Knight, 34, who helped make the Beyoncé video “Single Girls (Put a Ring on It)” a sensation when he was nonetheless a teenage dancemaker, has additionally collaborated with the pop star on different tasks, together with her 2018 headlining flip at Coachella, documented in her movie “Homecoming.” His credit additionally embody Shakira’s efficiency on the 2020 Tremendous Bowl halftime present and Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” video.
These 21st-century tasks could seem one million Yellow Brick Highway miles away from a theater basic like “The Wiz,” tailored from L. Frank Baum’s kids’s guide by composer-lyricist Charlie Smalls and guide author William F. Brown and conceived for an all-Black forged. However Knight is amongst those that revere the musical, which opened on Broadway in 1975, successful seven Tony Awards. In 1978, it was tailored right into a film starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, paving the way in which for more moderen “Wiz” iterations like NBC’s 2015 dwell televised model. Invited to choreograph this revival — scheduled to open on Broadway in 2024 — Knight eased on board.
The North Carolina-born, Atlanta-raised artist joins a staff that features Oscar-winning designer Hannah Beachler (“Black Panther”) and performers Deborah Cox as Glinda and Melody A. Betts because the depraved witch Evillene. Schele Williams directs the present, which options further materials by Amber Ruffin. Nichelle Lewis performs Dorothy.
The manufacturing launched in September in Baltimore, the place “The Wiz” premiered in 1974. Whereas in Attraction Metropolis, Knight spoke through Zoom about his inspirations for the choreography and the way visitors management on the “Wiz” stage compares to that at Coachella.
(This interview has been edited for size and readability.)
Q: Why did you need to be concerned with “The Wiz”?
A: Being a part of “The Wiz” remains to be mind-blowing to me. My contributions to music and dance — and Black tradition — have been about how do I elevate tradition and do one thing that’s revolutionary and in addition pays nice respect to the previous. “The Wiz” was the proper alternative. And it’s “The Wiz”! It’s the one musical each dancer has seen of their lives.
Q: How did you go about discovering a particular choreographic vocabulary for the present?
A: A number of completely different buckets: Self-exploration. Analysis — understanding what the property has executed previously. Having conversations with those that have seen the present: Everybody has a second which means one thing necessary to them. After which permitting myself to only flip the music on and let unfastened.
October [2022] was once I began my movement-vocabulary discovery. I had every week with a few of my favourite dancers in Los Angeles. [We played] some music from the present, some music that I used to be impressed by. Amapiano is a mode out of South Africa that I felt, “Wow! The Emerald Metropolis looks like this!”
The vocabulary created over that week grew to become an enormous a part of the language that has made it into the present. It’s a large span of motion genres, the whole lot out of your conventional jazz and trendy inspirations to avenue dance, to ballet method.
We went again and studied “A Refrain Line.” There’s some actually nice dance in “Refrain Line” that had that visceral power we wished to seize. I’m at all times wanting again — blast from the previous — in any respect my favourite musicals. I’m an enormous Bob Fosse fan, [as you can see in] “Single Girls.” I’m typically his work as a beginning place of what greatness appears to be like like.
Q: Do you bear in mind the primary time you noticed “The Wiz”?
A: I should have been round age 13, and it was the movie model [choreographed by Louis Johnson]. I bear in mind being so impressed by the motion. The Emerald Metropolis scene modified my life and my outlook on dance. Now the colour is inexperienced! Now the colour is gold! Oh, my God, it’s so stunning.
George Faison [the first African American to win the choreography Tony, for his work on the original Broadway “The Wiz”] and Louis Johnson had been each forward of their occasions. I’m actually taking that to coronary heart, as a result of which means we have now to place one thing on that stage that’s forward-thinking, that permits individuals to have possession, but in addition must be lined in love.
Q: Might you give an instance of a choice you made a few character’s motion?
A: The Tin Man has type of taken on possession of the faucet area. So, as soon as he’s oiled up, how will we use his complete physique — not simply his ft, not simply his legs, which is what faucet focuses on? So we’ve crafted one thing exterior of faucet for the Tin Man.
And Evillene — even inside her evilness, she has a way of gospel. So I’ve taken on this gospel inspiration to assist in giving [her number “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News”] a glance that’s distinctive.
Then for me it was all about Dorothy’s journey: How did each piece really feel like a glance again or a glance ahead? Right here, this motion has a jazz base with influences from New Orleans. Right here is fight-based motion that offers with them being athletic. On this journey, she’s not solely discovering new life struggles, but in addition this new sense of music, tradition, dance and magnificence.
Q: Have you ever had a studying curve when it comes to how a present like this features?
A: What I’ve executed within the live performance and dwell area has completely ready me for this second. For “Homecoming,” I had a forged of 200 individuals. So my “Wiz” forged of 27 is fairly simple to maneuver round! However one thing that’s new is an general sense of story. Who is that this character? How do they transfer? Why do they really feel the way in which they really feel? Having paper the place all of it lives and creating based mostly on that’s the largest distinction.
I feel “The Wiz” might be my finest work to this point. And crucial, due to how a lot the venture means to so many individuals. I’m not taking that flippantly.
The Wiz Oct. 24-29 on the Nationwide Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. broadwayatthenational.com.