How Dondraico Johnson Created Monstrous Movement for Disney’s “Zombies 4”
In 2021, Dondraico Johnson was at home, spending time with his nephews, when he learned he’d be interviewing to choreograph for Disney’s kid-friendly, music-and-dance-heavy Zombies franchise. “When I said ‘Zombies’ in front of a 6- and a 9-year-old, they went crazy in the house,” he says. “At that moment I was like, ‘I have to book this job.’ ”
Today, with choreography credits for Zombies 3 and Zombies 4 under his belt, Johnson is just as big a Zombies fan as his nephews are. He stresses the importance of using dance to connect with younger generations by meeting them where they are. “You have to dance like the new generation is dancing. You can’t dance like they did 10 years ago,” he says.
Dance Spirit caught up with Johnson to talk training, shooting in New Zealand, and being Uncle Draico.
Breaking Into Dance
Growing up in South Carolina, Johnson didn’t have much exposure to dance. It wasn’t until college, when he tagged along with friends to a dance audition for the girl group TLC, that he realized how far it could take him. Despite not having dance training, he was chosen out of hundreds of auditionees as an alternate. That inspired him to start studying hip hop, ballet, jazz, African dance, and more.
Johnson got his start making dances with the help of his best friend, choreographer Jamal Sims. Sims was working in TV and film, and he asked Johnson, because of his familiarity with a diversity of dance styles, to assist him. Soon enough, Sims was booking too many jobs to keep up with, and he handed projects off to Johnson to choreograph on his own. “He sent me off to the races to do some great work,” says Johnson.
Crafting Monstrous Movement
Johnson approached movement differently for each kind of supernatural being in Zombies 4, including the zombies, werewolves, daywalkers, and vampires. “The vampires are a little more aggressive. The daywalkers are more chic and clean,” he says. He likens this to the way dance styles can vary between cities. “People from Chicago dance differently from people in New York, who dance differently from people in Atlanta. They could even be doing the same step, but it’s stylized differently,” he says.
Coming into Zombies 4, Johnson worked with a fresh group of talent, some of whom had minimal dance training. He made a point to create a safe learning environment in his studio for dancers of all levels. “I wanted to make sure that everyone felt seen and heard. No man left alone in my rehearsal spaces,” says Johnson. “I automatically became Uncle Draico.”
On Set
Zombies 4 was shot in New Zealand, and the dance scenes were filmed without the use of green screen. “We were actually on the beach for real. We were actually in the woods,” says Johnson. Although he had scouted the locations prior to filming, he says it’s impossible to know exactly what a scene will look like until it’s happening. “To see it come to life with the costumes and the makeup and the actors and dancers in character was like, ‘Wow, we really did that.’ I’m really proud of what we did and the teamwork we put into it,” he says.
In Zombies 4, fans can look forward to what Johnson describes as “an energetic, high-impact, new way of moving.” The film’s supernatural entities start off at odds with each other, but they come together through dance. “They show how strong we are as one.”
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