Why we can’t stop watching Ryan Heffington’s music videos.
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It's not often that a music video can be described as "breathtaking," but Australian singer Sia's music video for her explosive and haunting party-girl anthem "Chandelier" is just that. Set in a seemingly abandoned and dimly lit apartment, the music video follows a child version of Sia as she performs a solo dance freak-out. The dance is equal parts elegant and monstrous, switching from refined ballet moves to messy crawling and clawing movements, sometimes morphing into the robotic. It's the kind of music video you actually want to watch again. And again. And again.
The "Chandelier" dance is the work of Los Angeles-based artist and choreographer Ryan Heffington. Previously, Heffington choreographed Kesha tour routines and commercials for companies such as Target, but recently he's having a music video moment. On top of "Chandelier," he also choreographed Arcade Fire's "We Exist" video, starring Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield.
Dance-heavy videos usually feature glamorous moves from a pop star, or a tight routine from their backup team. But the popularity of "Chandelier" — it's racked up 22 million YouTube views since last month — suggests people don't just want to watch pop stars dance, but great dancing, period.
The dancing in "Chandelier" and "We Exist" is intimate. Unlike in big, dance-featuring videos from Chris Brown or Ariana Grande, dance is the only thing that's happening, and the engine that moves the video's narrative forward. "Chandelier" calls to mind the fluid minimalism of videos like Kate Bush's "Running up That Hill, Robyn's "Call Your Girlfriend," or Kiesza's "Hideaway." In those, and Heffington's work, dance isn't just a decorative flourish, but at the center, communicating a message.
Heffington said he isn't particularly interested in the "tight, backup dancer experience," where the singer leads a group of dancers into synchronized steps, because it's already been mastered (by Beyoncé?). He takes inspiration instead from the videos floating around Vine and YouTube in which regular people invent their own moves, or turn a professional routine on its head and serve it back. "Gimme a bombastic twerk video, give me reworked Mr. Jackson moves, I love it all," he said.
