Heather Morris Reveals How She Prepared for First Major Dance Role in 10 Years, Says It's 75 Minutes of Cardio (Exclusive)
Heather Morris Reveals How She Prepared for First Major Dance Role in 10 Years, Says It's 75 Minutes of Cardio (Exclusive)
Meredith WilshereSat, April 11, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
0
Heather Morris in '11 to Midnight'Credit: Rebecca J Michelson -
Heather Morris returns to the stage after 10 years in the Off-Broadway show 11 to Midnight
The Glee alum says the role reconnects her with her love for dance and challenges her physically
Morris also reflects on how her relationship with dance has evolved throughout her career and personal growth
Heather Morris is going back to her roots.
The Glee star and dancer recently joined the cast of 11 to Midnight, an Off-Broadway show co-created by Cost n' Mayor Austin & Marideth Telenko that centers around friends and a married couple as they navigate the last hour before New Year's Eve.
For Morris, she tells PEOPLE, the most exciting aspect of the show is that "I get to come back to my origins of what I love, which is dancing."
"I have had the wonderful opportunity of acting for the last 20 years of my life, which is so beautiful, but I was so grateful that Austin and Marideth ... that they wanted me to be a part of it, that they thought I would bring something to the stage, which is so exciting," Morris, 39, shares.
Cast in '11 to Midnight'Credit: Rebecca J Michelson
The Dancing With the Stars alum, who also toured with Beyoncé's "I Am…Sasha Fierce" world tour right after college, hadn't been on stage for nearly a decade before joining the cast.
She tells PEOPLE that much of the show's preparation came from understanding its physical aspects and advice from other performers.
"I came here and started choreography, and slowly started building it," she says. "And then every opportunity I'd pull a dancer aside, and I'd say, 'What's your meal plan?' "
"I'm trying to over-prepare because I don't want to die in the middle of the show," she adds. "It's almost 75 minutes of dancing. I have a couple of breaks here and there, but I'm trying to prepare my body as much as my mind, because after that, at the end of the day, it's just a muscle."
Cast in '11 to Midnight'Credit: Rebecca J Michelson
Before she got back on stage, she watched the show five times to understand the amount of energy needed for the role.
"There are only seven of us on stage. So, really finding my character, finding the reasons why I'm doing it, and also keeping up with the babies. They come on stage with like 2000% energy, and they keep it up the entire time," she says. "I watched the show five times before I came on stage. That's the preparation I needed for this. It's like getting in it 100% the entire time and not losing it."
Advertisement
Preparing for this role is different from her past gigs, the dancer admits, because she's "finding her character" and hoping the audience connects with the story they're telling.
"One of the main plots is Austin and Marideth, their relationships, and the ebbs and flows of marriage," she explains. "For me personally, it resonates with how marriage can feel so up and down, and with seeing each other eye to eye and understanding each other, even in our most chaotic moments."
"It really is the story of marriage. It's the story of when you're at your worst and your best and how you find each other within those ups and downs," Morris, who has been married to Taylor Hubbell since 2015, shares.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
As she takes the stage once again, the dancer shares that her relationship with dance has changed over the years, having competed on So You Think You Can Dance? and Dancing with the Stars, been a backup dancer for Beyoncé and starred on Glee.
The dancers in '11 to Midnight'Credit: Rebecca J Michelson
"I never grew up with the relationship that dance was going to be my means of income," she admits. "It was never my tool for making money. I thought, 'Maybe I'll do journalism. Maybe I'll find another way.' I didn't think it would be enough to secure me."
"Dance is a gift to me that keeps on giving, even when I think I'm deciding on a different path or going somewhere else," she continues. "Dance always brings me back to myself and my love and just brings out the best in me at certain moments when I feel like not all hope is lost, but that life is changing."
She confesses that her relationship with dance is still changing.
"How can I still dance and find that love? And I do, I love to perform. It's just different. It's different being older when your body doesn't really want to keep up," she shares. "My heart's in it. Or should I stop telling myself I'm old, because that's just a mindset? So am I learning that lesson."
Morris will be starring in 11 to Midnight — which was co-created by the Telenkos and Hideaway Circus, Josh and Lyndsay Aviner — through May 11.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
