Hi, dance friends. I’m Margaret Fuhrer, editor and producer of The Dance Edit newsletter and podcast. Welcome to the 16th episode of The Dance Edit Extra!
Today we’ve got an artist who is about to make her lead choreographic debut on Broadway—twice over. You probably first met Ellenore Scott when she was on the sixth season of “So You Think You Can Dance,” where she was a fan favorite and made it to the Top 4. Since then, she has performed with Janet Jackson and on the TV shows “Smash” and “Glee”; started her own contemporary-fusion dance company, ELSCO dance; and assisted choreographers on several Broadway projects. But this is, I think pretty much indisputably, her biggest moment yet: Before the month is out, Ellenore will have not one but two major musicals up on Broadway. She is the lead choreographer for both Mr. Saturday Night, starring Billy Crystal, which just opened a couple of nights ago, and the much-anticipated revival of Funny Girl, starring Beanie Feldstein, which opens April 24th.
That is a lot—a lot of good things, but also just a lot. So what is getting Ellenore through it all? A lot of it has to do with her great sense of humor. Of course, she’s choreographing two comic musicals; being funny is sort of a prerequisite for those jobs. But as you’ll hear, she believes it’s just as important to bring lightness and fun to the rehearsal studio as it is to highlight those qualities onstage. And that’s part of why dancers and directors love working with her, too—she brings joy to the process, as well as the finished product.
Unsurprisingly, she’s is a delightful interview. So I won’t make any further ado: Here’s Ellenore.
[pause]
Margaret Fuhrer:
Ellenore, welcome. Thank you so much for coming by The Dance Edit Extra today.
Ellenore Scott:
Thank you so much for having me.
Margaret Fuhrer:
And I really appreciate you making the time too because I’m talking to you at what might be the busiest point in your career to date, which is saying a lot. I’m both very excited for you and not quite sure how you’re functioning at the moment. Are you okay? How are you doing?
Ellenore Scott:
I have to let you know that I am doing much, much better than I thought I would and I have to just say that it’s only because of my mindset. If I start thinking too broadly of the fact that I’m doing two Broadway shows that due to COVID-related reasons went from starting—Mr. Saturday Night in early January, which got pushed a month, and so now both of them are rehearsing at the exact same time in two separate buildings in New York City and I have to run, literally run, between them—I actually am doing really, really well. Currently both shows are fully choreographed, so now I’m just kind of doing some detail work here and there, but I thought I would have lost my mind a lot earlier, and I haven’t yet, which is, keeping the fingers crossed that it doesn’t happen.
Margaret Fuhrer:
You’re home-stretching. Okay, I’ll try not to amp up your stress level by reiterating over and over again, “Oh my gosh …” [laughter]
Actually, before we talk about everything you have going on now, I have to go back in time for a minute. Because I was just reading your Dance Magazine cover story—which, congratulations.
Ellenore Scott:
Thank you so much.
Margaret Fuhrer:
And I learned something I’d never known about you, which is that both of your parents were dancers, and from different corners of the dance universe. Can you talk a little about that?
Ellenore Scott:
Absolutely. So my parents actually met dancing. So they were performers at a SeaWorld kind of performance exhibition. My father was a part of a duo called The Scott Brothers, and they mainly did like hip hop, pop, locking, and my mother was classically trained, kind of ballerina, also did lots of jazz and modern. And it’s like a set of a movie plot where they fell in love dancing together, even though they danced in different genres. And so I grew up really being able to watch both of them kind of excel in their own genre of dance. So for a really long time I have appreciated and loved classical training and growing up that’s what I did, but I also absolutely love hip hop and animation and kind of like robotics, as my dad likes to call it. And so I feel very lucky that that has kind of been in my DNA since growing up.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Your parents lived Step Up!
Ellenore Scott:
Literally, it’s literally the plot of Step Up. [laughter]
Margaret Fuhrer:
So you’ve already started to answer this question, but can you talk a little more about how growing up in that environment with all those different influences shaped the way you thought about dance and the way you thought of yourself as an artist more broadly?
