The movement and dance teacher took a risk by placing this emotion at the epicenter of the most pivotal scene of season three’s part one. Plus, the hidden parallel that Murphy wants you to pay attention to in episode four.

A stained glass window-lit room is buzzing with laughter and shuffling feet. A hush falls over the cavernous space as clusters of people carefully turn into pairs and places are taken. “I’m ready when you are ready,” a cheery voice booms. “Here we go, have a bit of playtime, keep it fun, keep it fun.”

That voice, featured in “Behind Bridgerton’s Inside the Scene: A Dance Story,” belongs to Bridgerton’s choreographer and movement teacher, Jack Murphy. “I’m playing with process,” he continues. “I’m playing games with a scene that is pivotal for their character development.”

The cast and dancers (who — fun fact — double as background actors in the show) are rehearsing for the pinnacle moment in Bridgerton season three, episode four, when Colin Bridgerton — played by Luke Newton — crashes a dance between Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Lord Debling (Sam Phillips). You might want to watch it twice.

It may surprise you to learn that Murphy’s aim is not so much to craft a mesmerizing dance number, which he happens to do exceptionally well. It’s more to facilitate the director — in this case, Andrew Ahn — in his need for actors to perform as physically adept as they do emotionally.

Just ask directors Jane Campion and Jean-Marc Vallée, or such stars as Emily Blunt, Daniel Radcliffe, Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, James McAvoy, Frances McDormand, Cate Blanchett, and Daniel Craig — all of whom have worked with Murphy on projects set on the screen and the stage. His imprint is all over such movies as The Young Victoria, Vanity Fair, and Frankenstein.

The period dance and movement expert knows a good ol’ ball scene is not necessarily about the moves but is more about the intention. “After you’ve cut in,” he directs Newton, “after you’ve been so without manners, let the manners flood back in. Fantastic. Amazing.”

Movement, for Murphy, is information. How people sit, stand, and walk within these scenes matters. In fact, as we’re speaking over Zoom ahead of the Bridgerton season premiere, he reads me as if he’s a magical movement fortune teller.

“Look at you,” the London-based movement director says to me. “I mean, I could analyze your movement. It’s wonderful. Your energy is just absolutely stupendous and fabulously dramatic. Energy state No. 4, because you’re moving from a place of great positivity in levity, and you’re driven. Movement is everything.”

Actors do not move simply to move, Murphy teaches. They move out of impulse, purpose, need. And in the dance sequence at the queen’s ball, set to an orchestral version of “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, the memorable love triangle muddies movement and dialogue masterfully at the direction of Murphy. And a surprising emotion — rage — Murphy says, is what led the way in this scene.

Ahead of the premiere of part two of the new season, we chatted with Murphy about working with #Polin and preparing for the climactic scene in the final episode before the season’s intermission, as well as the hidden parallel the dance director wants you to pay attention to.

MIA BRABHAM NOLAN: It’s so beautiful to be here together. You’re a choreographer, but one thing I think is interesting is that you’re also a movement director. That adds this whole new dimension. Can you explain that integral layer? What is that work, and how is it different from choreographing?

JACK MURPHY: Well, firstly, what a wonderful question. I like to change that word “movement” around to “meantmove.” What is meant by the move? Every move should come from an emanation of thought. Otherwise, it’s thoughtless movement.

As movement director — or director of movement — I am there to collaborate with a director. I’m there to assist in realizing their vision of the piece physically. A lot of directors I work with are very good at mining the intention of the text, but they don’t have the same confidence with placing that into space. I’ve learned what it is to be a movement director, and I can tell you it’s never the same twice. I can work on plays that do not have a dance in at all.

I trained as a classical actor and studied social and historical dance. I don’t come to actors from being a vocational dancer. I work in the world of drama. Therefore, it is about the spoken word. I’m an enabler. I like to see acting that doesn’t stop from the neck down. Thoughts go through the spine, and the spine should be soft as clay. As Johnny Bailey says about season two, “You learn so much about every one of us when we’re not speaking because [in a way] you are speaking.”

MBN: That’s so subversive. Fascinating. I never think about movement as a language, but you put it into a whole new perspective for me.

JM: I was given this wonderful opportunity in a room by [Bridgerton creator] Chris Van Dusen and [Bridgerton executive producer] Betsy Beers on the very first day. We had the whole cast, and we looked at a “reverence.” We looked to revere. By looking to revere, we were looking at the transitive verb. When you bow and you curtsy, you are showing your courtesies — and of course, the word “court” is in there. How do we behave at court?

I had Golda Rosheuvel [Queen Charlotte] stand beside me, and we had every single one of these fantastic cast members bow or curtsy and show their reverence. It was Chris and Betsy that enabled me to do that from day one. Whenever I’m teaching dances to the actors, they talk to me about the physicality of their character as well.

MBN: In preparation for the “Old Friends” episode in the queen’s ball scene, you say you’re not as interested in the dance but instead in what you call the “kernel.” I want to know more about that.

