Ryan Heffington

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Florence + The Machine "St. Jude" (Vincent Haycock, dir.)

A lot of things in this single-shot video are restrained compared to Flo's previous one. But this may be the calm before the storm. Director Vincent Haycock views the ongoing narrative as an interpretation of Dante's The Divine Comedy — he calls this clip "the first circle of Hell." If this is truly the start of a swarm of clips from this artist/director pairing, we may be in for a memorable journey.

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Florence + The Machine "What Kind Of Man" (Vince Haycock, dir.) [NSFW]

I don't want to spoil this one for you. And I don't say that as way to get around having to explain this complex exploration of love, distrust, tragedy and rebirth.

Let's just say Florence Welch and director Vince Haycock know that in order to shock, you have to be honest and fearless. And this video is both of those, and a whole lot more.

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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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Sia Choreographer Ryan Heffington Breaks Down the "Chandelier" Routine

You might not be able to learn the steps of choreographer Ryan Heffington's dance for Maddie Ziegler in the groundbreaking Sia "Chandelier" video, but this "tutorial" will definitely let you know the backstory and purpose of every quirky move. 

Also, "Fork, fork, stab it in the wall, throw it out" should be your new favorite routine...

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Chromeo "Old 45s" (Dugan O’Neal, dir.)

Screw the usual highway reststop. Here's how it works in a music video:

  • Every woman who stops at a roadside bar is unspeakably hot.
  • The bar itself is just the right mix of vibey and dangerous.
  • The jukebox is spot-on (duh)
  • The singer can rock a pair of trousers like nobody's business
  • Choreographer dance routines will break out
  • The bartender will work his bottle like nobody's business
  • There will be cameos (Haim, Jon "Napoleon Dynamite" Heder)
  • And Napoleon Dynamite will, of course, walk off with the girl

Got it?

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Arcade Fire "We Exist" w/ Andrew Garfield (David Wilson, dir.)

Off goes the hair, on goes the bra and so Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield's gender-swap journey begins...

A honky tonk crowd greets him with uneasy stares that, of course, leads to outight brutality. But, there's an escape hatch of music, even if it's just in his mind...  Soaring choreography transports him from the on-the-floor pummeling to a place where his tormentors are nothing more that a dance troupe ushering him to heaven, which in this case is a catharctic climax on-stage with Arcade Fire.

Hopefully he's also up there rocking with Hedwig...

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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.