Ellenore Scott:
So I’d say that I’ve got the appreciation of hard work and training from both of my parents. Obviously more with like the classical background that my mother had. She wanted to put me into ballet like super early, and actually I was really bad at dancing when I first grew up. Like most children are put into a ballet class, and you know you’re like, you have scarves that you’re dancing with, and you’re just like learning the basics. And apparently I had no rhythm, I could not pay attention, I had no body coordination. And so it was hilarious because my parents were like, “Maybe she didn’t get the dancing gene. Maybe we should pull her out of the dance.”
So I went into karate, I started playing saxophone, and I think my mother did that on purpose because I developed musicality through playing music and playing the saxophone and I developed hand-eye coordination from karate. So I saw my father perform on a television series called “Destination Stardom,” very similar to like “America’s Got Talent,” and I remember seeing him live on stage, performing in front of a camera, and I was like, “That’s what I want to do. I want to do that.”
And so I went back into dancing when I was about 10 or 11, still pretty young, and from then on, just wanted to continue to develop not only like the classical training but continue to do hip hop and like animation and try to find all those different genres, even when I was young.
Margaret Fuhrer:
So you have TV dance competition in your blood too.
Ellenore Scott:
Right? Who’d a thunk it? [laughter]
Margaret Fuhrer:
Well so yeah, let’s talk about “So You Think You Can Dance,” since that’s how most of the world first met you.
Ellenore Scott:
Yeah.
Margaret Fuhrer:
You weren’t exactly the typical contestant who came up through the convention world dying to be on the show. And again, this is from your Dance Magazine story, but it sounds like you were almost ready to give up on professional dance when you auditioned. Tell me about that moment.
Ellenore Scott:
I surely had made the decision that after graduating high school and auditioning for traditional dance companies—because that’s kind of the idea of what would be a successful career was: I’m going to join a dance company in New York and that’s what I’m going to do. And after auditioning for multiple different companies in New York, in the Tri-State area, that I would always get right to the end and it just wouldn’t happen for whatever reason, whether it was I didn’t fit the body type or I was too young or whatever it was, it really kind of hurt my spirit in terms of thinking what the dance world was about. I thought it was about talent and dancing, and it really for me felt like it was something more about just how I looked. And I really was considering fully quitting. And right when I was making that decision, my mom and I were watching Season 5 of “So You Think You Can Dance.”
Margaret Fuhrer:
Such a good season.
Ellenore Scott:
Such a good season. They had just announced that they were doing a fall season, which means that they were going to go right into auditions right after that season was airing. And I kind of … I don’t know what in me was like, “You know what? Give it a try. Why not?” And so my mom and I made kind of a deal that was like, “We’ll go, if you make it to Vegas, great, you’ll go visit your Dad,” because he lived in Vegas. “If you don’t, whatever, you tried, and then we’ll enroll you into culinary arts school.”
And I’m really happy and grateful that I kind of went in just saying, “You know what? Let me try it one last time and we’ll see what happens,” and I think because I was so almost carefree in auditioning, I wasn’t like, “This is the last chance.” I was kind of like, “You know what? Let me give it a go,” that I think the success for myself was just being myself and not having any idea of what I needed to do. And I can’t believe it’s been so long since being on the show, but it really did open so many doors for me, and so I’m really happy that I had that experience.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Yeah. Can you talk a little more about what you did love about the “So You Think You Can Dance” experience, and then on the flip side, looking back at it now, were there aspects of it that were not so great but then maybe helped shape the way that you approached dance and choreography later on?
Ellenore Scott:
Yeah. I would have to say that the many amazing things that I learned from that experience was being able to be flexible. Like literally and metaphorically, I had never danced that much in my entire life, and probably have never after that moment danced that much. It was basically your everyday life was waking up, training, rehearsing, and you were only surrounded by people that were also doing that, right? So there was no reprieve when you went home, right? It wasn’t like, “Now I’m going to watch TV.” It was like, “No, we need to rehearse.” So there was something kind of … It was almost like the college experience I never had, where I was surrounded by people who were also doing the same thing and having the same experience.
