My First Music Video

    When I finished with Latonya's training, I was invited to be part of my very first official music video with Dancehall dancer, artist, and organizer, Stacia Fyah.

 Stacia was a presence all on her own, bursting with femininity and artistic power. She is the creator of her own style that she has coined as "Confidence Dancehall", which is all about having confidence in your own body, and self to be the best dancer you can be.

 Stacia herself has strong ties and connections with the Reggae community, and was one of the original Dancehall queens back in the day. As a teacher, she is playful and humorous, inspiring her students to not only go full out, but add their own style and flavor to the Dancehall steps they learn. Stacia is well-known for having created steps such as: Fabulus, I-Bless, and Katankorous. She loves encouraging her students, and women in general to "shake up their Bam Bam."

From these ideas, came the vision for her music video, and single. When she asked me to be a part of the video, I was a little nervous. It was my first time being part of a project like this, and I didn't know what to expect. 

The first round of shooting was immediately after my training with Latonya, so needless to say, I did not come well dressed. Decked out in my war-torn, sweaty black sports bra and black shorts, I scrambled to make my hair and face not look like it was violently attacked by birds. Stacia said it looked fine, but I couldn't quite walk into the shoot with the right amount of confidence. 

The first shoot was inside Dance Jamaica, and I was joined by  Stacia Fyah, and two foreign girls, one a Dancehall student from Australia, and the other my friend from Finland who was also a Dancehall student and teacher. We began by rehearsing some of Stacia's steps that she had combined into a short choreography. After we rehearsed, we did a group shot with Stacia in the center, and the rest of us gathered around. 

Then came the individual shots. During this part, we all danced freestyle to the song while the camera man, ( Laddie, Latonya's brother) filmed some close ups. To be honest, at this point in my dance journey, I didn't feel as confident as I wanted to during this part. I was still developing and. perfecting my moves, but I definitely gave it my all and tried my best. 

After filming inside the studio, we decided to change location to the Dance Jamaica mural outside the studio. For this part of the shoot, we took the whole "shake up your Bam Bam" concept to a whole new level. By this, I mean that we decided to use big, bouncy yoga balls. This was definitely one of those moments in my life where I thought, "how did I end up here?". Sitting in front of this mural with a Jamaican artist bouncing on yoga balls, shaking our butts while all of it being captured on film. Needless to say, I did not shine in this ball bouncing part of the music video either, and instead Stacia decided to focus on my Finnish friend who seemed to take this task head on. When the ball scene ended, we decided to take a break and reconvene the next day to film the final scene.

A visual of the bouncy ball scene

The next day we filmed the final scene of the video. This time, the group of girls was a lot larger, so I was able to blend in. The dress code for this shoot was bright colors and floral prints, and since we had more time to prepare, I felt a lot more confident about my outfit. This part of the shoot also took place at Dance Jamaica, but this time the location changed to the entryway. As girls decked out in bright floral patterns slowly arrived, we spent the waiting time talking and connecting about our experiences in the country thus far. Most of the girls were foreign. Some were European Dancehall queens, some were students there traveling, and some were friends. When it finally came to film, we got into a tight formation of two lines of bright floral bootys, and our queen Stacia at the center. 

The group of girls for the last shoot ( me looking very unsure about what is happening.)

The line of floral bootys

Me before the shoot began

It felt great to be part of something so new in a country I was just getting to know As new as everything was, I felt like I was finally being welcomed into a community, and Jamaica was slowly becoming my new home. 

    

Training with the Queen

 When my time at the camp ended, it was time to move on to my next training. This time with the queen herself, Latonya Style. Before beginning her training, I came to know her from her famous A-Z videos she would post on Youtube that mainly consisted of her performing various Dancehall steps starting with a different letter of the Alphabet. This, however was only one tiny aspect of her greatness and magnitude in the Dancehall world. 

Latonya is not only a dancer and a teacher, but a certified business woman and CEO of her own company, owner of her own dance studio, and a well known and recognized cultural ambassador. She was one of the first Jamaican, female dancers to travel abroad to share her knowledge of Jamaican dance and culture, and subsequently opened her dance studio, Dance Jamaica to create a space where foreign dancers could come and learn Dancehall directly from the source. If you look back at Jamaican music videos from the early 2000's, Latonya is often the star, front row center leading the dancers in choreography and movement. To add to this, she has created her own brand, Stylish Moves, which includes her own steps that fuse Jamaican Dancehall with other styles such as jazz, hip hop, and Afro. She also has a clothing line, and various sets of manuals and tutorials that break down all of her steps, as well as "Old skool" and "Mid stool" female dance steps. 

I took my first real class with her the first time I visited Jamaica at her studio along with some other dancers. This time, it was just me and her alone. I had applied to be a Stylish Moves tutor and go through her training before returning to Jamaica this time around. The training was a week long, and lasted a minimum of four hours per day with small breaks in between. 

We began the training on Day 1 by going over some of the history of specifically Female Jamaican Dancehall, and some of the key moves and steps created throughout the various eras. Latonya didn't treat this as just a passing of information. In fact, I was required to take notes, and make sure I memorize everything she was saying. After the lecture finished, we went on to practice some of the steps she spoke about. Some of the steps we touched on were "Gogo Wine", "6:30", "Duck and Dive", and a lot more. I felt honored and overjoyed to be dancing in the presence of this Queen that I had so long admired. 

The next four days were dedicated solely to her "Stylish Moves" program, covering a variety of different steps created by her, covering all of the letters of the Alphabet. Our mornings were spent dancing, and going through the steps, followed by a short break of running to the restaurant next door to grab a nice snack and fruit. Much like the camp, at the end of the day I would finish sweaty and exhausted mentally and physically, but more inspired by the minute. On some of the days after training would finish, there would be an event at the studio, and I would sit in the corner as a fly on the wall, completely entrenched. 

During one of the days, Kool Ravers (a member of the group Ravers Clavers) came and taught a group of young children about Dancehall, and his famous dance move called "Fling". As the room filled with excited faces, wafting the scent of KFC and orange soda, you could feel the pulsations of excitement in the room. 

I was slowly taking everything in, still. The excitement was still far ahead of me.

Little did I know, I would soon become part of a music video. 

Latonya and I in front of the famous Stylish Moves Sign at Dance JA

Just casually posing outside Dance JA

First Picture of the Training