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.
We could have done this movie very differently had we shot on the streets of Harlem and taken a 40-day shooting schedule.
I actually did a film called Stompin' at the Savoy,about four women who worked as domestics and were trying to get out of that life and into a better one.
I basically shoot the movie the way I think it should be cut, so my directives to the editor are in the camera.
The screenwriter's role was very instrumental, because it's difficult to take a stage play and adapt it for the screen.
(Self-checkout is) negative because more and more retailers are losing the personal touch. People want to do business where people know their name and communicate with them. With a world full of email and more self-service we will begin to start seeking out the basics from retailers who create emotion. There is not emotion out of self-service and most people buy out of emotion.
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.