We also were able to work with such amazing choreographers and develop those connections that I went on to fully work with after the show, so that was also helpful. And I loved the show and I loved being on the show because it was for a lot of people the first time that dancers were the main focus. In so many other aspects of the art world, we’re the background dancers, we’re the faceless people behind the star. And it was so nice—and that’s why I loved watching the show, was you got to root for the dancers themselves, being themselves and doing what they were amazing at.
And so I was able to develop a following of people that loved me for me and loved my dancing and what I did. And so I still have people to this day who meet me and go, “I loved you on the show. I voted for you.” And so that is still very special to me.
But I am also very happy that I did it when I was super young and kind of new to the business. Because it is really, really hard on your physical body and your mental health. The pressure of knowing you may or may not be humiliated in front of millions of people on live television is such a thing that people don’t consider when auditioning for the show. They’re just hoping that maybe they’ll make it on and become super famous. But there was so much kind of emotional trauma in also having thoughts in your head of like, “I don’t want to go home,” which means that I’m standing with two other folks on stage right now, which means I want one of them to go home, and these are my best friends, these are the only people that you get to talk to for weeks and weeks and weeks. So it was really difficult, and I definitely matured more while I was on the show.
But I think that if I would have done the show in my later twenties I might have spoken out a little bit more about, we need more rest, we need more time off, we need more physical therapy, we need to take breaks. So it’s the balance, right? It’s like, would I do it again if I was 19? Absolutely. But now as a 31-year-old, I would probably approach things a little differently.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Yeah. I’m so curious to see what this comeback season of “So You Think You Can Dance” is going to look like. Because it does seem like now, since the pandemic especially, there is a much greater awareness of dancers’ mental health needs, and how they are just as important as their physical needs, which also can become an issue on the show too, and—how are they going to work that all in? And also, how the show will make a case for its own relevance in this like post-TikTok universe where dance is just a completely different thing. And also—are they going to have you on to choreograph?
Ellenore Scott:
Well, listen. I’m always available and ready. So, shoutout! [laughter]
Margaret Fuhrer:
Let’s keep going now on your path toward choreography and toward Broadway. Because you didn’t go to either of those places immediately after the show. So first of all, how did you figure out that making dance was something that you wanted to do?
Ellenore Scott:
So growing up, I loved teaching and I loved choreographing, and I did it because my mom was a dance teacher, right? So I was always observing her making up routines and phrases and combinations for all of her classes, and I would always sit on the side and watch her, and I was just always in awe of the music she picked and the ideas she would have for the storytelling.
And so I always wanted to do that. So as a child, as we all do, we make up our own concerts and our own dances and stuff, but I had an outlet. And so when I was training at Dancenter in Capitola, CA, the director Ruth Fisher was always like, “Ellenore, if you want to do a solo that you choreographed, go ahead, we need to do a costume change, so you can go do your own solo.” And I would do these like two and a half minute hip hop, jazz, comedy solos that I’d choreography myself, try to make the people laugh, and it was the thing that brought me the most joy.
Now fast forward, I am performing—it’s post “So You Think,” so I’m doing TV shows and I’m doing award shows and I love it. I love performing, I love dancing to this day. But there was always something that I felt like was missing. And so when I had booked being on “Smash,” Josh Bergasse had asked me to come do pre-production with him, and I didn’t really know what that was, and come to find out that is a group of dancers coming with him to kind of figure out the movement, the choreography for that episode. And when I was in that room, I was so elated with excitement in the idea that a move that maybe I had helped develop would be on the show. And I recognized that I was so much more excited about that experience than the actual process of putting on the costume and then dancing in front of the camera and doing that choreography.
And so that was kind of the moment that was the aha, I would much rather spend the time to choreograph the movement and teach it to someone else than I would performing the movement myself in front of the camera or on the stage. And so that really was the moment that I think changed my mindset of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Now we’ve basically caught up to the moment which is the last time I actually saw you in-person, at your Dance Spirit photoshoot in 2014. You were one of 13 up and coming choreographers—it’s just wild to think about everything you’ve accomplished since then. But the focus of that profile was that at the time, you were 24, and you were already running your own company, ELSCO Dance. What inspired that and what did you take away from that experience?
