The OA Season 1: Creators lash out at critics; feel dance in the show not given due respect

It is not even a month since The OA (Original Angels) has been aired on Netflix and the show has already been the talk of the town. Right from the mind-boggling plotline of the suicide thriller, the meaning of OA, the open ending and most importantly the dance sequence, the buzz has been both good and bad. 

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Revolving around a girl sharing her story about experiencing death, The OA has got mixed reviews from the critics. However, one common criticism has been on the dance sequence, deisgned to transport characters into the alternative world. Most of the critics have made fun of the dance in their reviews and the makers are not happy about it. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Zal Batmanglij, co-creator of the show, said it is unfortunate when serious reviewers call it interpretive dance because that's rude to the art form. "You wouldn't call Moonlight an interpretive filmmaking experience. I think disparaging something you don't understand, while a very normal thing, I expect more from serious people," Batmanglij said in the interview. The show's seeds were near-death experiences, Midwestern teenage boys and possibly angelic movements, said the other creator Brit Marling. These three things formed the core of the show.

The dance sequence has been designed by Ryan Heffington and both creators said they admired the sequence he has put together for the show. After the steps were shown, the actors were trained and Batmanglij said that they had similar reactions as viewers.

"We're a bunch of actors, we're not dancers, we're not even necessarily particularly athletic, some of us, and we're just showing up in our sweats in a room. In the beginning, you're embarrassed, you're ashamed, you laugh a little to make it feel OK, but by the time we were doing those movements for two or three months on end, something otherworldly starts to happen in your own body and starts to happen between people who are doing them," Marling said.

He went on to say that he felt the dance is beautiful and right. As a storyteller, he tries to tell a convincing and clear story, Marling explained. Every time a story is told, the audience reacts differently. "I feel all responses are fair game. Some of the things that have moved me the most in the world are things that other people have not been moved by at all," he said.

The show released all the episodes on Netflix in December and there have been talks about the show being renewed for a secpnd season, thanks to its open-ended Season 1 finale.