The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Debbie Allen Talks Her New Barbie Tribute Doll, DA Dance Academy, 'Fame', Mariah Carey, Kobe + More
Episode Date: October 22, 2025Today on The Breakfast Club, Debbie Allen Talks Her New Barbie Tribute Doll, DA Dance Academy, 'Fame', Mariah Carey, Kobe. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee... omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hold on. Every day I wake up.
Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club.
We're all finished or y'all done.
Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy.
Just hilarious. Shalameen de Guy. We are the Breakfast
Club. Long the Roses here as well.
And we got a special guest in the building.
A legendary, iconic guest.
Okay, some guests are special,
some are legendary and iconic.
That's right. And we have the iconic,
the legendary Miss Debbie Allen.
Welcome. Good morning. Thank you. Good morning.
How are you feeling? I feel really good. I'm on New York
time. I'm on New York air.
I'm feeling good to be in New York.
I like, I miss the city. Every time I come,
there's so much happening. Saturday morning.
and I woke up and there was this big protest
outside. I heard all this
noise and I looked down
and there was like half a million people
in Times Square. And then
I went to new restaurants
and saw new shows,
saw two new shows.
I love New York.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Condolences too on the
loss of your mother. Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you. Absolutely. I appreciate that.
Absolutely. And I was thinking about
you when you was coming in, man, because you know, you built such
the legacy, you know, Broadway, television, and film.
When you think about the word legacy now,
does it mean what you've done or who you've helped do it after you?
Oh.
Well, you know what I would have to say who I'm helping?
Because that's real legacy.
You know, I have so many hundreds of kids that I'm educating at the dance school
and across around the world with the, you know,
the Internet has.
allowed us to be international in the blink of a, you know, we can have these IG classes.
Yeah, legacy, I think, has to do with the future and what seed your planning, what path you have
lit that helps people find their way.
When you started dancing and you got into drama, did you know that that was going to be
your career?
Did you know that was that?
Because even to this day, you know, I have kids.
I was telling you that dance.
And I always think to myself, well, what does dance take them to?
But then when I look at your career, I'm like, there's no, there's so many possibilities.
Did you ever think that that was going to be a career?
I was determined that four years old that that was going to be my career
because we were watching television and we would watch musicals who come on every Saturday morning.
And I so wanted to replace that Shirley Temple, honey.
I wanted that to be me going up and down those steps with Bill Robinson
and all those glorious musical films.
I saw myself in that world
and then it was a challenge
to get the training
in the segregated south
where I grew up. But mom
was always very resourceful and
she found ways
and yeah, I think children can
see themselves and this is why
you have to make it possible for them
by letting them see other things.
I remember when mom
wouldn't let me go to the circus
because she wanted me to go and see this
East Indian Dance Company
And I was kicking and screaming.
I wanted to see those clowns and those lions.
But when I saw that dance company,
I saw a whole other language of dance
that I didn't know.
I had not seen.
I was probably eight years old.
But this is why we have to expose our children to more,
which is why right now we need more, more and more education,
more cultural programs for children,
art programs,
and just take them on those field trips.
Yeah.
to take them to see art exhibits,
take them to see dance concerts or music concerts
or, you know, little plays at the Y.
Anything that is outside of the box of the...
TikTok of it all and television.
Mom used to make us think that the television was broke.
So we would take our butts outside.
That's what makes it so important to Debbie Allen Dance Academy, right?
25 years, congratulations.
Yes, this is.
It's quite a landmark.
Let's talk about what that means, because as I was saying, when I'm out there on a row with my daughters, a lot of times we don't see too many people that look like us.
Yeah.
And a lot of that is not because we can't dance is because we can't afford it.
The traveling, the costumes, the privates.
It's a lot.
And I didn't realize until I jumped in there.
My wife said, like, we need another check.
I'm like, another check.
I know.
But it's so expensive.
So talk about the importance of opening their school.