Ellenore Scott:
So I had this epiphany, boom, I want to be a choreographer. Unfortunately I had that idea when I was 21 or 22, and so when I was starting to describe like this is the thing I want to do, I think I want to be a choreographer, a lot, and I mean like almost everyone I spoke to, said, “You can do that when you’re older. Wait, perform now while you’re young, while you still have a healthy body. You can do that whenever.” And so so many folks were telling me that I should wait to do it that I don’t think anyone had thought about giving me an opportunity to do it.
So I took it upon myself to say, “Well, if no one’s going to let me do it on their companies or for this, that and the third, I’m going to make my own company and do it anyway.” And so I created ELSCO Dance, which was a contemporary fusion company. And it for me was kind of trying to combine my love of the concert dance world with the commercial dance world and trying to get those two backgrounds together. And that was so useful because a) it gave me the confidence to work on how do I teach other people the choreography and how do I communicate that to them, so it was a way to find that experience like kind of in a safe place. I started working with artists that were also kind of like up and coming and new, and also through that experience, I met Jeffrey Gugliotti, who has now become my associate choreographer, and he was like my rehearsal director in the company and then became like co-artistic director. And so there were so many experiences running that company, performing throughout New York, L.A., Boston, that helped me become a leader and helped me develop my own choreographic voice, because I didn’t have that opportunity before. So I choreographed so many pieces and now I’m happy that I can really make movement and I think people can look at that and be like, “That’s Ellenore Scott movement.” Because I had all of those years with the company to really hone in on that.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Yeah. Yeah, and I think your movement signature is more distinct than this, I don’t mean to generalize too much, but movement that exists at that intersection of concert and commercial, that feels like where so much of Broadway dance is right now or wants to be right now, what people are looking for.
Ellenore Scott:
Absolutely.
Margaret Fuhrer:
So let’s talk about Broadway specifically. I mean I guess who doesn’t want to choreograph on Broadway, but was there a moment where you really said, “Oh, I think this might be a good fit for me”?
Ellenore Scott:
So, I’m only thinking about this now, just because I was talking with my mom on the phone the other day and she had reminded me that when I graduated high school, I was 18, I had just graduated LaGuardia High School, and she had this graduation party, and it was like my mom, my dad, my grandma. And I remember her asking everyone at the table like, “In 10 years, what do you think Ellenore is going to be doing?” And everyone kind of had different ideas, and my grandmother at the time was like, “She is going to work on Broadway.” And I remember laughing because I was like, “Grandma, I don’t sing. Like I’m not going to be on Broadway. That’s not how it is.” And it’s so funny because when I think about it, every time I saw a Broadway show when I was in high school in New York, I left the theater just so exhilarated because I loved the storytelling, it was so big, but the stories made you feel something, and I loved the dancing. And obviously ELSCO was my combination of commercial with concert, and I always talked about in my dance classes, storytelling is the number one thing. Like if you can point and flex your foot, you can do 4,000 turns, like I don’t really care. What I care about is if you can as a performer have the audience experience or feel something about what you’re trying to say. And I really do think musical theater is that, is completely that. You have to literally choreograph to drive the plot forward, to drive the story of the characters forward.
And it is a challenge, because with my dance company, I can come up with the story, I come up with the music, so everything is from my head. So it’s an interesting experience to be given a script and a score and a director who has an idea and can communicate with you that idea and then how do you take that yourself and create movement based on all of these other people’s idea. But I really do think Broadway for me is currently the place where I can take everything that I have used in my past and really put it forward for an audience.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, and I mean it’s only been six years now since your first choreography job on Broadway, is that right?
Ellenore Scott:
Yes.
Margaret Fuhrer:
So now you are the lead choreographer on these two huge shows, which as you said weren’t supposed to happen simultaneously but are happening simultaneously. What has it been like, getting these two huge breaks essentially at the same time?
Ellenore Scott:
So everyone I think dreams of getting the call from their agent that’s like, “You got your first Broadway offer!” Right? “You’re making your Broadway debut!” And I have actually gotten a call from Michael Mayer, who is the director of Funny Girl, like Thanksgiving 2019, right? So this is when the first kind of idea of this being my Broadway debut happened, and I couldn’t believe it. It was right after Little Shop was opening, it was so exciting, and I just … I can’t believe that it’s now 2022, and so only after all of that am I now actually Broadway debuting.
