Trailer: Debbie Allen doc ‘Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker’

From Shondaland, the Netflix documentary film Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker shines a light on the work of trailblazing icon Debbie Allen and her reimagining of the classic ballet performed annually by the gifted students of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy (DADA).

Over the last 50 years, Allen’s incredible career has spanned the spectrum of the arts – from acting in, choreographing, and directing the iconic series Fame, to her prolific work directing, producing, choreographing, dancing, and writing for film, television, and theatre – garnering her Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and multiple Tony nominations in the process.

Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker features intimate interviews with Allen, her family, DADA’s world class dance instructors, and her inspirational students, and provides fascinating insights into Allen’s own personal journey pursuing an art form where she did not always see herself reflected in its imagery.

The film also offers front row access to the grueling rehearsals, the passion and leadership of Allen and DADA’s dance instructors, and the huge commitment and undertaking by the dancers of all ages and backgrounds who come to train at the academy each year regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances or traditional expectations of the dance community. Rehearsed for just over three months, The Hot Chocolate Nutcracker has become a staple holiday performance in Los Angeles and the largest fundraising event on the school’s calendar.

Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker will premiere on Netflix November 27.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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