At the start of the episode “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” Wedding Bell Blues “, the USS Enterprise crew is preparing for a large gala to celebrate the centenary of the formation of the Federation. The company has been being repaired for a few months after a conflagration with the Gorn, so everyone has had time to relax. Spock (Ethan Peck), however, is worried; Although he is a vulcan dedicated to emotion, he notes that he still houses feelings for the Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), currently far from the business on vacation. The chapel must return one day now, and Spock, perhaps illogically, is nervous.
To distract himself, he decides to prepare for the gala by learning to dance. Fortunately, his colleague, head of the Lieutenant de Security La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong), has a training in in-depth dance and is more than ready to give her lessons. Spock is an open-minded student but, perhaps predictable, is too stiff to dance. La’an must teach him to get rid of her whole body. Vulcans generally do not dance, you see. But then, either. It is a side of her that fans have not yet seen. It seems that La’an maintains her well hidden dance skills most of the time.
For Trekkies, Spock’s dance lesson will immediately evoke the episode “Star Trek: The Next Generation” “Data’s Day” (January 7, 1991). In this episode, the data (Brent Spiner) were invited to the marriage of Chef O’Brien (Colm Meany) and his fiancée Keiko (Rosalind Chao). The data know little about marriages, but have learned that dance is necessary. The Android is looking for dance lessons from his colleague Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden). Like La’an, Dr Crusher did not allow many people to know that she has undergone in -depth dance training. She didn’t want to be known as “The Dancing Doctor”.
It is clear that the manufacturers of “Wedding Bell Blues” had seen “Data’s Day” and were happy to pay tribute. This probably helped that “Strange New Worlds” and “Next Generation” had two professional dancers on their respective casts.
Christina Chong and Gates McFadden are both professional dancers
To remind readers, Gates McFadden, at the start of his career, was a dancer, motion coach and choreographer. She studied the movement with Jacques Lecoq and was part of an entirely female clown troop in New York called Commedia del Pinky. McFadden also worked with the Muppets, serving as choreographer both “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and “Labyrinth”. If we look carefully at the “labyrinth” images behind the scenes included in the video outputs in the film, we can see McFadden give instructions. (At the time, it was credited like Cheryl McFadden, according to her real first name.)
McFadden was not invited to do a lot of dance as Dr Crusher, so “Data’s Day” seemed to be a favor to the actress. The writers of “Next Generation” found an organic way to let McFadden dance in front of the camera. It was only for the only episode – Dr Crusher could never dance again – but Trekkies everywhere now knew that McFadden was a talented dancer in addition to being an actress.
Christina Chong, in the same way, has a dance training, but that she often cannot use while working on “Star Trek”. Chong frequented the dance school in adolescence and the college of show arts thereafter. She aimed to be a full -time dancer and only turned to acting lessons after an injury temporarily interrupted her dance ambitions. In 2008, she accepted concerts of professional actors (she was in a horror film entitled “Freakdog”, a supernatural spin on “I know what you did last summer”). She soon accepted high -level jobs in films like “We”, “Johnny English Reborn”, and even “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, although her scenes from the latter were cut. She was also in television shows like “Doctor Who”, “Black Mirror” and “24”. “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” was another feather in his cap.
But, of course, she hasn’t danced much … so far. La’an teacher at Spock to dance not only mentioned the “data day”, but served the same function behind the scenes. The two dance sequences allowed experienced dancers to show themselves a little.
