We’re officially a few days into a new Taylor Swift era. Her twelfth studio album The Life of a Showgirl made its debut on Friday (or late Thursday night, if you’re among the many who stayed up to listen to it immediately).
As is usually the case with a Swift album drop, the Internet hasn’t quite been the same ever since. Discourse and speculation and knee-jerk reactions are everywhere, as fans and cynics alike try to figure out how they feel about the various evolutions in Swift’s sound or the lyrical innuendos about her now-fiance Travis Kelce. Even as a diehard Swiftie, it still took me a second to warm up to some elements of Showgirl… not because I didn’t like it, but because the newness of everything was overwhelming, like trying to become fluent in an entirely new language.
One thing that helped me massively was The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, last weekend’s limited theatrical event tied to the album. It gave fans a nearly-feature-length look at Showgirl: the creative process behind it (which I’ll touch more on in a minute), as well as flashy lyric videos for each song (which were useful, because I am still memorizing many of the lyrics). But the centerpiece of the event was the premiere of a new music video for the album’s first single, “The Fate of Ophelia.” The video bookended the Release Party, and a behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling each big set piece was sprinkled in between the lyric videos.
I can confidently say, as someone who has been watching Swift’s music videos for decades at this point, that the video for “Ophelia” is something special. It’s technically ambitious, it’s riddled with Easter eggs, and it did one tiny, brilliant thing that is kind of a first for Swift… but just might help cement “Ophelia” as the next big pop hit: the dance routine.
Tonight, I’m gonna dance…
In the “Ophelia” music video, the first chorus hits as Swift is transformed into the frontwoman of a 60s girl group, singing on a small stage in a dimly-lit nightclub. Until the start of the next verse, Swift and her backup dancers perform choreography that wouldn’t have seemed out of place among The Ronettes or a Bob Fosse production. It’s mesmerizing to watch, especially as the camera swirls around the scene and Swift never breaks eye contact with the audience, and it was one of the first moments where I really felt the lavish aesthetic of Showgirl with every fiber of my being.
All the while, the choreography seems absolutely destined to be a perfect TikTok dance. It’s mostly hand movements and occasional hip shaking, but Swift’s go-to choreographer Mandy Moore (who deserves her flowers and then some) stitched it together into something breezy and infectious. After fans spent all weekend trying to recreate it while the Release Party was in theaters, Swift has now shared an official video of her and her dancers performing it, which arguably just sealed its fate as a trend even further. I’m sure I will see dozens of TikToks of people doing it by the end of the day, and I couldn’t be happier.
Again, this is something of a first for Swift. Outside of people simply performing pieces of Moore’s Eras Tour choreography, most of the TikTok dance trends around Swift’s discography have been fan-made. Some have been small and heartfelt, like the “Fearless” transition people would use to show off their fancy outfits. Others have been actual choreography, like the delightful work of Mikael Carlos, whose viral “Bejeweled” dance deservedly made its way into the song’s performance on the Eras Tour. We haven’t really had Swift herself present fans with a dance routine, arguably because it didn’t really suit the sound and rollout of her more recent albums.
This makes me love the “Ophelia” dance even more… especially because there are so many layers to it. The choreography is deceptively simple, between how quickly the different beats collide over the chorus, and the deeper meaning of some of the moves. (I suddenly realized this morning that the shimmy on “your vibes” looks an awful lot like a dance Kelce was seen doing from the audience at the Eras Tour.) And again, the entire routine pays tribute to the heyday of the 60s girl group, a part of music history that a lot of people doing the dance are probably discovering for the first time. Showgirl, and the “Ophelia” music video, are filled with those kinds of historical context: from classic paintings and literature, to George Michael samples, to the filmographies of Elizabeth Taylor and Ester Williams.
Whether you love, hate, or are ambivalent to The Life of a Showgirl, you can’t deny that it’s the kind of album made for dancing around your living room. While a lot of us are probably going to naturally make up our own choreography, it’s fun to have a small official dance routine for at least one track on the album. Now, I’m counting down the days until we can get an “Opalite” music video…
(featured image: Taylor Swift)
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