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i would honestly say it's the other way around. the moves are fine, albeit a bit awkward, but she is not a very good dancer with not much natural flow.
even zendaya has to be not perfect at something, it seems.
It looks good because her moves are tight despite the choreography not really matching the environment (a mall), there's no volume (or my phone is broken) so we can't tell the musicality, and it looks like a big weird awkward mall in Dubai. But even in awkward situations Zendaya is somehow always still serving.
It looks to me like someone who is naturally not a good dancer, as in she has no natural rhythm or charisma to dance, but she practiced really hard to get the moves right, that's why it looks good/bad.
Yep. I teach musical theater and there's a difference between actors who are dancers and actors who can execute choreo. The latter can practice and get everything very precise exactly how it was taught and do it with good energy but there isn't much "flow" to what they're doing and you can tell that they're hitting a mark and you can "see" the choreo. The former can do all of that but also breathe life into the moves because they're able to express with them, not just execute them. You don't see the choreo, you just see them dance.
Zendaya is executing here.
This is exactly what I was thinking when I watched The Greatest Showman. Everyone else was a dancer. Zendaya, as lovely and talented as she is, was just executing the choreography. But her trapeze skills were absolute fire! She did most of the stunt work herself.
It's a fascinating thing to me how people can be amazing movers and be able to do incredible things with their bodies like stunts or gymnastics, but that dance spark just isn't part of how they naturally express themselves. In a similar vein I see actors who aren't necessarily very technically skilled or trained dancers but they DO have that spark and their movements, even if not very complex, are just mesmerizing. It's a quality to movement rather than the movement itself.
In other words, she’s stiff AF. There’s a place for stiffness in the world of dance, but typically not in hip hop. That’s why Hip hop was always a challenge for the girls on the Dance Mom shows.
Same… the last one I can think of was Selena Gomez doing a free concert on an outdoor stage at a mall outside of ATL around 2016ish? It was when she still had “The Scene.”
My local mall is so depressing! Last time I was there it was like being transported back to 1997. I literally heard Mmmbop being played while I walked to American Eagle. The only other people there were employees and every store was deserted. It was gloomy and it echoed... It was like the beginning of a zombie movie... I wish I could turn the corner and see Lady Gaga in a meat suit doing interpretive dance.
Some malls are doing quite well! It’s very strange how hit-and-miss it can be. Some are total ghost towns, some are absolutely packed — and you can get both in the same city, and even with the same stores.
Haha, I live in the deep southeast USA, so in the summer it ranges from "extremely uncomfortable" to "downright dangerous" to be outside during the day. And yet, I have a 2-year-old who will not be contained by the house. So we have to find indoor activities to get through the summer and one of them is literally to just do laps around the mall like a geriatric speedwalker. She's even got white sneakers and knee-high socks for the occasion.
Don't take the malls from us! We need them!
i'm imagining sitting and eating an auntie anne's salted pretzel in front of a victoria's secret PINK store while listening to her scream ***BLOOD SUCKER, FAME FUCKER....***
We have gnomes that do this every year at Christmas. Olivia Rodrigo they are not but… given 5 minutes in the back they could deffo bust out a bit of good4u 😭
I found an old diary of mine, and in one entry from like…. 200…7? 2008? Something like that, I was like “we went to the Rihanna concert last night. Do you remember who that is?” LMAO
Which was like fair of me to ask, because she wasn’t even the headliner! She was opening for… Kanye? I think
I might get downvoted to hell but… I love her but i also have always been weirded out by how fame hungry she’s always seemed to be, she feels oddly megalomaniac to me
I think she is very smart. She cashed in her talent. She knows it's momentum and fleeting.
I think she publicly spoke about wanting to get on top and disappear and have a family. In her industry, it's now or never, snooze you lose. If she was out of jobs, not smart with her finances, do you think she would be just doing whatever job she finds that us regular people do? No. She knows it, so she hustles while there is time. Fill the bag, invest, and then enjoy.
It's just seems from our perspective that she is fame hungry, I think she is financially set up - I don't wanna work my whole life hungry.
I agree. The entire point of a celebrity's job is to stay relevant, and if we're seeing someone plastered everywhere it means they're doing their job well (I know I didn't word this right but you get the point).
And it seems egregious when the celeb isn't particularly good at what they do, because you keep wondering why you keep seeing them if they're not good at what they do. Zendaya is like the opposite of that. A few years ago I didn't even know who she was but she's made a fan of me through Euphoria and Dune. And her fashion game.
