Watch Spike Jonze Direct Live Dance Number on ‘Fallon’
Filmmaker Spike Jonze adapted his new theatrical dance piece, Changers: A Dance Story, into a short film live on The Tonight Show Wednesday. The piece stars Mia Wasikowska (Alice Through the Looking Glass) and Lakeith Stanfield (Atlanta) and features choreography from Ryan Heffington.
Changers explores the evolution of a relationship through dance, and Jonze’s Tonight Show short offered a snippet that blends lovestruck energy and uncertainty. The performance begins with a clever visual gag as Wasikowska and Stanfield wake up in bed to a bright spotlight and twinkling piano, exchange a few kisses and emerge from under the covers in a way that reveals the bed is actually standing vertically.
The music then shifts to DJ Shadow and Run the Jewels’ “Nobody Speak” and the pair starts bounding around the stage with big, animated gestures. However, the piece has its moments of pensive stillness. At one point, Stanfield’s character finds himself alone in front of a white sheet while the piece closes with the couple sharing one last kiss before leveling thousand-yard stares into the camera.
Changers: A Dance Story is running at the La MaMa theater in New York City through September 15th. Net proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund.