Ballet Star Tiler Peck Shares the ‘Most Challenging’ Part of Choreographing Olivia Rodrigo’s New Music Video (Exclusive)

Meredith WilshereSat, June 13, 2026 at 4:59 PM UTC

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The cast of the 'stupid song' music videoCredit: Courtesy Olivia Rodrigo -

Tiler Peck choreographed Olivia Rodrigo's "stupid song" music video using top ballet talent to ensure authenticity and accuracy

The choreography was filmed at 1.6 times the song's speed to create a slow-motion effect, posing unique challenges

New York City Ballet's costume department dyed tutus pink for the video, creating a lasting memento for the dancers

When New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck was asked to choreograph Olivia Rodrigo's "stupid song" music video, she already knew the answer.

"I was so excited when I first got the call and at the thought of working with her," Peck tells PEOPLE. "I love her music, and my very first call with the director, Mitch Ryan, I felt like, 'Oh my God, finally we have an opportunity to really make ballet something very realistic and accurate.' "

However, the 37-year-old had one request.

"When they asked me if I would be interested, I said, 'Yes, but I want to use my girls.' Meaning if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this right," she shares.

Tiler Peck in the balletCredit: Erin Baiano/The New York City Ballet

"I felt like what a wonderful opportunity to actually be able to use top talent ballerinas," she continues. "I said, 'As long as I can, choreograph it in a way where I can really show ballet and show real dancers, and I'm totally up for it.' They were like, 'That's exactly what we wanna do.' "

Although she had her dream team, the "most challenging" part of the process came when she learned the video would be in slow motion, meaning the dancers would be hearing — and dancing — to a sped-up version of the song in real time.

"When we were talking, Mitch Ryan said, 'It's gonna be shot at 1.6 times faster than the actual song, so that will really end up looking like super slow-mo,' and that was the most challenging," she shares.

While choreographing something in slow motion was slightly outside her wheelhouse, she says it was "a wonderful challenge and experiment for me."

"Non-dancers see dancers doing anything, and they're like, 'Oh, wow, it looks amazing.' But I wanted this to be something that dancers, when we watch it, and dancers in general watch it, can be proud of it," she says.

Tiler Peck in the balletCredit: Erin Baiano/The New York City Ballet

When dance is captured in normal time, people tend to focus on the big moves, but when it's slowed down, Peck notes that even small mistakes or moves can be unintentionally highlighted.

"The in-between moments are actually not normally what you wanna catch on video in slow-mo. You wanna see the beautiful jump or the beautiful turn, but those in-between moments can sometimes have the foot looking not so great," she explains. "It was really fun to get into the studio and actually film myself in slow-mo to see what steps look the best and are gonna be captured better on film. And I had to do that."

The whole process, Peck admits, was "really tricky."

Seven days before rehearsals and filming, Peck had to figure out the timing and how to get the dancers to their end position as fast as possible.

"I realized that the in-between off pointe didn't look as good as being en pointe and the off-balance kilter looked really beautiful," she says. "That was really challenging, but also I was like, 'Okay, this is different than anything I've ever done.' I'm so grateful that I was filming it in slow motion, so I could get a sense of what it was eventually gonna look like."

She notes that, at first, they planned to film the video "at double speed, like two times faster," which she says "literally sounded like a chipmunk."

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"I said, 'Mitch, is she actually gonna do it this fast?' He said, 'Well, maybe we should just hit the ones and the fives because there's no way to actually stay on beat and do something every single count if you're going that fast.' "

Eventually, they agreed to film at 1.6 times the normal speed, which was much more feasible for the dancers and Rodrigo to balance emotion while hitting the steps and staying on beat.

"The song has so much emotion and feeling and space when it's played at the real speed that we had to be able to find that even when we were moving fast, because you weren't gonna end up seeing us moving that fast," she explains. "We had to have that sense of freedom even though we were moving quickly because we knew that that's what was gonna end up being shown in the face."

Thankfully, working with professional dancers from the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre allowed Peck to focus on the routine rather than stress about whether or not they could handle it.

"I had the ability to throw things at them, which I wouldn't have been able to do if I was just given a cast of dancers who just like had point shoes on," Peck shares.

The call time for the shoot was 4:45 a.m., and Peck says the dancers did their hair and makeup in a church. The ballerinas and Rodrigo then took to the New York City streets, hitting their marks while dancing in intersections around the Upper West Side.

"It was just so fun. It was a beautiful day," Peck remembers. "We started early, we started shooting around 6:00 a.m., and we were wrapped by 11:00 a.m."

Rodrigo wanted the dancers to wear pink tutus, but Peck says the original ones looked a little too elementary, so the New York City Ballet costume department stepped in to help.

"At the New York City Ballet, we have handmade, beautiful practice white tutus, and [Rodrigo] loved the way that those moved," Peck shares. "Somebody in the costume shop dyed eight of our white practice tutus pink. Now we will forever have that as a little fun thing at the New York City Ballet, when we see those eight pink ones that aren't white, we'll know that those were in the Olivia Rodrigo video."

Tiler Peck from the NYC Ballet working with Olivia Rodrigo for her new music video.Credit: Courtesy Olivia Rodrigo

Another keepsake from the day is the dancers' pointe shoes.

"I kept my pointe shoes because dancing on asphalt definitely makes them different than when we dance in a studio, and so all of us were laughing at what our shoes looked like after," she says. "We were like, 'We should keep these.' "

Overall, making the video "felt like a homecoming" for Peck, who is a pop music fan herself.

"I could bridge together my favorite worlds in one," she says.

Not only that, but she felt like the opportunity helped "make ballet more accessible" and gave it visibility for those who don't "get to come see the New York City Ballet" in person.

"Not everybody has the resources to do that, but this type of video will reach so many more people, and for them to actually get to see real ballerinas dancing is something I'm very proud of."

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