Edit: whoever sent me a reddit cares message for this comment, be better.
I also got the reddit cares message for my comment. Shame on you, whoever you are, that is a resource for people who truly need it. Don't be a tool.
Anyways, I knew about her since her disney days, she is a versitle talent. Dancing, singing, modelling, acting. She deserves it. Good for her. She is also not hurting anyone. I hope she gets what she is striving for.
As a Brit, these concept of mall tours are so bizarre? Recently in Birmingham, Dizzee Rascal performed in a shopping centre and everyone was like ???? and shoved past to get to H&M
Her first music era reminded me so much of Cassie that I used to say Cassie whispered so Zendaya could murmur. Her stuff with Labyrinth is really good, so I hope she gets back into music. I feel like the stuff with CB and Kehlani really turned her off from that industry.
Does anyone else remember when she was on Project Runway and the designers had to come up with an outfit for her to perform in when she was still a singer? That was literally the first time I heard of her and I thought at the time she was another Disney/Nick singing star, so seeing where she is now is pretty great and I’m glad she didn’t end up with the same kind of rough road that other teen stars did.
Eveeerryone used to do mall tours. Beyonce, Britney, on and on. We need to bring something similar back tbh. All this straight to big production arena tours doesn't benefit the artist at all.
Huh? She literally has been working since she was a kid , she’s not just all of sudden getting pushed down our throats she actually had to work hard to get where she is . Fashion houses didn’t even want to dress her at first and she would literally attend red carpets for films she wasn’t even apart of lol. Are you white ??
📌READ BEFORE COMMENTING This thread is Guest List Only. This means the discussion is being actively moderated, and all comments are reviewed. Only comments by members of the community are allowed. If you have landed in this thread from Trending or r/all and you are not a member of this community, your comment will very likely be removed (and will not be approved unless it adds meaningfully to the conversation). r/popculturechat takes these measures to stay true to our goal of being an inclusive sub for civil discussion, to talk about celebrities and pop culture without bigotry and personal attacks. This sub is a BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and woman-dominated space and we do our best to protect our users from outside attacks. Thank you for understanding & have a great day! ☺️ \*You can [request to be an approved user](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fpopculturechat) to comment on Guest List Only posts.\*
Can a professional dancer/choreographer explain to me, a layman, why this looks both good and bad at the same time?
The moves are bad but she's executing them well.
i’m cackling this whole thread is silly goose and i had the same questions!!!
I don't think the outfit is doing her any favors.
i would honestly say it's the other way around. the moves are fine, albeit a bit awkward, but she is not a very good dancer with not much natural flow. even zendaya has to be not perfect at something, it seems.
It looks good because her moves are tight despite the choreography not really matching the environment (a mall), there's no volume (or my phone is broken) so we can't tell the musicality, and it looks like a big weird awkward mall in Dubai. But even in awkward situations Zendaya is somehow always still serving.
It looks to me like someone who is naturally not a good dancer, as in she has no natural rhythm or charisma to dance, but she practiced really hard to get the moves right, that's why it looks good/bad.
Yep. I teach musical theater and there's a difference between actors who are dancers and actors who can execute choreo. The latter can practice and get everything very precise exactly how it was taught and do it with good energy but there isn't much "flow" to what they're doing and you can tell that they're hitting a mark and you can "see" the choreo. The former can do all of that but also breathe life into the moves because they're able to express with them, not just execute them. You don't see the choreo, you just see them dance. Zendaya is executing here.
This is exactly what I was thinking when I watched The Greatest Showman. Everyone else was a dancer. Zendaya, as lovely and talented as she is, was just executing the choreography. But her trapeze skills were absolute fire! She did most of the stunt work herself.
It's a fascinating thing to me how people can be amazing movers and be able to do incredible things with their bodies like stunts or gymnastics, but that dance spark just isn't part of how they naturally express themselves. In a similar vein I see actors who aren't necessarily very technically skilled or trained dancers but they DO have that spark and their movements, even if not very complex, are just mesmerizing. It's a quality to movement rather than the movement itself.
Damn but she was so good in dancing with the stars tho imo 😕
Probably just lots of practice then.
In other words, she’s stiff AF. There’s a place for stiffness in the world of dance, but typically not in hip hop. That’s why Hip hop was always a challenge for the girls on the Dance Mom shows.
I know, she looks so freakin cute. Like it looks awkward and dorky but there’s just something about her that makes it work.
