Dance life

Jamye Rae is my favorite dancer on the show and this week she made it into the top six!  Next week the final four are chosen and I hope everyone votes for her so she makes it in because she deserves it!

I’ve already posted a blog about Jamye Rae and her partner Daniel’s afro jazz dance, but here are two more of her great dances.

The first video is her and Daniel’s Dance Hall.  I loved this routine because it really showed of her hip hop side, and she looked freakin’ good.  I love the grinding halfway through the dance and dutty winds they did right after, but my favorite part is the pelvic thrust at the end!

This next video is the second routine from last Tuesday’s episode.  Jamye Rae and Everett’s routine was Jazz Funk choreographed by Nico Archambault and Wynn Holmes, and it was the best routine of the night.  In this routine Jamye Rae played a sexy bad ass chick and Everett was the nerdy guy falling for her.   The music in the dance is amazing.  It got me into the routine and went perfectly with the dance.  Everett and Jayme Rae play their characters well, and they both just make me smile. I love the thumb bite, it reminds me of Nico’s lip bite from season one. The dance is so good, I love watching it every time!

So the Black Eyed Peas song ‘I Got a Feelin’ may not be the best, and at times it’s pretty annoying, but I have to admit that it’s generating a bunch of cool videos.

The first one I heard about through the Gazette. A french school, Comm-UQAM or something, put together a video to the Black Eyed Peas song.  It took a lot of preparation, but the cool thing about it is that everything came together perfectly and they shot it in one take.  The camera man walks through the school taping people lip sync to the song and act out the lyrics.  Everything is perfectly on time and really cool, so check it out!

The next video is known as ‘The Famous Oprah Video.’  This one has the Black Eyed Peas on stage performing their song to a huge audience in Chicago.  This video also took a lot of preperation because as the band sang the audience danced along perfectly in sync with each other and the song.  It starts off with one girl dancing alone at the front of the audience while everyone else stood still, gradually as the song goes on more people start to join her until the entire audience is participating.  The best part of this video is when all the audience members ducked down creating a really cool domino effect.  I was blown away, like Oprah, and I’m sure you will be too:

So even though the song may be annoying and always stuck in your head (especially after you watch these videos…haha is it stuck in yours?)  the videos are great and well put together!

I’m sure you’ve all heard about Susan Boyle from Britian’s Got Talent, but have you heard of Diversity, the dance crew who won the competition?  Although Susan was the popular choice for winning because of her recent media exposure (due to her dramatic singing voice hidden behind her average looks), but Diversity deserved to win.  Talent shows like these see loads of talents in all forms, but the most popular always seems to be the underdog singing (like Neil Boyd the middle aged opera singing who won America’s Got Talent) and the young girls who have strong powerhouse voices.  Too many of these talent shows who see jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, gymnasts, and many other unique and interesting talents give the title to singers.  The winners always deserve their title, but I was getting tired of seeing singers win and it was about time we recognized dancers for a change. 

Dance groups have to work together as one unit, and every week they have to choreography their own dances, mix their own music, memorize and perfect each move, prepare there props, effects and costumes, and make sure everything works together in perfect unison.  The preparation and presentation of a dance group is very different from solo singers, so I’m happy the dancers got the recognition and appreciation they deserve for their efforts. 

Diversity is a group of brothers/boys from ages 12-25 from diverse races and lifestyles who came together as friends and dancers.  There are three sets of brothers and four friends, making the number of group members amount to eleven, including the leader and choreographer Ashley.  Their movements are fast and intricate, but what make them memorable are their original choreographies and the way they showcase and integrate the two youngest dancers into every routine.  They have so many funny and interesting tricks in their dances, like the slow motion marathon running and the little guy coming out of the duffle bag (in the first video below) and a robbing the jewelry store theme (in the second video).  In the last video they joined together to make what looked like a transformer, then they became the three buzzers the judges use to eliminate routines and gave the young guy with the big hair three Xs as a joke.

Congrats Diversity on a well deserved win! I hope you enjoye their videos.  

