I spent a lot of time as a kid in the 90s and early 2000s watching MTV and VH1. As a white Jewish kid in the burbs, I first encountered hip hop dance, fashion, music, and history through music videos and TV shows. It was a wide-open time for music videos as a choreographic medium. A time that harkened back to old vaudeville silent movie tricks and also invented now classic and now-cliche ways of putting dance on screen. I spent a lot of time making up music videos in my mind and trying to bring those visions to life with my friends. To this day, I often ‘see’ a dance in my mind, I can see a little world, before I start drafting any movement. Music videos taught me a lot about making dance, making theater, and music history itself.
I’ve had the great delight of choreographing and performing in friends music videos over the years: Bosley, Sianna Plavin, Carsie Blanton, Hard Work Movement, Dan Deacon, Echoes, Dungeonesse…)
Below are some of the music videos that most influenced me — and still do — as a choreographer.