JM: The dance comes last. I’m only interested in two actors dancing, and knowing at the end of their dance something has happened to them, or they have affected or infected the other. That is where the kernel of it all plays out.

I must say, when I read Jess Brownell’s first four episodes and she placed a Greek myth [Eros and Psyche] in the fourth episode, I nearly had all my Christmases at once. I think it’s fantastically clever because the genre of costume drama asks for actors to play melodrama. Melodrama means grand emotions. And we are playing with the grandest emotion every single time, which is love.

There we are at the queen’s ball, and boy, does it come to a boiling point. Lord Debling [Sam Phillips] is an unspoken hero in my book. Sam Phillips is a dream to work with. He plays heroic physically. He has etiquette when he bows after being rudely interrupted by Colin — I applaud the rude interruption because he needs to do it! [Debling] doesn’t admonish [Penelope]; he guides her. It’s a pinnacle. It really hits a point, doesn’t it?

MBN: Fans are going to ask, so I have to know what it was like being up close with #Polin! Everyone is obsessed. What was it like in those moments when you were rehearsing and practicing the movement for this pinnacle scene?

JM: Working with both Mr. young Bridgerton and our lovely Penelope — who have become friends in the working space — we had to really get sober. When Luke and Nicola and I were in space, we had to bring a kind of sobriety into the room so that we would cast it. Otherwise, we would be too familiar. That was one thing that we spoke about and I certainly was aware of, and they both were too. Practice was applied, very much so.

I was the only person for a very long time that knew that Luke Newton is a fantastic dancer, even though he hides it. He’s performed on the West End stage, and — he probably hates me for saying this — he was in a boy band, as we all now know. Nicola is from Galway, and my father is from Ireland in the county below, so we have this affinity that’s always been there. It was a joy, a joy, a joy.

But at the same time, it was very, very emotional. Incredibly so, simply because I’ve seen them blossom since day one. They are both desiring to be at this place where they can play their love for each other. Don’t forget, in the first four episodes, [Colin] witnesses [Penelope]. He witnesses her dance with Lord Debling. He plays this moment of absolute rage brilliantly, which is then echoed by her when he cuts into the dance. She thinks that he’s blown her chance, and she’s enraged.

But of course, rage is just part of love because of the passion. We did look at rage. We looked at Nicola dancing with Sam — a wedding dance — which would enrage Luke as Colin Bridgerton. Then, we looked at how he needed to walk into that space to enrage Nicola. We didn’t worry so much about the steps. We worried about the intent. We’re going to do damage here; that’s what’s requested. That was afforded by the fact that we’d worked together for three years.

MBN: That is so impressive that that was all conveyed in that moment. There’s so much just in the eyesight, in the movement, in the hands. Before we part, what do you want people to take away from this episode?

JM: We are Bridgerton. We break rules, wonderfully and fantastically so. What I’m absolutely thrilled about is the storytelling of the Greek myth. Although it is danced by ballet dancers, it is very beautiful storytelling that is connected to the parallel story of Colin and Penelope. It is not dance for dance’s sake. It is there because of the brilliance of the writers. It is consciously and subconsciously provoking thoughts in the characters’ heads about what they want. They are seeing self, they are seeing fantasy, and they are seeing reality.

When Lord Debling dances with Penelope, I scale it down to the most simple steps so that [we can focus on] the dialogue and the biggest task. Trying to win back love is one of the biggest tasks I’ve had. I’m very proud of both actors, and don’t forget Cressida Cowper [Jessica Madsen] then joining. There’s wonderful, simple storytelling, but you have to listen. They just happen to be dancing.

I had Golda Rosheuvel [Queen Charlotte] stand beside me, and we had every single one of these fantastic cast members bow or curtsy and show their reverence. It was Chris and Betsy that enabled me to do that from day one. Whenever I’m teaching dances to the actors, they talk to me about the physicality of their character as well.

MBN: In preparation for the “Old Friends” episode in the queen’s ball scene, you say you’re not as interested in the dance but instead in what you call the “kernel.” I want to know more about that.

JM: The dance comes last. I’m only interested in two actors dancing, and knowing at the end of their dance something has happened to them, or they have affected or infected the other. That is where the kernel of it all plays out.

I must say, when I read Jess Brownell’s first four episodes and she placed a Greek myth [Eros and Psyche] in the fourth episode, I nearly had all my Christmases at once. I think it’s fantastically clever because the genre of costume drama asks for actors to play melodrama. Melodrama means grand emotions. And we are playing with the grandest emotion every single time, which is love.

There we are at the queen’s ball, and boy, does it come to a boiling point. Lord Debling [Sam Phillips] is an unspoken hero in my book. Sam Phillips is a dream to work with. He plays heroic physically. He has etiquette when he bows after being rudely interrupted by Colin — I applaud the rude interruption because he needs to do it! [Debling] doesn’t admonish [Penelope]; he guides her. It’s a pinnacle. It really hits a point, doesn’t it?