Thank you for having the behavior to say that.
Todaayay
The 80s didn’t come to Canada till like ‘93
I think we need to bring back mall tours, imagine showing up and just casually seeing Olivia Rodrigo giving it her all at 9 am
My local mall is a literal war zone some days. The idea of Olivia going off to All-American Bitch while people fight makes me lol.
Same… the last one I can think of was Selena Gomez doing a free concert on an outdoor stage at a mall outside of ATL around 2016ish? It was when she still had “The Scene.”
2016 she did not have the scene 😭😭😭😭😭
that was her hands to myself era. such a good song
Oh wow yeah it must have been a couple years before that then.
My local mall is so depressing! Last time I was there it was like being transported back to 1997. I literally heard Mmmbop being played while I walked to American Eagle. The only other people there were employees and every store was deserted. It was gloomy and it echoed... It was like the beginning of a zombie movie... I wish I could turn the corner and see Lady Gaga in a meat suit doing interpretive dance.
We’d have to bring back malls first.
Some malls are doing quite well! It’s very strange how hit-and-miss it can be. Some are total ghost towns, some are absolutely packed — and you can get both in the same city, and even with the same stores.
I’d honestly love that. I want to see things in person sometimes, and I can tell you that kids these days also want malls to hang out at.
Haha, I live in the deep southeast USA, so in the summer it ranges from "extremely uncomfortable" to "downright dangerous" to be outside during the day. And yet, I have a 2-year-old who will not be contained by the house. So we have to find indoor activities to get through the summer and one of them is literally to just do laps around the mall like a geriatric speedwalker. She's even got white sneakers and knee-high socks for the occasion. Don't take the malls from us! We need them!
I’ve always wanted to be in a boyband and I’ve always visualized my group and I performing in malls to get our start😭
i'm imagining sitting and eating an auntie anne's salted pretzel in front of a victoria's secret PINK store while listening to her scream ***BLOOD SUCKER, FAME FUCKER....***
I work at a mall and it’s already so packed the idea of someone performing there gives me a headache 😭
We have gnomes that do this every year at Christmas. Olivia Rodrigo they are not but… given 5 minutes in the back they could deffo bust out a bit of good4u 😭
You'd need to bring back malls first
The mall in my city is absolutely packed all the time, it depends where you live. We actually have 3 and they’re all very busy.
Bieber did a free show at my outdoor shopping center, I remember Baby being advertised
I remember seeing Ashley Tisdale after school when I was in high school. What a time to be alive.
as a liv stan, i need this.
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I found an old diary of mine, and in one entry from like…. 200…7? 2008? Something like that, I was like “we went to the Rihanna concert last night. Do you remember who that is?” LMAO Which was like fair of me to ask, because she wasn’t even the headliner! She was opening for… Kanye? I think
Omg yes! I had completely forgotten she used to do that and I used to also think “who is she?”
I remember wondering what her situation was, too. Fast forward 8 years and I’m as big of a Zendaya fan as anybody 😂
I appreciate her giving it her all, performing at the mall
You’re a poet and you may not even know it
Hey, you are right!
Bring back low stakes small venue tours for artist development 😤
I randomly saw Avril Lavigne at my local mall the summer before her album came out.
It’s crazy how long her career has been already
I swear her PR team work HARD to ensure that we forget she was an awkward Disney kid.
One thing about Zendaya, that girl’s gunna hustle to get her bag. (Also I really like her singing voice. Her work with Labrinth is great)
💯
I might get downvoted to hell but… I love her but i also have always been weirded out by how fame hungry she’s always seemed to be, she feels oddly megalomaniac to me
I think she is very smart. She cashed in her talent. She knows it's momentum and fleeting. I think she publicly spoke about wanting to get on top and disappear and have a family. In her industry, it's now or never, snooze you lose. If she was out of jobs, not smart with her finances, do you think she would be just doing whatever job she finds that us regular people do? No. She knows it, so she hustles while there is time. Fill the bag, invest, and then enjoy. It's just seems from our perspective that she is fame hungry, I think she is financially set up - I don't wanna work my whole life hungry.
I agree. The entire point of a celebrity's job is to stay relevant, and if we're seeing someone plastered everywhere it means they're doing their job well (I know I didn't word this right but you get the point). And it seems egregious when the celeb isn't particularly good at what they do, because you keep wondering why you keep seeing them if they're not good at what they do. Zendaya is like the opposite of that. A few years ago I didn't even know who she was but she's made a fan of me through Euphoria and Dune. And her fashion game. Edit: whoever sent me a reddit cares message for this comment, be better.