Every dancer knows that it’s not just about the moves, it’s about personality and there’s one thing that distinguishes a dancer from someone who dances, ‘swagga’.  Swagga is defined (on urban dictionary) as “one’s own unique style or personality that sets them apart from anyone else,” so you can see how appropriate it is for dancers. 

When you are taught moves, first you learn them, and then you add your own interpretation to what you’ve learned. For hip hop dancing it’s almost impossible not to incorporate your own signature movement into the choreography because of all the freedom you’re given with the moves.  Dances like ballet or tap on the other hand make it harder to translate your personality into the movement because each move is so precise.

You know you are a good dancer when you have ‘swagga’ as a ballerina or tap dancer, and my best friend Michelle has just that.  She was in a big tap number at one of our past competitions, Superstar, and I was constantly drawn to her.  She added something special to the movements, whether it was in her smile or her shoulder swaying, she entertained me in a way tap usually doesn’t.  She really stood out, and although it may seem like a bad thing to stand out in a dance that’s dependant on uniform synchronization, it’s really not.  At 5678 they were awarding dancers with dance bursaries and Miles had been attracted to a dancer who constantly stood out in her group dances.  He didn’t know her name and he barely knew which dance she was from, but he walked around the competition looking for this mystery girl (it seemed like something straight out of Cinderella the dance version).  As a dancer you need to stand out to be noticed, and the only way to do that is to show off your swagga.  So watch out dance world, “cause no one on the corner have swagga like us.”

like us

Everything in the dance world is connected.  Dancers who teach in conventions end up starring in movies, dancers you see in competitions end up on TV, and dancers from TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance end up judging competitions.  You see the same dancer’s face all across the dance world, and that’s just what happened this weekend at the 5678 Showtime dance competition.  Every dancer recognizes Miles Faber as a So You Think You Can Dance top four finalist from this past season, but I would have never pictured him as a judge at one of my dance competitions. 

Everyone who saw Miles in Tremblant was completely star struck, and we were always trying to catch a glance of him around the hotel or catch his eye while we were dancing.  Every time I was performing I was looking straight at Miles waiting for him to look back, I felt like I was dancing just for him.  This is a guy I watched dance on TV for weeks, I even voted for him, and now he’s sitting watching me dance.  It felt surreal because my team and I were really impressing him. 

Even though I felt respected and proud of myself and my team while Miles was judging us, when he was eating at the hotel restaurant a few tables over or when he was standing a few feet away in front of the elevators I was star struck again.  One day we were all crowded in front of the elevators going up to our rooms. We were standing right next to Miles, inching closer and closer. When the elevator finally opened and my team and I all walked inside I saw that Miles was still standing there in front of our open elevator. I screamed out, “there’s still room for you, Miles” and saw him smile just as the elevator doors closed.  So I never got to ride in an elevator with him, and I never saw him and his intense six pack in his bathing suit, but others from my dance school did! Jealous!

He seems like a really sweet and down to earth guy, and he made the weekend that much more special for my team and me.

Every year my dance school puts on a big show at the beginning of May.  There is usually some sort of theme, like ‘Beauty and the Beast’ or ‘Peter Pan’ (generally the theme is some sort of Disney movie because we have a lot of young kids in our school.)  This year our theme is ‘Enchanted’, which is that new-ish movie that came out with Patrick Dempsey that’s half cartoons half actors.

We did something different this year with our theme.  Instead of just giving the roles to the most expressive or most technical dancers in our school we held auditions to see what undiscovered talent there was.  At first my friends and I were hesitant on trying out, because we weren’t sure what to expect.  The whole competitive team showed up and it was a really relaxed and friendly process.  There was no pressure. 

I’ll just say it; I’m a pretty big creep. I used to try to be cool, back when I thought being cool was cool…then I realized I’m a lot more interesting when I let my inner creepiness shine through.  This being said I let my inner creepiness show like I never had before at the auditions and I got the part of Nathaniel…the biggest creeper in the show. 

It may seem strange to want a potentially embarrassing role in the school’s theme, but I was happy to accept the part. 

