Courteney Cox Recreates ‘Friends’ Dance With Special Guest After HBO Max Reunion

With the new reunion special streaming on HBO Max, nostalgia levels for the beloved sitcom Friends are possibly at an all-time high. In the wake of this new tide of interest and goodwill, star Courteney Cox decided to give fans a bit of a treat on Instagram. Cox decided to perform the iconic Geller dance routine, and while her co-star David Schwimmer didn’t take part, people will definitely recognize her famous dance partner.

Yes, that is singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran breaking out the choreography alongside Cox. Sheeran is a longtime friend of the Friends actress — he even introduced her to her rock star boyfriend Johnny McDaid — and honestly, they nail the moves until the lift at the end. Cox is clearly ready to perform for Dick Clarke’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve should the need ever arise.

However, Cox was not in favor of performing the routine for the special. Director Ben Winston was in favor of the idea, but Cox and Schwimmer were dead set against a performance. “They just couldn’t remember it. I don’t think they wanted to dance in front of that studio. They’re like, ‘Don’t make us dance in front of a crowd of people,’” he explained on the May 28 episode of The Hollywood Reporter‘s TV’s Top 5 podcast. “It’s one thing doing it when you’re playing Ross and Monica. It’s another thing when everybody’s sitting there, like, staring.” Performing the dance in the safety of your home with friends sounds like a much less stressful scenario for Cox.

“Both of them were like, ‘Oh, please don’t make us do that,’” Winston said. “You’ve got to pick what you want to push. There were certain things I really cared for, like the table read or the quiz. … I also couldn’t work out where it would have worked. I’m not sure it would have landed 20 years later. But it was definitely on my list of ideas that I pitched.” Ultimately, they settled on doing table reads of key scenes instead, including the first Ross and Rachel kiss from “The One Where Ross Finds Out,” which was Schwimmer’s idea. “I knew that I wanted to do a Ross and Rachel section. Schwimmer said, ‘You should get us to read the Ross and Rachel scene. That’d be a really cool thing to read,’” Winston remembered. “David offered loads of brilliant ideas throughout this process.”