Will, the Debbie Allen Dance Academy is in cultural.
oases that now has a middle school, has programs for boys, elders, cancer patients. But for young
people, it is designed to be an open door for whoever it is that has the spirit of the dance
can come through that door and find the class and I will get a program for you. I basically
said no to competitions. I've been asked year after year after year. And I don't do them because
I want children to compete with themselves.
I want them to be in the classroom.
I want them to be in the dance studio
and see where are, where am I?
Did I do that turn?
Can I balance? Can I do the passe?
Can I, you know, what is it that I'm learning?
Can I do that tap break?
And I think it's great, like you say,
the competition world is a great experience.
It teaches children performance and a lot of things
and does cost a lot of money.
And so it would be not possible for so many of us.
It's just not possible.
So where I'm living, I am raising money every minute of my waking life
to give more opportunity to the kids.
I mean, right now it's very difficult with all the foolishness is going on in Washington.
The foolishness is going on with the nonprofit world.
I mean, you can't even write a grant now and say you're, you know, focused on Brown
and black children.
You can't even say that.
You can't say you're dealing with disabled.
You can't, I mean, there's so many, this is ridiculous.
So it means that we're going to just become more grassroots
the way we were in the 50s, honey, because that's what it was.
It was, you have to get your community together,
and there's a big community of diverse people who want to see the arts prevail
and programs prevail, because that's the future.
The creativity that it takes to create a ballet-like revelations
is the same creativity that will cure cancer.
It's the same part of your brain that we are developing.
Creativity, you have to think outside the box to figure these things out
and to come to some, you know, understanding or level of accomplishment.
And to me, creativity is the closest you can be to God.
is to be creative.
So the Debbie Alton Dance Academy is a real purpose in my life
and my husband Norman Nixon's life, my daughter's life, my son,
the whole community.
We have a community of parents and people who love us
and nationwide because we have to, you know,
throw that 10 cup out there everywhere.
I mean, if I could say a million people just send me $2,
it would help us get through a whole year.
of programming and opportunity.
We have a program called
we have a program called
Sons of Dada and that's for the boys.
I have more boys in my school
than any school I bet in America.
I don't make them wear the tights.
They can come to ballet class
in their shorts or the sweatpants, but they
are there. I mean, I got 30 boys.
And there's a program, Sons of Dada,
that offers a scholarship
for them.
If all they have to do is say, I want, raise their hand, I want to come.
Wow.
And then they're there.
David Cobran has been very supportive of this program, but it needs to expand.
Yeah.
I just, I just don't have enough hours in the day to do all that I know I could do.
And I just have to keep working and I have a great team that is helping me.
And while we're here, just tell them how they can donate because people listen right now and you're talking about the school.
If somebody wants to donate, that $2, like you said, a million people,
But how can they donate?
Well, if you go on the Debbie Allen Danceacademy.com, you'll see there's a program called Rhythm of Giving.
Or you can just see how to get in touch with Dina Bartella or just how to drop through, you know, PayPal or what you might want to do.
You know, it's interesting because you've been directing and choreographing for decades.
How do you keep your art evolving when the culture itself always keeps shifting so fast?
Well, that's what's exciting because I'm with.
these young people all the time and there's a new language every you know a couple of years that you
have to you know I mean the afro beat right now is everything I was I I have been Mariah Carey's
creative director many times and last year when I worked with Jenna Tompkins to do her show
I introduced the style of dance the afro beat into the choreography and it was
amazing to do joy to the world
with that style of dance.
The dancers were on a respirated child
with the first number
because that Afro beat is serious.
Fast.
Yeah.
It's fast, but it takes a lot of energy
to do it.
And they loved it.
So that's what's beautiful.
The nature of the universe has changed.
And anybody that doesn't understand that,
well, sorry.
Tell them again.
What do you teach,
or how do you teach the artist you work with?
like a Mariah Carey or even like a Shanty.
You've been working with her for some time too
about longevity and as things change
because things will change.