When you watch dance, really good dance, there’s usually a story behind it.  Dancing is like acting, and you need to be in the right state of mind.  When you’re dancing to a contemporary or hip hop, you shouldn’t just smile the whole way through.  You have to get into character, and understand what you’re dancing. 

You need o know the difference between a smile and expression. 

There have been times when I stayed in character the whole way through, like last year’s Mary Poppins dance.  I was constantly making weird faces and exaggerating my movements.  There are also those times when I forget about myself and I just think about what comes next. Those are the times your face is stuck in a smile or worse, it’ blank.  It’s the worst feeling to come off stage without knowing you did your best, and when you’re not in character it’s never your best. 

That’s why I’m so excited to be playing a role in my school’s rendition of Enchanted.  Yes it’s because I enjoy being a creep in front of others, but it’s more importantly the opportunity to be a character and express myself in a way I can’t in other dances.  So it doesn’t matter who I am as long as I’m in character.

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The Hannah Montana Movie is AMAZING! I’ve been looking forward to this movie all weekend, and I wasn’t disappointed.  It was the perfect feel good movie.  It made you laugh, cry, and all those cheesy things that Disney movie do. 

Miley is having trouble balancing her superstar life with her normal life.  While going back home to Tennessee she meets a hot guy…a super hot guy… and they fall in love.  This guy is so goddamn good looking, especially during that scene when he’s riding the horse extremely sexually…there kiss scene at the end was pathetic, I would have been all over this guy. 

She has some really good songs in this movie: her Hannah Montana songs were really catchy, but her Miley songs were really beautiful (especially the one she wrote about her and her dad.  I was also really into the last song, ‘the Climb’).  But there was one song she sang, as Miley, which was so funny and cute.  It was called the Hoedown Throwdown or something.  She starts singing this country/’hip hop’ (as she called it) song and she’s making up a dance to go along with it.  By the end of the song everyone is standing up dancing Hannah’s new dance craze.  On the Disney channel they showed everyone how to do it and I can just see a bunch of tweens all knowing this dance.  So why don’t you learn it too

See the movie.  Hannah Montana is cool.  It doesn’t make you cooler to hate her, so don’t.

We all know there are different categories of movies, but beyond the basic horror, comedy, romance, action and drama there are ‘dance movies’.  Dance movies differ from all other movies because they use dancers instead of actors to play the characters.  This means the dance scenes are great, but the acting is a little bit…lame.  The storyline is usually pretty cheesy and the only good parts are the dancing scenes, but despite all that this, dance movies become addictive, like a song stuck in your head.  There is one dance movie, You Got Served, which I must have watched everyday for weeks and I can’t explain why.  There aren’t words sufficient enough to describe my love for this movie when it first came out.  The acting is one of the worst I’ve seen, and several parts of the movie are painfully bad, but when I hear the songs from the movie, or I see the dancing scenes, it takes me back to my living room five years ago when I would turn up the volume of the opening scene and just sit there and watch with a huge smile on my face for 4 minutes and 43 seconds before I rewound the scene and watched it again. 

The opening scene is a hip hop battle between the two crews and it’s so much fun to watch .  Maybe it’s me…but just hearing the song from the opening scene excites me.  Since this movie is so uncomfortably lame and cheesy and cliché I felt ashamed of my love for it, but after realizing that dance movies are in a category of their own where the movie is defined solely by its dancing, not the story or characters, my pride in You Got Served was restored, because for a ‘dance movie’ it’s pretty damn good.  Now I’d like to share it with you…

Last night the Pussycat Dolls opened up for Britney Spears at her Circus concert here in Montreal.  The great thing about the Pussycat Dolls is that, like Britney, they dance and entertain the crowd well, what am I saying, better than well, they are incredible entertainers.  We’re all aware that Britney lip sings at her concerts because she dances, and intense dancing plus singing equals out of breath, but the Pussycat Dolls (or the one doll, Nicole) sing and dance.

