Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker (Nov. 27 on Netflix) provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the life and career of Greys Anatomy star and Emmy-winning choreographer Debbie Allen, 70. The documentary shines a spotlight on the Debbie Allen Dance Academy (DADA) as she prepares young dancers for her reimagined holiday production of The Nutcracker.

Why produce your own version of The Nutcracker?

I looked at the origins of The Nutcracker in the U.S. and [how choreographer] George Balanchine was trying to keep the New York City Ballet alive. So I decided to do my version and make it fun and funny.

What do students at your dance academy learn other than dance?

My own sense of discipline, completion, ability to take criticism and go the distance come out of my dance training. They are a byproduct of studying the performing arts. The creative instinct is nurtured, discipline is nurtured by learning to be part of a groupbecause if you do a great leap, someone has to catch you.

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Youre an executive producer, star and director on Greys Anatomy. Why has that show endured?

Its about real people and real relationships. It happens to be in a hospital, which has inspired millions of young people to go into the medical profession, especially women. But at the end of the day, its about falling in love, falling out of love, betrayals, competitions. The people on our show ring so true.

Did you have big dreams as a child?

I spent a lot of time in my backyard in Houston looking up at the stars. Contemplating the universe when I was a little girl, I always saw myself in it, so that was always a big picture. Always.

What inspired you to reinvent The Nutcracker with rats instead of the Mouse King?

Everybody grows up with The Nutcracker. It was something that I dreamed about when I was a little kid and there were no productions that had Black kids in Houston. I remember doing Welcome to Flowerland as part of a church thing, and I participated in a lot of different Nutcrackers.

One day I took my son Thumpety [Norm Nixon Jr.], my niece Condola Rashad and my daughter, Vivian, to The Nutcracker downtown. And right in the middle of the show, Thumpety, my son, was just bored to death. He was just like, Uugghh. He couldnt have been more than about 4 or 5 years old, and he screamed out loud right in the middle of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, When is the rat coming?! And the audience howled. Oh, my God, they laughed. I was so embarrassed, but it was so cute. And I realized they wanted to see a rat; he didnt want to see the Mouse King.

This is a family affair. Your husband and daughter are involved, and your son was the inspiration. Was it hard to rope them in?

It has its challenges because everybody has their own ideas. Theyve grown up with me. Theyve been on the plane when I went to London to do Carrie. Theyve been with me everywhere Ive gone, including when I went to China as cultural ambassador [of dance] for the United States. They have always been a part of my life.

Youre going to be remembered for your roles, your directing and producing, and choreography, but Hot Chocolate Nutcracker will introduce people to this other side of you, which is opening doors for people of color in the dance world. Youll be remembered also by the children whose lives that you touch.

I call them my DADA diaspora, because now were 20 years old and they are everywhere. My kids are everywhere and doing such wonderful things. Improving the quality of life for people in their community, sharing their gifts, inspiring other young people to do what they have done through their learning, creating nonprofits.

DADA provides life lessons every day. It trains them to be ready to get out in the world, be adults, and be the ones that create opportunity or make decisions. Everything that were teaching is really developing their humanity.

On Nov. 14 we celebrated our 20th anniversary in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl, and the real focus of this celebration was those kids, who they are, where they are, and what theyre doing. I cant even do them all, theres so many of them. Theyre in some of the best universities, full-scholarship students, dancing with great companies, in television series, creating nonprofits, doing programming to help women who are battered and abused. Theyre doing all of these wonderful things.

It feels like I have birthed another nation, if you will, another generation along with my own kids. And thats something that I take very seriously, and Im still doing it every day.

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In the time of coronavirus, obviously, you wont be doing a production this year, which is your big fundraiser to provide scholarships for some of your DADA students. So how will you keep going?

Well, first of all, we responded to this metamorphosis, if you will, this evolution of the virtual world. So many dance schools have closed, so many performing arts centers are closed, and we know the theaters are dark and the concert world. Film and television are just now getting back up to producing, and a lot of those productions have also shut down again when they didnt have the right COVID protocols.

So I was adamant that, OK, weve got to shut the doors, but were not shutting down. I started teaching my live Instagram class and I just did it as a gift. And then I realized thousands of people were taking the class, so I did it every week. Ive been doing it since March every Wednesday at one oclock. And Saturday I started a class for the younger ones because its turned into a whole other thing.

But how do we survive this as the academy? The fundraiser, the drive-in gala at the Rose Bowl parking lot, was a big deal for us with people at a drive-in in their cars having a live experience with people they quarantine with, so its safe. But we are indebted to the foundations and people that support us.

Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation have supported DADA for I would say the better part of almost 20 years, and the Berry Gordy Family Foundation, and the David Kobrin Foundation. Recently, were getting grants because were in the middle of a capital campaign. This couldnt be a worse time to be trying to build a building, but were moving forward. We have to. We have to because we know the doors are going to open and were going to be ready to take the kids back in.

People see what we do. They see that its all going to the kids. Its all going to what its supposed to be. For 20 years, we had a really great record of what we do, and right now the kids need it more than ever. Can you imagine how exhausted they are from Zoom classes and virtual everything? So when we have a Zoom class and its live, thats something. And we have very small classes at the studio. We used to have a studio with 30 to 40 kids, we cant do that anymore. Some classes are four, five kids.

Between DADA and Greys, your dance card is pretty full, but last season you guest starred as Shemar Moores mother on S.W.A.T. Any chance that youll be back this season?

They shoot on Saturdays, actually, so Im waiting to get that call from Shemar. Debbie, come on. I need you to come back. And when he calls, Ill try to figure it out. Everybodys under such strict protocols and testing. Any show thats really working is kind of OK. But I had a good time being his mom. He is such a lovely man in real life and has such a big heart about the world, and is so wanting his show to reflect what is happening in the world right now.

Who do you credit for the success story that is your life and the barriers you have broken?

I have to credit my mother, Vivian Ayers Allen, because she raised usme, Phylicia [Rashad], Tex and my baby brother, Huey, who came much later. She really instilled in us a sense that we are children of the universe and that there were no borders and no boundaries in the real world. W
e got a sense of that when she took us to Mexico. It was the first time we could go to a lunch counter and have lunch because it wasnt segregated.

My mother instilled in us a sense of space, and creativity, and productivity, and that we were born to go and do something. Its no surprise Phylicias as successful as she is, and me, and my brother Tex, and my brother Hueys a successful banker. Thank God somebody can write a check.

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