Like how do you teach them how to, you know,
relevance and impact, like, what the career you have?
Well, I don't think I have to teach Maraicari
anything about longevity.
I mean, she's been the songbird for so long
and she's got a new album out
and she is one of these creative geniuses
who writes her music and I've known
never gone into a production where she didn't have an idea about what she thinks it is.
I mean, so I don't know if that's, I mean, you're asking me about.
I guess it's like the mentorship because even the way that like people look at you and how
you handle just anything you deal with and throughout your career, there's a lot coming
your way because of who you are. Mariah Carey has a lot coming her way every day.
I guess I'm asking what the mentorship between you and these women or men that you're working
with that are these big stars. What does that look like?
It's very personal.
It's very personal.
I think part of what I bring wherever I'm working is a motherhood,
embrace, push, knowledge, idea.
I mean, I just said a lot of things that, I don't know if you got all that,
but when people work with me, they know that I come with a huge experience.
in many things and sometimes
it's very intimidating to people.
I've had some
battles that you
would be surprised and I think
it has a lot to do with my
expertise and
ability. I'm an executive producing director
of Gray's Anatomy. We're in season
22. We
you know, Shonda Rhymes put
me there to be an integral
part of
keeping that show
energetic and
moving and I hire all the directors.
I hire new directors.
Alicia Rashar just became a director on Grey's Anatica.
You heard about her.
You're going to become a director?
Yeah, she's a new one.
Yeah, we kind of like her.
But there to work with incredible showrunner,
Marinas, who, you know, I read every outline.
I'm part of the casting.
You know, and I've worked with DP.
who are brilliant. I produced the movie Amistad with Steven Spielberg, which will always be a big, big
accomplishment for all of us. It's not just me, for all of us to get that movie made. You'd be hard
pressed to do it today, the way things are going. But I have such a wealth of experience. That is a
big thing that I bring. So I see things very quickly. I can make decisions very quickly. You know, I'm here
doing auditions for Joe Turner's come and gone
and I'm seeing such wonderful new talent
that I had not known before
but even in that process
I can see immediately
this one has the potential
this one is talented but not right for this part
I mean it's just experience
I love people who got an intention
you know you said at four years old you knew you wanted to
do dance yeah how did that lead to something like
fame
Well, because I stayed the course
And I went and studied and did the work
I've been taking dance class my whole life
I was here at the New York School of Ballet
Richard Thomas John Boy on the Waltons
His dad and mom had the best ballet school here in New York
The New York School of Ballet
And I was like a little
You know, urchin trucking around the streets
And bought my dance card
And in my class
I'd look up in Rudolph Nureyev would be in the class.
Or Mikhail Baryshnikov would be in the class.
Margot Fontaine.
These are icons in the world of ballet.
And then right across town there's Alvin Aitle.
Wow.
Alvin Aitle, you know, you, I don't know.
I think my effort has proven successful because I've always done the work.
When you come up in the dance world, it's like being an athlete.
That's why Kobe Bryant and I were friends
He loved dance
And we had a very good relationship
You train, train, train, train, train
You can't shoot enough
You can't practice enough
You know jump shots
Whatever they're practically
You know
Those drills that they do to stay in shape
You have to do the work
And this is something young people
Really need right now
To understand
That you don't get to get there and stay
if you haven't done the work.
Misty Copeland, oh my God.
Misty Copeland, you know, she's retiring
tomorrow night from the American Ballet Theater.
Wow.
I will be on stage with her.
Wow.
She invited me to be on stage with her.
But this is not an ending,
but a beginning of what else she's going to do.
Yeah.
But she trained, train, train, train, train, train.
You know, I've had parents come in.
You, your daughters and dance,
and I've had parents say, well, my daughter, you know,
She just, Ms. Allen, she just feels like, you know, she's doing the same thing all the time.
I said, because she needs to.
Yeah.
She has to learn how to point that foot.