And so the pandemic hit, all of this happened, and luckily, then John Rando, the director of Mr. Saturday Night, had approached me and said, “We’re looking for a choreographer for this new show starring Billy Crystal,” and I was like, “Who’s that?” Just kidding, I freaked out. And I had never thought in my wildest dreams that a) they would both be happening in the same season, and as you said b) that they would both be happening at the same time.
And it’s already stressful enough to choreograph a show and be at all the production meetings and be in the room. But I really will look back at this time and be like, “How did I do it?” And now that I’m in the middle of it, I just go day by day. That’s the only way that I can get through it. But I have to tell you, it’s a dream come true and it’s not the dream I thought. I just wanted to Broadway debut, I just didn’t think I would get both of them at the same time.
Margaret Fuhrer:
I know, and I’m doing what I promised I would not do, which is stressing you out again, I’m sorry. [laughter]
Ellenore Scott:
It’s not stress! This is just like … It’s like it’s so exciting and nerve-racking, but I have to remember that it’s also an amazing opportunity that not a lot of people get to experience. So I’m also very lucky and grateful.
Margaret Fuhrer:
I mean speaking of amazing opportunities, on both of these shows, you’re working with these huge stars. I mean as you said Billy Crystal, that guy.
Ellenore Scott:
That guy!
Margaret Fuhrer:
And then also Beanie Feldstein. I mean it’s incredible. Tell me about what working with them has been like.
Ellenore Scott:
So I got to work with Billy Crystal when we were doing a kind of pre-Broadway developmental performance at Barrington Stages, and so we had kind of had a workshop where we were looking at the movement with some of the cast members. And I have to tell you, Billy Crystal is an amazing dancer. He is like 72 and kicking and ball changing. Like I don’t even have to ask him to do choreography because he inherently is so musical, like has so much improv and jazz abilities, that I’ll be like, “Okay Billy, I think we need to move to center.” And he’s like, “Like this?” And he’ll do an amazing dance step, and I go, “Yeah, I think that works. I think that’s fine.” But he is so generous, and he is not only starring in the show but he is also producing it, so he is always thinking about how to make the story better. But he’s very, very sweet and generous and I cannot believe that it’s part of my job to sit and watch him basically do standup everyday. He is so funny. Like legitimately funny in the show and in real life, so that is just a blessing in itself.
And then Beanie is … Every time I see her, my eyes light up and I start to smile, which is hard to see because we are in rehearsal, so I have a mask on. But she is … It’s just so sweet because all the articles you read about her, right, is that she’s been in love with the show since she was like three years old. So you can tell how excited she is about being able, and nervous too, but like how excited she is about being this role and how seriously she’s taking it. And I don’t want to spoil anything but like … She is a star, and she’s doing the choreography brilliantly, like way more than I thought. You never know with principal actors if they want to dance, if they have two left feet, you just never know, right? This girl can dance, honey. She can dance, so y’all better get ready because she’s really doing the dang thing.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Oh, I love it, I can’t wait. We also have to talk about Ayodele Casel, because when I heard the two of you were working together on Funny Girl, I was like, “Oh my gosh. Two of the nicest people in show business. What a lucky cast.” But I also thought the structure of your collaboration sounded fantastic, this idea of, “Hey, let’s have a tap specialist handle the tap dance.” What has that collaborative process been like?
Ellenore Scott:
I have to say all props to Michael Mayer because I am not a tapper. Just as much as I’m not a singer, I am not a tapper. I can really give you one strong paradiddle and that’s about it. So I think when he was thinking about the show, he was thinking, “How can I make every aspect of the show the best it could be?” And so Michael and I had worked together before on Little Shop of Horrors and Head Over Heels, and so I think he knew that I was right to be lead choreographer of all the transitions and of all the other dance elements of the show. But when he started thinking about the tap choreographer, Ayo immediately came to his mind because he goes to every one of her shows. He himself is such a huge fan of hers, and he knew that this would be an amazing opportunity for her as well to also make her Broadway debut.
