Maddie Ziegler

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Sia "Elastic Heart" (Sia and Daniel Askill, dir.)

There's no way to replicate the magic that was "Chandelier," but Sia, co-director Daniel Askill and choreographer Ryan Heffington aren't looking to remake anything here. Instead, they're taking what might be the most evocative character in modern music video — Maddie Ziegler as the Dancer has more pathos and heft than most screen characters you'll come across — and building a bigger, yet still mysterious backstory with a metaphorical and/or actual cage match dance with a devastating Shia LaBeouf.

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Dancer Maddie Ziegler and Sia Recreate "Chandelier" for Dancing With The Stars

The great Maddie Ziegler reprises her "Chandelier" dance routine — previously seen on Ellen — on Dancing With The Stars with castmember Allison Holker, and Sia herself in the background. The staging and camerawork are a step above what we saw on Ellen — don't get me started on the Lena Dunham version — and definitely strengthens the case for "Chandelier" as the most impactful video of the year and maybe the most notable video dance since "Thriller" (sorry, Shmurda).

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Do Music Videos On Stage Work? Sia Does "Chandelier" on Ellen

Great plays don't always translate into great movies — and I say that with peace and love for Glengarry Glen Ross — and music videos also seem to lose something when you strip it down to a stage performance. That's not to say young Maddie Ziegler isn't impressive dancing her way through the "Chandelier" routine on a lookalike set for Ellen — she is — and that this isn't way more memorable and creative than most TV show performances — it is, especially for a camera-shy singer —  but it's not just the dance that makes the "Chandelier" video great. It's everything all together, from the grade to the blocking to the edit and on and on. And stripping all those elements down for a recreation is like substituting a hologram for the real thing. It's cool and it's close, but it's not the same.

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Sia "Chandelier" (Sia & Daniel Askill, dir.)

Sometimes a simple video is all you need, especially if it perfectly captures the emotion of the song. That said, "Chandelier" is not as simple as it looks, with a carefully choreographed routine where the young Maddie Ziegler of Lifetime TV show Dance Moms dons a Sia wig and a unitard as she proceeds to deliver the best video dance sequence since Christopher Walken took "Weapon Of Choice" to preposterous heights.