Turn out.
Passet.
Damn it.
You said you and Kobe were friends.
How did y'all get tight?
How did y'all get so cool?
Well, Kobe actually grew up in Italy.
Fame was one of the biggest shows internationally.
Italy, I still can't walk down the street.
it was that popular
so I came to a Laker game
and he was on the court and he looked
at me and he was like
and I was like I'm looking at him like
oh wow come and then
that admiration
was there and then years
later he actually
was interested in learning how to tap dance
really? Did you teach him?
Well we didn't get to that but we were going to get to that
and it was
Michael Jackson's death that really
kind of brought us closer because Michael was somebody that I was very close to and I was talking about Michael
on television and saying he was he practiced practice I said he was like Kobe Bryant I said that
in an interview and then Kobe called me said Debbie Michael and I were friends I said say what
he and Michael had become friends and so we started talking and he was right
writing these incredible books
and we were making plans to
turn one of his books
into the most incredible Broadway show
we were making
plans. He had
a whole
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and our couple retreat from reality.
They lose it. They actually lose it.
They sort of went nuts.
until one night
everything spins out of control
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Hey, I'm Kelpen.
and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again.
We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask,
why does history keep repeating itself?
You may know me as the second hottest actor
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The universe that he was creating with animators and composers,
and he brought me in because he respected what I do and what we could do together.
And when we were building the day,
Debbie Allen Dance Academy, which is now the Rhymes Performing Arts Center, because Shonda
Rimes gifted us the building, which was amazing, amazing. But we had to raise a lot of money
to build it. And so we took a meeting, and Kobe was the first one. He put a million dollars
towards building the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. And now we have a wall called the Kobe Bryant
Wall and Light that has all the donors.
and his name at the top of that.
And so we had a lot of plans, and he loved dance.
You know, being an athlete to be a dancer, so.
Toby Bryant, Wallace Annenberg, Barry Gordy, Shonda Rhymes,
the Ford Foundation, they've been our big angels.
Outside of the discipline that you just talked about
in doing the work, what else did your role as Lydia in fame teach you?
that, like, served you so well for the rest of your career?
Well, I actually got an opportunity to create these dances.
And as a child, I was watching them in the movies.
I was watching the movie.
Now I was able to be in charge of what the camera was doing.
And I had all of these ideas from when I was four years old.
And so on Fame, I worked with one of the old Jacks, Bill Spencer.
He had been the A-camera operator on all those big MJ.
and musicals, and he used to say, oh, kid, we can't do this, we can't do that.
I said, why, Bill?
And then if he couldn't give me an answer, then he would go figure it out.
So we became friends.
So fame was like going to graduate school.
It was like getting a Ph.D. in directing because it was new.
Nobody was there to tell us or to tell me how to make this work week to week.
I had to figure it out.
And then one day he took me in the archives of MGM
because I used to write dance notes
so people would understand what it would say the music,
how long it is, what the action was,
what the choreat, what the camera shot is.
He took me in the archives of the MGM musicals
from back in the day and showed me that's what they did to.
And nobody taught me.
It was just a way to communicate.
So fame really set me up to do everything that I'm doing right now all the way.
I've heard you say dance is storytelling with the body.
Yeah.
Hey, I'm expound on that a little bit.
Well, you know, in the dance where you don't have words, you're not singing,
you're through your physical being expressing what is the story.
You're expressing love, you're expressing joy, anger.
it's I think the most ancient of all art forms is dance
because when you look at ancient civilizations
before they could write or could know the language
they were stamping on the ground for rain
for harvest
birth movement
that proclaiming your existence on this earth
that dance
and it goes back to Mother Africa
where we were stamping on that ground
I mean that's the beginning
that's the beginning
that's the one
that's what Jason Samuel Smith
is the one
yeah
so is it about the movement
or the perfection
stop please I feel
they all the time I got no ribbon
but I didn't do it
do it again
you know what is it is the movement
or perfection
what is it
all of that
But it's that spirit.
