Britney Spears’ "I’m A Slave 4 U" may have come out 22 years ago, but it’s still being danced to today. Brian Friedman was just in his twenties when he choreographed the music video for the hit, and he joined Cheddar News’ Between Bells to reminisce about the project and discuss the lasting impact the song and dance have had. He also dished on all his recent projects and what he loves most about dancing and choreography

Between Bells

One-on-One With Britney Spears’ 'I'm A Slave 4 U' Choreographer Brian Friedman 

Oh my God, I'm still sweating Over. Nearly 22 years have passed since Brittany Spears iconic pop, I'm a slave for you was released the world, but behind the glitz and the glam Hannah was a lot of dedicated, hard work for makeup artists, costume designers and definitely our next guest Yeah, the iconic Choreographer behind it all, Brian Friedman. Welcome Brian. Have you, you said an interview when we were shooting the video, there was a magic on set. What do you remember from that day? Like I mentioned that video is iconic, even 20 years old. What went through your mind watching that just a few seconds ago? Well you said 22 years, what went through my mind is how has 22 years past? Crazy. It's insane. That's a full grown drinking adult. It was a magical day. I just remember being on set and there was this energy that you could feel the song hadn't come out yet. So we knew that we were creating something really special. Everyone loved the song. It was infectious. From the first time I heard it, we just knew we were creating something really special. Not necessarily thinking, okay, 22 years from now, this is still going to live on and people are going to be doing it on Tiktok because what was Tiktok, But you know, just very happy that 22 years later, people still care about it and love it. Let's talk about, you know, your relationship with Brittany how it sort of transpired from that because that was, I think, correct me if I'm wrong. The first music video you ever did with her, you'd worked with her on tour, you did the VMS with her, but I believe that was the first music video you did with her. How did sort of that moment then impact the rest of your career as a result? That was correct. We had a great journey in terms of me transitioning from dancer to choreographer. I had been on tour with her and dance for her, but she saw something special in me at uh you know, I was a couple years older than her, but I was in my early twenties and she saw some of my choreography and enlisted me to choreograph that single for the first time with her with another choreographer, wade robson. And had she not started that, who knows where my journey would have been. So, I'm forever indebted to Brittany for that, giving me the chance to showcase what it is that I could do. She obviously has an eye for talent. I want to talk about your dancing skills, You make it look so easy, what is the creative process behind the choreography. Creative process is always different. You know, it depends on what sort of job you're on. There's so many different facets of the dance world, whether it is teaching or choreography for artists or choreography for film and television commercial. So, it depends on what the job is for me, my favorite part of the dance world is truly teaching. As funny as that sounds. You know, you think it's all about working with the big stars or being on set. That stuff can be very grueling and not, not as fun. There's a lot of sitting down, a lot of waiting, but teaching is just this instant exchange of information and the dancers take it on right away and you feel the passion in the room and you can see the transformation happening with your students. So that's my favorite thing and the creative process for that is literally just the music, telling me what to do. You know, you've got an empty space in your painting with your body. Um, so there's just something really artistic about it. You mentioned Tiktok just a moment ago and by the way you've done Tiktok jojo Siwa has been in your Tiktok, but do you almost feel like Tiktok has given sort of this new platform for people to sort of express themselves and dancing more than sort of any, everything else that we've really seen. Yes, people have done dancing videos on youtube, but I feel like Tiktok creates a sort of viral moment, much better than any other social platform out there. Yeah, it's different. It's short spurts of movement, which I think is more digestible for the eye, you know, the normal pedestrians, I always call them normal people, they don't necessarily want to sit through a minute and a half of something. They just want to see a quick little burst and then move on to what's next. And I feel like that's just the world lately anyways, we're just swiping and swiping. Um so it has made dance something that you can just enjoy quickly, but on top of that I almost when you see these viral challenges, you're having everybody now want to take part in them as a result of that as well, so you're having people that maybe would never have danced before filming this and doing it because it's it's part of the viral challenge, you know, I was against it, I have to be fully honest transparent when it first started out, I was like no, this is dulling down it, coming down the dance industry and you know, we train our whole lives for this and this is our craft, this is our art, and now all of a sudden it's just turning into something that's a viral craze, but then the pandemic hit and I was at home learning these viral craze is, and I found the love I was with my family and we were dancing together because it was something that they could do, it was something, well I say that but my family is also dancers, my friend, maybe they weren't uh you know, trained dancers, they were able to do this stuff with us and it was just a way to come together and I've always preached about dance being therapy and that it keeps you young and it keeps you away from being injured and can also injure you, but it does keep the youth in there. I mean, I swear that if I didn't dance, I would look and feel completely different, but it's kept me young and forever young. So I see the joy in it now and I see that it can be something that really brings people together. You've been in the industry for so long, What have you noticed a change for the better and what do you think still needs to change? Um Well, I can really speak to my niche, part of the entertainment industry, and dancers have forever been at the bottom of the totem pole and you know, even for me transitioning and working as a choreographer and producer in television, I still think choreographers are also at a very low place on the entertainment totem pole, they get paid well, but the treatment is just not great. You know, there's always this stigma of becoming a dancer and they're like, oh, you know, you're going to become a dancer, it's gonna be a tough career, you're gonna be working really hard, it's gonna be a struggle. Um but the truth is, dancers can have amazing long careers and we need to shift uh the narrative and change it to putting dancers on the same level as actors and singers and models and athletes because they work generally on set twice as hard as everyone else, first to come in, last to leave and sometimes without even a chair to sit on. That's so true. We could talk about this for hours, choreographer, brian Freeman. Such a pleasure to have you here. Icon status in the building. We're loving this. Thank you, brian.