Jenna Ortega’s iconic dance in Addams Family Easter eggs from the cartoons, shows, and movies that made it a cult classic. Wednesday’s dance is a big part of this.
Wednesday’s iconic dance takes place in episode four of Wednesday, titled “Woe What a Night,” when Nevermore has its annual Rave’N Dance. Although Wednesday was originally bailing on the dance to go stake out the Hyde’s cave with Eugene (Moosa Mostafa), Thing (Victor Dorobantu) secretly sets her up to go to the dance with Tyler (Hunter Doohan), in whom Wednesday has some romantic interest. Wednesday may be attending the Rave’N Dance reluctantly, but when Tyler asks her to dance, Wednesday performs an unusually gothic dance to “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps, one of Wednesday season 1's many songs. The other Nevermore students are shocked at first by Wednesday’s sudden performance, but they all soon love the performance of her personality and skills.
Who Choreographed Jenna Ortega's Dance In Wednesday?
Jenna Ortega’s dance in Wednesday was choreographed completely by herself, using inspirations from '80s goth clubs and previous Addams Family content. Ortega says that she is not a dancer nor a choreographer, and doing the dance made her feel quite insecure (via ScreenRant). Also, in an interview with NME, Ortega reveals that she only received The Cramps' song a week before filming, so had to choreograph and perform the dance at that time, as well as unknowingly having COVID and being quite ill during filming. The results of Ortega’s choreography perfectly capture Wednesday Addams, and its eccentric nature only adds to Wednesday's individuality within Wednesday.
Jenna Ortega's Influences For Wednesday's Dance Explained
Ortega completely transformed her life to truly become Lisa Loring’s Wednesday Addams and John Astin’s Gomez from the 1964 The Addams Family sitcom.
Notable Moves In Jenna Ortega's Wednesday Dance Explained
A number of tweets (via Ortega’s dance has been criticized by some audiences for being too weird. However, including these moves from the old The Addams Family sitcom only shows how much contemporary audiences are missing the point of the dance. By using specific moves from different versions of the character, Ortega has only emphasized Wednesday's unique physical presence that makes her so endearing. Plus, using moves from different versions of Wednesday Addams also cements her personality in Wednesday, showing that while Wednesday explores a relatively unexplored period of Wednesday’s life, her unique character traits and eccentricity remain the same.
Why Jenna Ortega's Dance In Wednesday Is So Important
Ortega is being praised for many aspects of Wednesday, and her ability to embody the gothic character in itself is a big part of that, but Ortega’s dance specifically is so important to Wednesday. Firstly, it shows massive dedication to the character of Wednesday Addams from Ortega, including not blinking during filming. Adaptations of cult classics can often be slated for being unable to continue the story to a high level. However, Ortega’s dedication to understanding and becoming Wednesday, as proved by the choreography and execution of her dance, meant that Wednesday was able to successfully continue the Addams Family story. This is enforced by Ortega’s dedication to learning the cello, German, fencing, not blinking during filming, and even changing her posture in her everyday life. Jenna Ortega’s dance is the biggest show of how Ortega’s dedication allowed her to become the perfect successor for Wednesday Addams to capture the unique, and very Gothic, the personality of Wednesday.
Ortega’s dance was also a huge moment for her character Wednesday in the plot line of Wednesday. Wednesday, who did not want to attend the Rave’N Dance (nor attend the problematic season 1 love interests, and the social setting of the Raev’N may have been one of them, but her dance shows the layers Wednesday’s character has and the important influences Ortega had when becoming the titular character in Wednesday.