See, the spirit in you is what makes you move like that.
That is something that's in your blood memory.
That's your DNA speaking.
That's the universe telling you what you already know.
It's that call and response.
Yeah.
It's there.
We all have it.
We all have it.
Who was the most difficult person to teach how to dance that was like they just don't have it?
Now, you know I can't say people's names.
You know that would be.
so wrong. Okay, well, let's change it. Who was the hardest to teach because they just were so good
and needed to be pushed to the next level then? Oh, I've had students some that you might not
know. Are you talking about people that I work with professionally? Yes. Well, let me put it this way.
I worked with Sammy Davis, Jr. He did a special with me. I've never seen anybody like him.
I could show him something one time, and he did.
he was incredible
so it was
difficult to do
much because he'd be like
okay kid what else you got
all right Sammy I'm done now I think I'm good
it was a challenge for me to work with him
he don't get disgust enough
I don't feel like Sammy gets disgust enough
you know there's an effort to do
plays and movies about him
I know Lena Waith has one
she's working on and I'm excited
that she's thinking about making it into a show.
I did a, we were working on a Broadway show called Sammy
with the original people that did all his music and everything.
And I did a workshop of this years ago.
This might have been, oh my God,
it had to be almost 20 years ago.
And in that workshop, everybody came because it was about Sammy.
We raised a million dollars that day to do the show
and it didn't go forward because,
the people that were in charge of the script
just couldn't understand that we needed to whittle it down.
It was, you know, when you have a life story that's that full,
I mean, Josephine Baker, it was a mini-series.
Yeah.
Or either you have to figure out what part of their life are you going to tell.
Because I worked with Bob Fossey and Sweet Charity,
and he told me, and I believed him, and I learned that from him,
kid, if anything over three hours, is too long.
too long baby
you know
but Sammy is someone that
he's one of the most legendary
and incredible artists
to ever step on a stage
as a child
you could look at that film of him when he's
five it exists
he was
a dear man who had quite a struggle
quite a struggle
in his lifetime
Barbie is honoring
you with your own tribute doll?
What went through your mind when you first got that call?
I'm assuming that you're getting your own Barbie dog.
I know.
It was like getting the Oscar.
It was like, you know, because I grew up in Texas.
And we didn't have any dolls that looked like us at all.
And I was big on playing with my dolls.
And I knew about the Barbie tribute collection.
And I was so excited when they made Sean,
the rhymes of Barbie doll. And I was just loving that in Misty Copeland. But then when they called to say
they wanted to make me one, I just was so touched because I knew this had more to do with
young people than anybody. Although all of my older friends are buying them up, child. That's what
buying them up. But the kids, I showed this doll to some of the students in my school. I actually
videotaped it. It was so precious. They were so proud of.
it they all wanted it it looks like them somebody that looks like them that is dancing that's you
know and so we worked on what she was going to look like and how she was going to dress and i i said
let's dress her like fame because that's your idea yeah amazing let's do fame and i used to wear
these pants uh designer giamani diomona i don't know where he is now but um i had those pants in
every color. I went around the world and I'm just excited about it and everybody's excited about
this. Congratulations. Yeah. It puts me in a one more realm of history that is very humbling.
Another image of black excellence, really? That's right. Yeah. You've created a lot of them. I'll be
wondering what's your measure for authentic representation?
today.
You know, I don't know
if I ever measure it.
I experience it
and it speaks to me
or it doesn't.
I mean, that movie centers.
Ooh.
Absolutely.
Ooh.
Ooh.
It said so many things.
But when Ryan Kugler took
that dance floor
and went in and out of time,
you know I wanted to go
and be that boy's mama
for a moment.
I want to go over there and just hug him
and say, get over here, come over here.
He honored all of us doing that.
That was breathtaking.
So it's coming in different ways.
