Meet Corey Baker, the Brains Behind “Wednesday” Season 2’s Woe-tally Creepy Choreography

There’s an easy way to remember how to pronounce Corey Baker’s name: “It’s Corey, like ‘choreographer,’ ” he says. “My last name’s Baker, so I had two choices in life—either to become a choreographer or a baker. And I can’t bake!”

Jokes aside, Baker knew for years that dance was his path. Born and raised in New Zealand, he started tapping after a fascination with magic shows led him to try musical theater. When his high school English teacher (who owned a dance studio) suggested he try ballet, Baker became hooked and moved to Australia to study it full-time. He danced professionally in Switzerland and the UK, where he began shifting toward contemporary and tried his hand at choreographing. He eventually became resident choreographer for the Royal New Zealand Ballet. “I always wanted to be a choreographer. I never really wanted to dance myself,” he says.

A growing desire to work in television and film drove Baker to attend film school, where he learned how to engage with scripts and began building an industry network. He’s since worked with artists from Dua Lipa to Lorde and has choreographed for “Strictly Come Dancing,” “Ru Paul’s Drag Race Down Under,” “Hacks,” and more. But the most recent feather in his cap? Season 2 of Netflix’s hit TV series “Wednesday.”

Here, Baker discusses how he got the “Wednesday” gig, pulling off supernatural stunts, and creating delightfully creepy choreo for the Addams Family spinoff. (Beware: spoilers ahead!)

The path from classical ballet to Tim Burton is not a common one! How did you become involved with “Wednesday”?

I met Tim on a project, and we really got along. (Largely because I’m a Tim Burton fan and have watched every movie of his a thousand times!) I think he saw his aesthetic in my work. He asked me to do Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which led to “Wednesday.” [Burton directed four episodes in each season.]       

If you think about it, Tim loves technique, and he loves nuance. I think ballet has that, and it also has the ability to be transformed and disfigured. So it’s using the best bits of that past for me and going, “How do we make that work for the Burton worlds?”

For this season, you choreographed the gala dance performed by Enid [Emma Myers] and Agnes [Evie Templeton] to Lady Gaga’s “The Dead Dance.” How did you approach that, especially after Jenna Ortega’s “Goo Goo Muck” choreography went so viral in 2022?

I started with the music, scripts, and characters. How would Agnes, and how would Enid, dance? Tim was very clear from the get-go: We’re not trying to redo Season 1. Let’s not even pay homage to it. Think about it fresh. That’s incredible as a choreographer. You’re going in and thinking, How do we honor what the script is, honor Tim’s aesthetic, and put those ingredients together? That’s how I built the shape, tone, and movement language.

From there, we figured out nuances with Tim and [show writers] Al Gough and Miles Millar. And when Emma and Evie came in, I adapted things for their bodies.

How would you describe the movement language you created for that scene?

It’s a bit of everything, isn’t it? There’s a bit of contemporary, a bit of ballet, jazz, hip hop, even. There’s stunts and acrobatics. To me, I feel limited by the concept that you should have a movement style. I think you want to create movement that’s most appropriate for the moment.

There are things I always do when I’m working with Tim. The head is always either on an angle, or, if it’s straight, the body’s on an angle. So it’s taking anything that should be normal and making it slightly jarring. That’s the “filter” I put on everything.

What about that crawling-hand motif?

I wanted Thing to be in this movement, because Enid has this wonderful relationship with him. I remember being in front of the mirror doing this [Baker crosses an arm overhead, walking his fingers across the opposite arm]. That part came straightaway for some bizarre reason, and it stayed.

How did you weave Agnes’ invisibility power into the choreography?

When I learned about that character, I thought, Surely we want to bring invisibility into the dance. We played around with multiple ways of doing that, which involved me getting a green suit and trying things myself in the studio with Final Cut Pro. We pitched the idea to Miles, Tim, and Al, and they loved it.

Collaborating with stunts, VFX, and SFX was key to figuring it all out. It was way harder than I thought, because to make someone go invisible on a clean frame is easy. But if I’m moving, things are moving around me, and the camera’s moving—that’s really tricky. There was a body double in a green suit, Evie in a green suit, a stunt machine that was green, and plates that we filmed separately. But it paid off.

What was it like working with Emma and Evie?

I’ve done a lot of TV and film choreography with actors who have never danced before, or have only done a step-tap-sway. But these girls are experienced. Going into it, I’d asked, “Can you send me your best dance videos?” And they sent competition videos of them doing full routines. So I was able to set the bar quite high.

To be honest, the girls could have done more than what we ended up doing, but we also wanted it to feel accessible to watch, and for the costumes and the stage we were working with. (And also, hopefully, for the public to replicate!)

What was the rehearsal process like?

When I got the script and music, I got into a studio with a few dancers who I collaborate with regularly and created a base layer and a tone—about 90 percent of the movement. I filmed that and sent it to Tim, Al, and Miles and awaited feedback. Then I taught the dance to Emma and Evie in Ireland for around a week (not consecutively—half a day here, half a day there, around their filming schedule, and sometimes individually). That was tricky. Then we filmed for several hours over two or three days, including the stunts and crowd sections. Altogether, it was about a month.

How are you feeling as Part 2 hits the air?

I’m so excited for Evie, for Agnes’ character, because she’s got this incredible arc. She and Emma are both amazing actresses, and fierce dancers, and I’m excited for the world to see that.

I think the world is really gonna like the dance, the music, and the choreography. Hopefully they’ll film it and replicate it, and put it up online. I’d love to see the world boogying to this moment!

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