Allison Holker Writes On “Chandelier” Performance With Sia And Madison Ziegler
Allison Holker has written a new blog at In Touch Weekly. Did you know Allison only had a couple of hours to work on her performance with Sia and Madison Ziegler? Read on for more…
This week, I had the most incredible experience performing with one of my favorite singers, Sia. I also danced alongside the absolutely gorgeous Madison Ziegler from Dance Moms.
We were given just a couple of hours to work together, but the product came out beautifully. The choreography was pure storytelling — technical, dark and just enough “cuckoo.” That performance goes down in the books for me as one of my best!
And for those who need a repeat like myself, here it is again. What brilliance is made of in my opinion….
I have no words!!! Wow, what an amazing performance. Loved it. Who was the choreographer? Like nothing I have ever seen before. What is the storyline? I watched it nine times and saw more and more of the routine each time. Someone should win something for this.
The choreographer in Sia’s Chandelier video where Maddie dances is Ryan Heffington. This one looks like a modified version of it. The song is about alcoholism so it has a dark theme. I read somewhere that he wanted it to be like a work of art where you ask questions. I think he achieved it. 🙂
Allison IS a beast, what an amazing dancer and she seems to be such a genuinely nice person. I sure hope the sytycd fans and other fans of her AND Mr. Boss come on over to dwts and support her though because I think a lot of “classic dwts” fans don’t necessarily appreciate that kind of dancing and are looking for reasons to not like her. I hope she gets enough time to grow on the more traditional fan.
The really lovely thing about Allison’s dancing is how in the moment every movement and gesture is. She inhabits the character she’s dancing completely and with total commitment so much that Allison disappears and only the character remains.
There’s nothing mundane or going through the motions with Allison ever. She’s exciting to watch because you might not know where she’s going to take you, but you do know that you really want to go with her.
Well said All! I couldn’t agree more on the brilliance of this dance and Allison. I’m in a spell. Just amazing! I wonder if it will be nominated for an Emmy? I hope so.
I am in awe of Allison’s talent and feel like she is really a great addition to the show. She and Maddie were amazing performers in this routine. However, and this is just my opinion, but for some reason I felt very unsettled watching this performance; it felt disturbing and almost creepy to me and I thought the wigs looked weird. I didn’t enjoy it at all. But maybe the point of the dance was to showcase the dark themes of alcoholism, and elicit a strong response from the viewer, whether it be positive or negative. If so, I guess it succeeded.
@DW:
The song and the dance are both designed to be both beautiful and uncomfortable. The song with lyrics such as “I want to live like tomorrow doesn’t exist.” The dance with the moves that are simultaneously both too adult and too childlike.
The wigs, FWIW, I think are intended to make the dancer more closely resemble Sia herself. I’m not quite sure how autobiographical the song is, but there must be at least some kernel there.
Finally, I have to say that, for me, this ranks up there as one of the greatest performances they’ve had on the show, and quite possibly the best with a live guest performer. I have a much better understanding of CAI’s stink eye of Allison on Monday (sheer jealousy).
Dw, I felt the same way.
I absolutely hated this! The original video was amazing! Adding an adult dancer that looks like a man in a bathing suit was a big WTF for me. Most of the movements were child like so this makes zero sense to me. I’m surprised she considered this one of her best. It’s kinda awful really.
I absolutely love watching Allison dance, she is powerful and breath-taking to watch. However seeing this performance made me concerned about her. She is very very thin. I hope the stress is not getting to her and I hope she is taking care of herself because she looked fragile for the first time to me. If she continues on, the schedule becomes more demanding and I want her to be okay. She is so talented and such a hard worker.
I became a fan of Allison the first time I saw her dance on sytycd, and have followed her career since. I think she is a beautiful dancer still, but part of why the performance on dwts was haunting to me is that she looked underweight, not well. She was always thin, so it wouldn’t take much to get to an unhealthy place… I hope that people are looking out for her. She and her family seem so sweet, I hope she doesn’t have an eating disorder or other health problem.