Or when I see the artwork of the kids that I see
or, you know, black excellence is something that's on the rise
and it's just going to get stronger now.
The challenges we have is going to make us stronger.
You're not going to shut us down.
I agree.
I have a strange sense of optimism about all this.
I do.
I really do.
Yeah, I think you're right.
That you're here, that you all are here,
and you are speaking every day.
You have millions of people, millions of people's attention.
You have a platform to plow through a lot of BS,
and you do on a daily basis.
And so we are grateful that you're here.
and you're going to be here.
I got to ask, you know, this week coming up is Homecoming Week, right?
A different world was the reason why I went to HBCU.
I got to see it.
I seen what it was, so I have to ask.
She is not going to teach you a one-two-one-two to go do at the homecoming.
A different world was based off of what college.
Based off of what college.
Every HBCU talks about it.
Okay.
So let me say this.
A different world existed for a year before I got there.
And I was brought in by the creative, the executives to come and see what was wrong and fix it.
And I did because I had that HBCU experience, which none of the people there had.
I went to Howard University.
Sorry.
And Howard University.
I'm sorry for both of y'all because the university is where it's that.
Sorry.
I'm Hampton.
We're HBCU, Greg.
Well, Hampton is great.
I'm just messing with you.
He's messing with you.
But, you know, Howard, we were the school, the first school to take over the A-building school
because we were demanding black studies.
We pulled up the gate and threw it on the dean's desk.
Ewert Brown led us.
I had my big Afro child, and I was all up in there, all up in it.
Two months later, you know, we didn't think about dying and nothing like that.
The parents were sending us orange juice and boiled eggs
and begging us to come out.
We're going to come out when we get where we were.
Then what?
How many months later?
Kent State did that and four kids were killed
by the National Guard.
What the hell?
We knew, say it loud, Black and I'm Proud was our anthem.
We had Mary McKeever coming.
We had Stokely Carmichael named them.
They all came to Howard.
We were in Washington, D.C.
wow so coming into a different world we could no longer do shows about people walking around holding eggs
we had to do shows that were culturally relevant socially responsible and still a lot of fun and we did that
and so susan fails hill she is one of the most incredible writers on this planet she was the show
runner with a real
book of all of it when we did
LA riots, Mammy
Dearest, all those shows
that are so memorable.
It starts with the writing.
And Susan
and who else was in that writing room?
Gina Prince Bythwood.
Reggie Bythwood?
Gina Prince is getting rid. Child, y'all getting
rid of... Woman King was one thing, honey.
Yes. She is
the director of the
children of blood and bone.
this book, I don't know if you know about it,
but actually Kobe Bryant
gave me this book. Before he died, he said,
Debbie, you've got to read this.
They were all in the writer's room,
along with Yvette Lee Browser,
who, you know, she is.
There was so much talent and energy,
and she, together, we just engaged.
And I was always in the principal's office, I say.
I was always called into the network.
Really?
Oh, God. Oh, my God.
y'all have no idea what I had to go through and still and still what were there upsets why were they calling you in oh because you took it from a sitcom to a social movement yeah you know because we did the first show about AIDS
whoopi Goldberg we I knew whoop was going to win that Oscar she's been my friend forever I said whoopee would you come Debbie you know I'm there she came I had her they didn't care I said AIDS is killing our
people your people everybody we need to do this and they were going to strike that show down
Bill Cosby stood up and said all right we might not have advertisers but you're going to get to do
the show wow he stood up single handedly and made it happen so doing shows of a date rape
you know I was just always called into the office why do we have to do why did I said child we
can't just talk about, you know, somebody bumping in the corner.
We're going to do some of that, too.
We'll give you the courage to continue to make those changes.
A lot of people would conform, right?
A lot of people would see the networks complain and saying you're going to lose sponsors
and be like, okay, I'll have them dancing.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, but I had an army at my back.
Susan Fells was right there ahead, writing.