And our styles, although technically different genres, right, tap and musical theater-based dance, we both have a very contemporary feel about what we’re doing, right? And so when you watch the show, if you didn’t know it was two completely different choreographers, you might be like, “Did one person do that?” Which I think is very helpful, that it doesn’t feel like, “And all of a sudden here’s this random section that is completely off the chart different than the rest of the show.” I really think that our movement is cohesive even if it isn’t in the same genre. And the dancers are getting challenged by how amazing her choreography is. Like it is jaw-dropping. I hate to admit it, but I have rehearsal videos from the studio and I may or may not be watching her routines on my phone daily because her choreography is just outstanding. It’s breathtaking, and I love that we as two women of color get to collaborate on this show together and that we are doing our best work separately in the show but that it meshes together.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, you found that overlap in your Venn diagram. So tell me about how you shaped the movement for Funny Girl and for Mr. Saturday Night. How would you describe the dance personalities of these two shows?
Ellenore Scott:
Yeah. So I’m laughing because when I think of Funny Girl and I think for a lot of people when they think of Funny Girl, the first thing they think of is Barbra Streisand. And so I think the main challenge is to just make sure that Funny Girl is its own entity, that it’s separate from her and that it’s still the story of Fanny Brice. I think a lot of people also don’t think of it as a dance show, and so I would like them to reconsider that when they come see the Broadway performance of it because we are really making the kids dance. And it is set in the early 1910s, 1920s, so I did a lot of research of kind of club dancing at that time and obviously the Ziegfeld Follies, looking up the beautiful images that are created for that.
So what I tried to do with the choreography is find again that blend of staying with the traditional images and the feel of it but also making sure that the dancers that are performing that material also have things that feel a little bit more contemporary, right? So there is a blend of like hyper, long, beautiful, balletic lines for the Follies, but maybe there’s some things thrown in that keep it a little bit more fresh. I always laugh when I use the word fresh but it does make sense essentially, right? But for me, the main objective for Funny Girl was to clarify for the audience when you are watching a show within a show, like when are you watching Fanny Brice onstage versus when are you watching Fanny Brice hanging out with her family and friends. And if there happens to be dancing in that scene, how is it vastly different than the performances you’re seeing on stage? So what I took that as is what you see on stage is much more technical, it’s a lot cleaner lines, it’s a lot sharper. And what I liked to play with when it’s a little bit more casual— like “Henry Street” for me is like my big production number of Act I. It’s just a bunch of people drinking beers in Brooklyn on Henry Street, right? So I wanted that to feel so loose and carefree, and so it’s a little bit more contemporary in terms of the lines that they’re creating. So my goal is that you can as an audience tell the difference between the show within a show and just characters that happen also to be dancing at the same time.
For Mr. Saturday Night, I have the unbelievable pleasure of having an eight-person cast, so very tiny in terms of … I think we have 22 in Funny Girl, right? So I have a much smaller cast, so the images I have to create have to be a little bit different. I’m also not working with professional dancers, I’m working with amazing actors. So keeping that in mind, so much of the show is about comedy, and so we have a lot of references to old comedians, we have a lot of play in like the vaudeville-esque type of … Like Three Stooges types of comedy, and dancing that is … I don’t want to say typical musical theater, but trying to find the blend of what is like a realist part when they start singing and how does that slowly develop into like a chorus or develop into the full company singing a part together and how would they move if they were singing that part?
And so it’s really interesting to be doing … In the morning at Funny Girl, I’m going to be doing “Sadie, Sadie,” which is the opening of Act II, and then walk 10 blocks and then do a number for Mr. Saturday Night that has completely different like training backgrounds, and how can I make sure that both shows feel exciting and have movement and have choreography that match them perfectly?
Margaret Fuhrer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Did you find while working on the two simultaneously that one would inform the other? I mean they’re such different shows, but did that happen at all?
