LOS ANGELES — A red suit coat and a hat. That's what some dancers were paid for more than 60 hours of work over a period of 10 days as part of the "field cast" during last year's Super Bowl LV halftime show featuring the Weeknd.
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, dancer and choreographer Kahdre Walker recalled his experience as an unpaid volunteer in the 2021 show. Toward the end of the performance at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, Walker says that paid dancers joined the unpaid dancers on the field, surrounding the Weeknd as he sang. Everybody on the field was dancing, wearing the same uniform of a red suit coat and white bandage face mask. Unpaid dancers were taught choreography by professional choreographer Charm La'Donna, Walker says.
The paid dancers, Walker says, were "in front of me, beside me ... Some of them changed their jackets and they blended in with us. We were literally standing next to celebrity dancers," he says, recalling that he recognized a dancer who had just performed on the Grammys.
