How C Prinz choreographed Charli xcx’s “feverish, fearless” new era
The filmmaker and choreographer breaks down her collaboration with the artist for her post-brat era.
Collaborators Charli xcx and C Prinz create movement that feels spontaneous and alive. Guided by instinct and emotion, they’ve built a shared physical language – one that’s unruly, reactive and full of feeling – across both the stage and the screen.
After reuniting on the video for Chains of Love, a new track from Charli’s soundtrack for Emerald Fennell’s upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation, Prinz reflects on the shared intuition behind their partnership, the blueprint they forged on the brat tour, and what it means to meticulously choreograph movement that still appears feral, free and unplanned.
How long have you been working with Charli?
We started working together building brat from the beginning. We fell into a shared pulse quickly, and that became the foundation for everything we’ve made since.
How collaborative was the process?
The collaboration is very fluid. She brings something so rare – this voltage you can build a whole world around. Our process is very alive. Sometimes it’s me improvising before, sometimes it’s the two of us chasing whatever instinct hits. She’ll move, I’ll respond. I choreograph the cameras to every moment. It’s all an ongoing dialogue. Charli performs from the gut, so the work naturally becomes a back-and-forth of instinct, chaos and beauty. That’s the collaboration: presence, structure, and somewhere in the collision, the movement finds its truth.
Is your work always an impulsive reaction to the music?
100%. I let my body respond before my brain gets involved. The first draft is always just whatever comes out when I play the music insanely loud. Then I refine it, or sometimes ruin it and start again. But the impulse is always the start.
"Charli performs from the gut, so the work naturally becomes a back-and-forth of instinct, chaos and beauty"
How did the themes of destructive love and obsession influence Chains of Love?
I wanted to make the movement feel like what obsession does to the body the way it pulls you forward, makes you fold in, makes you act against your better judgment. It’s desperate.
Did the set design shape the choreography?
It gives it a frame. When you put someone face down on a table, the body suddenly becomes an act of rebellion and surrender. It gave her this mix of vulnerability and power, like she’s exposed and elevated at the same time.
Do you have a favourite moment in the video?
I’m not really one for favourites because everything is building on itself in order to get you to that favourite moment, but I do really love these close-up wind tunnel moments where she slams down on the table. They feel so otherworldly to me.
How did you plan the stunts where Charli is flying in the air?
I wanted to know what it would look like if the feeling was too big to hold your own weight. That’s where the movement starts breaking its own rules.
I went into the studio alone first and just let myself thrash around – no plan, just instinct – filming everything. Then I brought that chaos to the stunt team. I showed them the phrases, the shifts in power I wanted, how the body should feel pulled rather than pushed. From there, it was a lot of trial and error on wires. Variations, tweaks, failing violently until we found the version that felt honest, like an emotional surge made physical.
If Chains of Love were a live performance, how would the movement shift?
Live, I’d amplify the height of the table and make it almost uncomfortably tall so every gesture feels dangerous. Elevation creates stakes. I think it would be interesting to see it even more dramatic in the scenic design. It would feel like watching someone dance on a knife-edge altar.
How did the brat tour choreography feed into this era?
Our work on brat gave us the blueprint: movement that looked unchoreographed even when it was meticulously mapped. That looseness became our foundation. For this era, I let that same instinct drive things, but I pushed it tonally. The playfulness fell away and something more feverish took over.
If a phrase looked too polished or too self-aware, it didn’t survive. It needed grit, tension, and a kind of emotional static that felt earned.
What’s your favourite thing about collaborating with Charli?
She’s real. No posturing, no overthinking. She leads in a way that makes everyone more raw and real around her. It’s rare to work with someone who’s that open and that fearless at the same time. She’s a visionary that has her feet so firmly on the ground.
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