I had the cast.
we you know I gave them a voice that was part of what I did
because sometimes in Hollywood when I was first starting
the writers were like gods and the actors were like
okay you just do what I tell you and that has changed
because actors have to have a voice that's you know
Gary David Goldberg who did family ties
wanted me to take a big seat at that show
when I chose a different world but I had worked with him
and Michael J. Fox
and what I loved about Gary David Goldberg
after every table reading
he opened the floor
to the actors
with them sitting there with the writers
what did you think? What are your
ideas? That's a real
collaboration.
That was not happening
and we made it happen
and God bless
the whole
staff crew, actors
writers
it was it's not just me it was all of us
so what's your process for
I guess telling hard truths
you know without losing I guess the entertainment value
because I know you're directing the reboot too I think I saw
yeah I've been working with the reboot on Netflix
and there's some changes there
that we're trying to make and see what it goes
well what is your question like how do you tell the hard truths
how do you tell hard truths and still keep it entertaining
because that's the way the way
world is. In the middle of all this,
you'll find something to laugh about.
In the middle of this, you'll see somebody
you want to kiss.
Yeah, that ride is happening,
but, ooh, baby, look at that boy over there.
Who is that?
Real life doesn't stop
because of,
it will stop you, it makes you
think and have to talk and
address, but it goes on.
Miss Debbie Allen has to leave as well, too, guys.
Yes, she does.
You got a last one?
Yeah, I do have a last one.
You know what I mean?
Like fame showed what art could be, right?
And a different world showed what education could be.
How do you think your work has shaped how young people now see the intersection between art and intellect and activity?
You know, there's such a good question, and I appreciate that question because Netflix just rebooted a different world, the original.
And a lot of people are talking to me and asking me.
But the mind of young people, the curiosity is what you want.
You want them to be curious.
And I think when they see these shows, when they see me and I make myself accessible,
they feel like they could do something too.
That is really, that's what it's about.
They could do something to.
I'm still learning.
I'm still at this ripe old age, I'm getting ready to direct August Wilson's,
Joe Turner's come and gone
on Broadway in the spring
And I am in school
Because you can't come up there
It's like you can't direct Shakespeare
If you don't understand the language, the period
I am up in the August
Wilson School of Thought deep
Deep, deep, deep
So by the time we open in April
That show's going to be amazing
But I can't wait
It's going to be a child ticks to go on sale
November 5th I have to say that out loud
Brian Morland, who actually produced Othello,
Denzel's Othello, is our producer.
Amazing.
But I'm just saying, I'm still in school.
So I'm putting together a whole packet of information
about 1911.
What was happening?
What was the music?
Who was president?
What was happening in Europe?
You've got to know all of these things.
What was happening in Pittsburgh?
Where were we with the Great Migration?
where are we
with emancipation
where are we legally
with civil rights
you gotta do the work
and I am still
doing the work
yes Debbie Allen
have you ever taught a proper twerk
I just want to know
I don't know
through all your lessons
no you need help
through all your lessons
I just want to know
like have you ever
twerkage
ever
I love that
Well, you know, I don't know if I've taught it,
but my husband is always on me to stop doing it.
That's all I guess.
Oh, so you're trying.
You'd be twirking.
Yes, I know that's right.
That's why you've been married so long.
Okay.
That was the secret.
You got to tell them.
Stop.
I know that's right.
He doesn't want me to do it in public.
I can do it in the bedroom.
I can do it at home, but not out of the house.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay.
That's all I am.
I love me.
We appreciate you for joining us.
If you're out and about, make sure you pick up her Barbie doll.
Also, also.
Donate to the school.
Yes.
And thank you so much.
And please don't be a stranger.
Anytime you in the city, pull up on us.
I'll be coming back here to direct that player.
I come and visit y'all.
Yes, man.
I love her always.
I would definitely be there to see that.
Me too.
As Ms. Debbie Allen, it's the breakfast club.
Good morning.
Every day I wake up.
Wake your ass up.
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