Here's How Jenna Ortega's Viral "Wednesday" Dance Came Together
BuzzFeed
2 min read
You know it, you love it, you've seen it, maybe you've even done it — it's the Wednesday dance.
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Jenna Ortega's one-of-a-kind dance moves in the Netflix hit series have become, like, mega-viral — but how did it all come together?
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Jenna revealed all about how the dance came to be.
During the interview, Jenna revealed that her solo moment almost was a group affair: "Initially, they wanted a flash mob, but I thought, no, there's no way Wednesday would be cool with dancing and encouraging a bunch of people," she explained.
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Jenna eventually won over director Tim Burton, who also suggested the song Wednesday dances to — specifically, punk legends the Cramps' 1981 single, "Goo Goo Muck." "The Cramps is one of my favorite bands ever, so I was super excited, super pumped," she said.
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Tim also entrusted Jenna to handle the dance's choreography. "He was like, 'I know you've got it. You've been working on it. I'm not even worried about it. I trust you.' And I said, 'Oh, yeah, you know, it's all so good.'"
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But as Jenna drew inspiration from legendary rock artists like Siouxsie Sioux, Lene Lovich, and Nina Hagen — as well as Denis Levant's dance moves in Claire Denis' 1999 classic Beau Travail — she still felt underprepared leading up to the big day.
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"I had not gone over it at all," she admitted. "Oh, my God. I was kicking myself. I felt like such a fool. I'm not a dancer. I don't do any of that. I have no experience in that field. I didn't sleep for two days."
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Of course, the dance went off without a hitch, and the rest was viral history — which, apparently, the Netflix bosses had already predicted.
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Jenna said that she was told by the brass that her dance was "gonna be a thing on TikTok" — "And then they were right," she said. They sure were!
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