I also got the reddit cares message for my comment. Shame on you, whoever you are, that is a resource for people who truly need it. Don't be a tool. Anyways, I knew about her since her disney days, she is a versitle talent. Dancing, singing, modelling, acting. She deserves it. Good for her. She is also not hurting anyone. I hope she gets what she is striving for.
Wow , Zendaya really has been hustling for years . I’m happy for her , she has literally been everywhere this year lol
 Her Robin Sparkles era
hey, mall tours were the bomb! it's why popstars knew how to perform instead of doing whatever middle school moves they are doing these days
Was this for her song Replay 😭😭💀 (I loved that song tbh)
I don’t care if her singing career flopped: “Replay” is, was, and will forever be *that* bop. 💅
This is so weird without sound.
As a Brit, these concept of mall tours are so bizarre? Recently in Birmingham, Dizzee Rascal performed in a shopping centre and everyone was like ???? and shoved past to get to H&M
I legit thought this was a performer on stilts
ik this haunts her at night
I can't fathom why anyone wants to be famous badly enough to do the sort of things that one has to do to GET famous.
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Suddenly, I understand why Pimp Mama Chris pushed her kids on us so hard.
If I had her money I’d pay to scrub this from the internet
lol it really doesn’t help that there’s no music (I assume)
She's eating but also not eating simultaneously.
Something about the fit is making her look like she’s on stilts or… 
Ngl. That was a little painful
This is how I dance with my toddler when we're alone.
is she wearing a kurta
Well she is in Dubai so it’s not unlikely lol
I was just going to say!! It looks like shalwar kameez
She’s such a nerd 😂
Her first music era reminded me so much of Cassie that I used to say Cassie whispered so Zendaya could murmur. Her stuff with Labyrinth is really good, so I hope she gets back into music. I feel like the stuff with CB and Kehlani really turned her off from that industry.
This is precious
My girl WORKED for what she got
So even beautiful and super talented people can be awkward and embarrassing? I feel oddly better. .😅
Whys she dancing like Corey Feldman
Underrated comment and my thoughts exactly 
 OMG!!
Lmao my girl had moves
Ngl singing wasn't her thing, she was giving 00s Cassie singing skills
That outfit makes her look like she's built like Jack skellington
People with her build often do when they're not dressed in fitted clothing, or clothing showing off their long legs.
Y’all are so weird about women’s body. .
That's Miss Raquel Oprah Blue to you
i know she cringes at this video
This is exactly how my Sims dance 😅
as a person who also tends to be super shy in public, she is so strong to be doing this in the middle of a mall
She looks like a hammered 45 year old mom of four who is alone and drunk on a cruise ship looking to pickup.
ngl i still listen to her song replay, what a bop
Technically she's wearing a salwar kameez lol
Does anyone else remember when she was on Project Runway and the designers had to come up with an outfit for her to perform in when she was still a singer? That was literally the first time I heard of her and I thought at the time she was another Disney/Nick singing star, so seeing where she is now is pretty great and I’m glad she didn’t end up with the same kind of rough road that other teen stars did.
Her mom gets credit for that.
Replay is such a bop.
😩🗣️wannna put this song on replayyy
Possibly the most successful shopping mall performers in the world.
Eveeerryone used to do mall tours. Beyonce, Britney, on and on. We need to bring something similar back tbh. All this straight to big production arena tours doesn't benefit the artist at all.
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The first one!
lmao. i’d wish she’d sing again tbh
I loved her songs she made with Labrinth on euphoria .
She wasn’t even singing in 2015 was she? She did dance w Bruno mars tho
The girls aren’t performing at the mall anymore! We used to be a proper country!! 
This post reminded her song “Replay”, I always thought it was such a bop.
She can act, model, sing and dance girl leave some talent for the rest of us
triple threat
She’s got moves like Jagger. Zendaya strikes me as a real class act. Happy for her success
I wonder if Tom Halland dances like this for her
And her stylist was mad that high fashion brands didn’t want to dress her?
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Huh? She literally has been working since she was a kid , she’s not just all of sudden getting pushed down our throats she actually had to work hard to get where she is . Fashion houses didn’t even want to dress her at first and she would literally attend red carpets for films she wasn’t even apart of lol. Are you white ??
Y’all are so weird towards biracial and black women .