Todrick Hall on Taylor Swift’s Video Choreography: ‘Like a Flashmob of Tombstones’
When Taylor Swift‘s cinematic new video for “Look What You Made Me Do” debuted during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, Todrick Hall was just happy he didn’t have to carry the secret any longer.
The 32-year-old YouTube star/dancer, who was previously in Beyonce’s Lemonade, was one of Swift’s backup dancers in the video. In an interview via People and Entertainment Weekly’s video platform INSTANT, Hall said he was sworn to secrecy by Swift’s camp since the video taped in May.
“It was the hardest secret ever to keep,” said Hall. “I think it speaks volumes of what type of a person Taylor is as a human being, as an artist. That she was able to get all of these people on a set, shoot an epic – what I don’t even want to call a music video because it’s more of a movie at this point – and get them to not say anything.”
Hall reflected on his take on the meaning of the video: “I’m assuming what she means by that is, ‘You made me break every record, you made me out-sell everyone,'” he said. “‘You made me hire the best backup dancers in the world, you made me come out of a grave, you made me tilt a bunch of tombstones at one time.” He added that the choreography “was like a flashmob of tombstones. It was really, really cool.”
After becoming a semi-finalist on American Idol Season Nine, Hall launched a career as a singer-songwriter that went viral on YouTube. Hall became a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race and danced in Broadway’s Tony-winning musical, Kinky Boots.