“It’s kind of an ugly process,” choreographer Mandy Moore says with a laugh.
MeetZoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’s secret weapon: Mandy Moore.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start at the beginning.
Sergei Bachlakov/NBC
What’s your first step when tackling a new dance number on the show?
We talk about each number like what the conceit is, if he has any ideas, anything.
It’s very much a back and forth, which I really love about Austin.
Sergei Bachlakov/NBC
He and I work really well together so it’s very collaborative.
And we film everything so that we can remember certain moves or things and we break down the song.
And that’s a really interesting process; it’s kind of an ugly process [laughs].
James Dittiger/NBC
It’s an eight day turnaround with five to six numbers per episode.
you’ve got the option to imagine, we were pretty buried most of the time.
How long do you have to create each performance from the very start to when it films?
Sergei Bachlakov/NBC
It all depends on when I get the outline.
Towards the end of the season I was getting things like a day or two before they shoot.
So my process was very truncated!
Sergei Bachlakov/NBC
Creating, troubleshooting, and then filming an entire number with only days sounds difficult to say the least.
I mean, I don’t know how we do it!
Sometimes I look back and I’m like, how did we do 61 numbers?
We’re doing multiple things all in one day.
But my team is awesome and we have a lot of fun.
So you’ve choreographed the dance and taught it to the actors.
Whats your role on set during the actual filming?
Where did the idea come from to create that scene?
He wanted it to be specifically dance and ASL.
I was like, “This is the best idea ever.
I have no idea how to do it because I don’t know ASL.”
So I reached out to D.J.
We shot the third day.
How did choreographing and filming this number compare to all the others you’ve done on the series?
And then they’d ask questions.
It was really cool to see that then translate to set.
What was it like being on set that day?
We’ve got performers on set today that you could’t just yell cut.
It was just a really beautiful moment.
Tell me more about the performers that make up the ensemble.
Each one of these performers was deaf, and varying degrees of deaf.
Some of them cannot hear a single thing.
They don’t hear what you and I may hear in the music.
We practiced for hours to feel each other’s flow and each other’s timing.
Meanwhile, all of us have this beautiful orchestral music going.
It turned out to be something so moving and I’m so proud of it.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlistairs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