Ellenore Scott:
It didn’t. It hasn’t yet. It hasn’t yet, and I really believe that it’s because the music, the music is so different for the two shows that it really sucks me into whatever world I’m at when I’m listening to the songs. I have been listening to the Funny Girl album and soundtrack for so long that I have a connection to it that’s very different to this new, the new music that’s being written for Mr. Saturday Night, and so I’m happy that they live in two different worlds. But there are, I’m trying to think, are there some moves that I’m doing in both shows at the same time? And I think I didn’t do that, which I’m very happy about.
But I’m very grateful because I have two associates at both shows who always help me bring me back to wherever we are. Hilariously enough, Jeffrey Gugliotti is my associate for Funny Girl, who did Little Shop of Horrors with me who was in ELSCO. And then Jeffrey Alkins is my associate for Mr. Saturday Night. So they’re both Jeffrey.
Margaret Fuhrer:
The Jeffreys.
Ellenore Scott:
And they’re so helpful in making sure that they remind me, what was the scene before, what are we moving into, and they just like bring me back into the world.
Margaret Fuhrer:
They help you navigate those two different worlds 10 blocks apart. Yeah.
Let’s talk about another world now: I want to talk about TikTok, because it is the rare Broadway choreographer who even understands TikTok, let alone has more than a million followers like your @ellenoreshoto account. Listeners, if you don’t already follow that account, go do it right now. It is the most joyful mix of anime and dance and theater. It’s like incredibly nerdy and legitimately cool at the same time, which is very hard to do. What drew you to TikTok and what inspires the content you make for it?
Ellenore Scott:
Absolutely. So I had heard about TikTok, right, like in 2019, and I remember thinking like, “Ugh, I’m 30. I can’t be on that app. Like I’m too old for that app.” And I believe I downloaded it like in December because someone had sent me a TikTok, like, “Hey, check this out,” and I was like, “Oh, I should probably just get the app anyway so I can watch it.” And I remember starting to scroll and some of the videos started making me laugh and I was like, “This is funny.” I love watching YouTube, so I’m like a big fan of internet content and memes and all of that. So I was like, “Oh, this is actually kind of funny.”
And then on March 12, 2020, the world stops. And that was when Broadway officially shut down and my associate and I were putting in Jeremy Jordan for Little Shop of Horrors for Seymour, and our stage manager Howie was like, “All right. Well can everyone just go home? We don’t know what’s happening but you should go home and just be careful.”
And basically from that moment on, TikTok was kind of my venue to escape. It was a way to slightly interact with the outside world at that time we were in lockdown and so my husband and I were stuck in our apartment and after a while, it dawned on me that I didn’t have my like a) a job, but b) like a creative outlet for myself. I was so used to choreographing and teaching dance and doing this and that that I was starting to feel like I was losing my groove, if that makes sense. And so I started making content on TikTok as a way to give me something to do for the hours of the day that I was just sitting on my bed.
And that just started to grow slowly. I love anime, my husband and I watch anime basically every single night together, and so once I started developing a following for this anime content I was making and I started blending that with my dance background and making dances based off of different shows and characters, I remember telling my husband like, “I’ll never cosplay. That’s for children.” I started cosplaying. Like it was such a whirlwind experience of going from like, “I’m too old to do that,” to now having over a million followers. And it still, to this day, every day I scroll through it and it’s so much fun. Because I made friends through the pandemic through this app. Like there are people I talk to every single day that have similar interests to me and we talk about our lives and anime and relationships and I just can’t believe that that developed through this app that it seemed like everyone during the pandemic downloaded to have some sort of entertainment. So I’m really grateful to my fans, “followers”, of @ellenoreshoto, because they got me through a lot.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Yeah. There’s so much joy on that app.
Ellenore Scott:
There is.
Margaret Fuhrer:
In a way that there isn’t always on other social media platforms.
Ellenore Scott:
Yeah.
Margaret Fuhrer:
So you also contributed choreography to the crowdsourced musical version of Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, whose songs I’m still singing a year and a half later. What are your thoughts on that kind of non-traditional conception of the musical? Do you see real potential there, especially where dance is concerned?
