on you know,
Speaker 4: you didn't have to come in and have makeup on.
Speaker 4: You could have a.
Speaker 1: Really bad day reprieve from my care it likes to.
Speaker 4: Talk crap about everything you could and at the same time,
Speaker 4: you could be so dramatic about all the stuff that
Speaker 4: was going on and then come into the dance room
Speaker 4: and be like, oh, yeah, that's really not as you
Speaker 4: guys have a harder job, and like we were like, yeah,
Speaker 4: just shut up and let's do this because like.
Speaker 1: Also check us and welcome. We wanted to check us well.
Speaker 4: In the best way. It's like, you guys, it's not
Speaker 4: that deep. Let's just do this, Let's get our job done,
Speaker 4: let's have fun, Let's not take it seriously. Let's laugh
Speaker 4: at it, let's pull our stuff together, and remember like
Speaker 4: we are singing and dancing like we could be doing drama.
Speaker 4: You could be doing the most dramatic shakes, like you
Speaker 4: could be doing something hard, like we just have to
Speaker 4: be fools up there, and the more that you guys
Speaker 4: are fools and like that, we got that out of
Speaker 4: you and played with you. But it also was it
Speaker 4: was a totally safe zone. I mean, and that's what
Speaker 4: I mean. I'm so surprised where all this conversation is gone,
Speaker 4: because I really got worried that we were only going
Speaker 4: to be talking about scary stories and I was gonna
Speaker 4: have to be closing my mouth constantly and be like whoops.
Speaker 4: But but we just it was like that place where
Speaker 4: it's like nobody was watching you.
Speaker 1: Nobody you know you didn't that's a big point.
Speaker 4: You had no makeup on. You could be so real,
Speaker 4: like you could be laying on the ground. You could
Speaker 4: take you know, Corey would take top Rom and just
Speaker 4: eat it out of Sometimes they would.
Speaker 2: Have like like the boys that have like their kiss
Speaker 2: makeup on, but like regular clothes on.
Speaker 1: And You're like, this is I can't look too seriously
Speaker 1: right now? But like, okay, let's work. It was also
Speaker 1: like a check in, like we could remember Zac would
Speaker 1: make fun of him, like one day MTV, like he'd
Speaker 1: make MTV and we were in rehearsal for MTV and
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, well here. It was always like a
Speaker 1: good foundation, like you guys felt like mom and dad
Speaker 1: in a way, but like siblings, like the older siblings
Speaker 1: that we could look up to.
Speaker 4: Totally well more like we were your aunt uncle that
Speaker 4: we're going to kind of like give you alcohol but
Speaker 4: like and didn't care if you had it and knew
Speaker 4: that you were drinking it, and like you when you
Speaker 4: try to hide it, like dude, you guys are totally
Speaker 4: drug like you know, we we were that sort of
Speaker 4: like we're like, absolutely, give me some too, Like I
Speaker 4: need to give me a drink. What the hell am
Speaker 4: I doing here? I mean, how many nights did we
Speaker 4: spend until four am sitting there on set? Or you know,
Speaker 4: you guys the smelly airplane? Do you remember how bad
Speaker 4: the airplane smelled? Oh my god, I tasted that was okay,
Speaker 4: So that was our tour. That was the second tour
Speaker 4: when we were a big time because we flew.
Speaker 1: Okay. So I learned a lot today and there's still
Speaker 1: so much more. That's like, I felt like I knew
Speaker 1: everything because we were so close to Brooke and Zach,
Speaker 1: but there's a whole other side that we just don't know.
Speaker 1: They were so good at, like I think compartmentalizing what
Speaker 1: they had to do, probably because say, their sanity, because
Speaker 1: they were in charge of so much exactly. But I mean,
Speaker 1: thank you, Brooke. I hope you like, I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: hearing that. Oh and there's still so much more.
Speaker 2: Yes, there's there's a lot more to be said, so
Speaker 2: stay tuned because there's another part coming with Brooke. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it was really truly fascinating to
Speaker 2: me to hear all of all of that.
Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed for now. Thanks for listening,
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