Debbie Allen
Debbie Allen
Deborrah Kaye "Debbie" Allenis an American actress, dancer, choreographer, television director, television producer, and a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. She is perhaps best known for her work on the 1982 musical-drama television series Fame, where she portrayed dance teacher Lydia Grant, and served as the series' principal choreographer. She currently portrays Catherine Avery on Grey's Anatomy. She is the younger sister of actress/director/singer Phylicia Rashad...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChoreographer
Date of Birth16 January 1950
CityHouston, TX
CountryUnited States of America
I'm always moving forward.
I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.
Be true. Be beautiful. Be free. In the midst of segregation and racism Mamma raised us to be independent and free. We saw ourselves as citizens of the world, not of a block.
I'm driven by passion. I mean, I am tired right now. I work to a point of abandon. I am fueled by my understanding of the need for self-expression that exists for young people.
In places in the world where we don't speak the same language, or even understand that we pray to the same God, we dance to the same beat, that is the ONE.
Failure: Is it a limitation? Bad timing? It's a lot of things. It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life.
But out of limitations comes creativity.
It's rare to find parts where you see two women who relate to each other in that very natural way, with a lot of humor and pathos at the same time.
They had a clear idea about what I really wanted to see, based on our initial conversations, and they did a great job.
There was no question about who should play Lou Bessie. Crystal Fox brought to the role something that was really needed.
There was too much to absorb. So we had about an 8-day rehearsal, a lot for a movie of this nature.
There were some scenes where I took ten takes and there were some where I took one.
There's always a certain degree of physical attraction between people and the rest either happens or it doesn't.
Then you give your actors broad strokes based on what your idea is for what is going on in the room and the circumstances surrounding it.