Kehlani Collaborated With High Schoolers for New Video

Kehlani Collaborated With High Schoolers for New Video

By Jael Goldfine
Mar 06, 2019

Fresh off the drop of her stunning mixtape While We Wait, Kehlani shares a shadowy, organic video for her woozy, stripped-back ode "Butterfly." All shadows, black and blue, she creeps around a cavernous dark space, trapped by a stretchy membrane. Per the song's title, the membrane reveals itself as an enormous chrysalis, when Kehlani tears herself out of with clawed nails while two sentries with budding wings of their own perform stark, but fierce choreography just on the other side. She emerges as a gorgeously pregnant, multi-colored butterfly in full body paint.

In a poignant homage to the life cycle displayed in "Butterfly," Kehlani went back to her roots to execute her vision. For nearly every creative aspect of the video, Kehlani recruited the students and faculty at Oakland School for the Fine Arts. "Butterfly" was choreographed by and stars Munir and Musa Omar, two current rising star dance students. Meanwhile her former production and costume design teachers, assisted by students, created the set and Kehlani's butterfly ensemble, which explains to explain its theatrical aesthetics. According to an Instagram post, in which she showed love for the school, some of the school's choir also sings back-up While We Wait.

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"Thank you Oakland School for the Arts for cultivating such a beautiful community, and teaching me so much of what I use today in my career" Kehlani wrote on Instagram.

Photo via YouTube