When Adrienne Hurd got the text from her agent that she landed a music video role, she was in the middle of watching sophomores from the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance program in their repertory class. She had no idea the video would be for Harry Styles’ “Coming Up Roses.”
“I was like, ‘Oh great, I got it,” she said, recalling her somewhat blasé tone. As a dance industry veteran who has been teaching Ailey/Fordham students for 20 years, she assumed the job would involve typical background work.
“But when I got onto set,” she says, “I noticed that I was the only professional dancer there, so I thought that was very peculiar. And then they said, ‘Oh this is Harry Styles,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, okay, that’s kind of interesting.’ And then they introduced me to the choreographer [Ryan Heffington], and he said, ‘You have a one-minute solo.’ And I was really kind of blown away.”
The Bradley & Pablo-directed video for “Coming Up Roses,” off of this year’s Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally album, was released earlier this week, just in time for “Harryween” at Madison Square Garden. Playing a dance teacher leading a waltz class—composed of Styles and actors of various ages—Hurd goes on to steal the show with her solo, a bird-inspired set of movements that she says she hoped would evoke “a mother, a creator, a nurturer.”
Billboard called the solo “inspiring,” and at least one YouTuber told viewers, “I better see y’all at Madison Square Garden pulling these moves out.”
Hurd is not new to the music video game. In the 1980s, she appeared in videos by Sheila E. and the Jackson 5 (with choreography by Paula Abdul). And what was Harry Styles like to work with? Having been around plenty of big-name artists throughout her career, she notes that Styles stood out as a “gentleman” on set.
“Harry Styles is a sweet, wonderful person,” Hurd says. “He shook everybody’s hand; he thanked them graciously for doing this. They don’t have to do that, and he did that. He’s a pro.”
That will be music to the ears of Styles’ devoted fans—counted among them many of Hurd’s former and current students, including the sophomores for whom she serves as faculty advisor. She says that she’s received many kind notes from alumni who have seen the video, and that she can tell which of her current students have watched it.
“Oh, apparently I’m a superstar now,” she jokes. “The younger ones are a little bit starstruck, and I’m like, ‘It’s just me!’”
Her moment of music-video stardom even extended to strangers on the subway on one occasion earlier this week.
“I was on the train on my way home, and there was a couple, and they were just staring at me, staring, staring,” she says. “And then I heard the song, because they must have pulled the song up.
“It was very New York.”