Ellenore Scott:
Absolutely, 100%. I am a big fan of alternate ways to get people engaged into dance, theater, et cetera. So as so many people have done, downloading TikTok, starting to create ideas from other people’s ideas, it for me was so exciting to work on Ratatouille because of the sheer amount of folks all over the world that could help build this piece of art. And I recognize as a New Yorker how much of an upper hand I have because I live in New York and I can go to workshops and meetings and do all of that from New York, and how hard it is for anyone else that lives anywhere else in the United States or abroad to maybe do anything like Broadway, right? So it was a very, very exciting experience to have someone from Australia write a song that then was performed by Wayne Brady on this online platform musical. So I think due to the pandemic, we had to come up with new ideas of how to be creative with developing content.
And I also loved that we were still able to raise so much money for the Actors Fund but also not charge like $300.00 for a ticket. I think that unfortunately, because of just how Broadway itself works, it’s a very privileged area of theater where not everybody can afford to see a show for $300.00, let alone bring their family members to do that. So if there were ways to be able to watch and experience theater that doesn’t require all of those elements, either being in New York or spending tons of money, I think that is exciting and brilliant.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Yeah. Accessibility for would-be audience members, accessibility for would-be performers. I feel like our next generation of Broadway talent is going to come through TikTok.
Ellenore Scott:
Oh, for real. For real.
Margaret Fuhrer:
All right, so final question. Big question. It feels like you’ve worked everywhere, you’ve tried everything, all these different corners of the dance world, all these difference dance styles, all these different media. Which, I think that kind of trajectory is becoming increasingly common in dance, which I think is a great thing. But what would you say is the through line that kind of connects all the dots in your career?
Ellenore Scott:
No one has ever asked me that before, but I guess I would say the through line … And this is funny, a little bit. The through line of everything that I’ve done through my career I really do think has been comedy. Which I laugh at because I’m now doing two shows, one is Funny Girl and one is Mr. Saturday Night with Billy Crystal. But recognizing that I would do solos when I was like 13 years old at like the Santa Cruz County Fair that was partly dance but partly to get the audience to laugh. Recognizing that when I was doing concert dance, sometimes I would suppress that part of myself because there was like a little voice in my head that was like, “Well if you’re doing something that’s like very performative or like outwardly a little bit exaggerated, that’s not art. You’re not suffering enough. That’s too commercial dance.” Like there was the fear of commercial dance growing up, so I feel like I suppressed that part of myself that wanted to have that storytelling aspect that could make people laugh. And then being on “So You Think You Can Dance” and being myself and saying silly things, I think people fell in love with the fact that I was 100% myself and not trying to be anything other than that.
So I feel like laughter has gotten me through everything that I’ve done, and I love running my rooms like that as well. So it doesn’t matter if I’m teaching eight-year-olds at the Peridance School or Broadway professionals in a Broadway rehearsal, I want people to be learning with me and laughing and smiling. Like I think that is the best type of work you can create, is just making sure the people that you’re working with are having a good time, because they will outperform anyone that is scared or fearful or ashamed or embarrassed. And so I hope that that through line of comedy and laughter and smiling will keep going, even if I do something dramatic, right? Like who’s to say, I could do something very, very dramatic in my future as a choreographer, but at least in the room, I want people to enjoy their time with me and enjoy what they’re doing while they’re doing it.
Margaret Fuhrer:
I love that. I mean laughter is so cathartic, dance is so cathartic. You get the two of them together, there’s nothing like it.
Ellenore Scott:
Hello! That’s why I love TikTok. I love laughing. I watch a cat do silly things and I laugh. [laughter]
Margaret Fuhrer:
Ellenore, thank you so much for making the time today. We have links in the show notes with more information about Funny Girl and about Mr. Saturday Night, and links to Ellenore’s social accounts so you can keep up with her that way. Break a leg, merde, all the things.
Ellenore Scott:
Thank you so much. I super appreciate it. And see you next time.
[pause]
Thanks again to Ellenore. And really, I can’t say it enough: You need to go follow her on TikTok, especially if you’re an anime person—I’ve done multiple literal spit-takes watching her videos. So funny.
And thanks to all of you for subscribing to The Dance Edit Extra. We’ll be back in two weeks with another new episode. Have a great weekend, everyone.