Watching the Pussycats Dolls perform was like watching Nicole Scherzinger’s concert with four back up dancers and singers, but wow did it they make it work.  Nicole is an amazing singer, and you can really hear that in songs like ‘Jai Ho’ and ‘I Hate This Part,’ but their dancing was phenomenal every song.  Their choreography was simple, not in a “oh that’s lame” way but in a “wow I wish I was doing that right now, it looks fun” way.  The easier the choreography the more flexibility you have to incorporate your own personality and style into the moves.  So the Pussycat Dolls were consistently hitting every move with massive energy and personality.  Nicole didn’t dance as much as the others because she was signing but I barely noticed because I couldn’t keep my eyes off Kimberly Wyatt (the short haired blonde one who always lifts her leg above her head.)  I used to think she was really annoying because during every performance or music video she would lift her leg, and it was getting old, but when she was doing the choreography at the Britney concert and I saw her live, her energy was so high that I was drawn to her.   

The Pussycat Dolls were performing for forty five minutes straight, no costume changes, no set changes, just them, the audience, their microphones, and their moves.  They got the audience going from beginning to end, and me and my friends were on our feet dancing for most of their performance.      

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I’m a huge fan of dance tv.  I watch So You Think You Can Dance religiously, but another dance show that doesn’t get enough hype or recognition (even from me) is America’s Best Dance Crew.  The show features Hip Hop dance crews from across the U.S. who compete against each other in a series of dance related challenges each week to win the title of America’s Best Dance Crew.  Almost two weeks ago Quest Crew were crowned America’s Best Dance Crew for the show’s third season.  This blog is a tribute to Quest Crew, the winners, because I want everyone who enjoys watching dance to see them perform, they deserve the audience and they definitely deserved to win.

I hadn’t seen one episode of the entire season because I don’t get MTV with basic cable.  I’ve seen reruns of the show on Much Music, but I’ve never been able to be up to date with the show or the contestants.  I saw Quest Crew’s Hip Hop Decathlon video, which is from the second to last episode, only because my friend posted their link on facebook.  When I saw it, I freaked out.  They were incredible, so I watched all their dances from the rest of the season.  I wish I had been able to watch the season from beginning to end as it was going on so I could get swept up in the excitement and anticipation for the finale.  So for everyone like me who missed the season, here’s what you missed, and for anyone who’s already seen them, watch them again.

The first episode of A.B.D.C 3 (America’s Best Dance Crew 3) was the contestant’s choice of both song and dance style.  Way to start off with a bang for Quest Crew, their routine was so action packed my contacts got all blurry because I didn’t want to blink incase I’d miss something.  In case you didn’t notice two of the members from Quest Crew (Hok and D-trix/Dominic) were on various seasons of SYTYCD.  If you watched SYTYCD then you loved these guys, and now we could see them performing their own style with their friends. 

 Here’s the video, sorry it’s blurry:

Omg, their routine from the second week is AMAZING! I was watching it with my mouth hanging open, I swear.  Their challenge was to incorporate a physical activity into their routine, and they got Kick Boxing. The killed the show as Shane Sparks says…just watch.

Week three was Brittney week, and I loved Quest Crew’s choreography, it was so great to see these Hip Hop guys being sexy.  This video is for the ladies!

The challenge for the fourth week was to take a lame dance move from a cliché song and make it cool.  Well they made it cool…

The fifth episode was all about illusion.  They had to pass an object through their bodies.  I love this challenge, I still remember JabbaWockeez dance from season one to this challenge (they had to defy gravity).  Back to Quest Crew, even though their dance was a little gimmicky I still liked it. 

Quest Crew’s sixth dance is all about Dominic, he’s showcased throughout the whole dance and I love it, the last move is amazing. 

This week, the seventh, is their last week before the finale, so they had two dances to perform. Their first was the Hip Hop decathlon challenge I mentioned earlier.  This video gets you hooked, and it made me fall in love with Quest Crew. 

The next dance required them to make their own music and showcase their unique style.  I loved their creativity, and the classical component of their dance. 

So here it is, their last dance.  Thanks for spending over half an hour watching youtube videos, I hope you enjoyed it.  Congrats Quest Crew!