Olympic choreographer on working with Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga’s dazzling performance of Zizi Jeanmaire’s “Mon Truc en Plumes” (“My Thing with Feathers”) set the irreverent tone of the Olympic Games opening ceremony on Friday night. But it was almost canceled because of the rain, says Maud le Pladec, the choreographer and head of dance for the Olympic and Paralympic Games who worked with Gaga for many months.
Le Pladec, who worked closely with Olympic Games artistic director Thomas Jolly to orchestrate the four-hour showcase and create the choreography, revealed that Gaga’s performance had to be filmed hours before the festivities began for security reasons; Yet she still sang live.
For the first time in modern history, the ceremony took place outside a stadium. It unfolded along the Seine River, which runs through the city and highlights Paris’s iconic landmarks. Gaga’s performance was one of twelve created for the occasion, and although it lasted “only four minutes”, it was the “most artistically challenging” song of them all, according to Le Pladec.
“Unfortunately it was the only one [performance] that we had to pre-record late in the afternoon for safety reasons, once we were sure it was going to rain – we were getting minute by minute updates, we had never followed the weather forecast so closely in our lives… We felt that it was too would be dangerous for artists, even with a few drops of rain. [Gaga] We definitely wanted to do it, so we preferred to pre-record it rather than cancel it,” she says.
There were plenty of reasons why it wouldn’t have worked in bad weather.
“The ground would have been slippery. She was wearing heels, near the water, there were stairs… We had to be extremely careful,” Le Pladec said.
Gaga’s representatives declined to comment.
Although she was unable to perform at the ceremony, Gaga was on site during the show. She watched her music track on the screen from her dressing room before returning to her hotel, Le Pladec said. Shortly afterwards, Gaga wrote on earth – Paris.”
While Jolly came up with the idea for a Zizi Jeanmaire song, Gaga said on X that she was familiar with the 1920s singer who starred in Cole Porter’s musical “Anything Goes.” That’s because that show’s signature song was Gaga’s first jazz release.
Le Pladec, who asked Nicolas Huchard to work with her on the choreography, says Gaga was adamant about delivering a spectacle that would feel authentic and that would pay tribute to the revue Française. That meant that I had to make a cabaret number that combined singing, dancing, a touch of humor and some glamour. Because Gaga “really wanted to work with archive costume,” Le Pladec says organizers associated with Moulin Rouge want to collaborate with their teams. Dior created Gaga’s black bustier outfit and the now-closed cabaret Lido let them borrow pompoms.
According to the choreographer, Gaga, who she described as a workhorse and a perfectionist, worked on her singing and leg work until the last moment. She also trained for weeks in Los Angeles with several dancers who had flown in from Paris. “She wanted to make a show à la French. She puts so much effort and thought into everything she does and she has a very developed creative process.”
Like the original Zizi Jeanmaire show, Le Pladec describes Gaga’s performance as feminist to its core, specifically because “feathers have been a symbol of empowerment for women throughout history.”
Le Pladec won’t be catching a break anytime soon. She has already returned to work as head of dance and is preparing for three more ceremonies related to the Games, starting with the closing party of the Olympic Games, which will take place indoors at the Stade de France.
