Juste Debout

Sunday was the UK qualifiers for Juste Debout aka "the BIGGEST battle for standing styles," featuring top rock and 2 on 2: locking, popping, house and hip hop, and @DanceStationTW9 was there to witness and support. So we can testify that it definitely lived up to its title. 

Starting big the day kicked off with the top-rock prelims, which had more than 80 entrants, and then moved onto the locking prelims. This is where it started heating up for Dance Station with Xena, @MissEleanorOfficial and @Brookeplague to support. The action was funky fierce from all of them and @MissEleanorOfficial werked it for her first ever locking prelim, bringing some fresh style to the floor, but @Brookeplague with partner T-Wild were the ones to go onwards and upwards. 

Following this were the popping prelims, which were absolutely dominated by members of Fiyah House crew. @Brookeplague and partner Dickson were one classy act going through to the quarter-finals styling out the shirt and hat look. However, they did have some competition in the style stakes (;D) by a pair throwing out the daddy-daughter wedding dance tradition by entering as a father-son duo in some very fetching matching outfits that led @MlleGinger to claim that they were relations of mine (though obviously they weren't cool enough). 

The battles themselves were hype with each new round bringing at least one thing to elicit a response from the very excited crowd. This was a reflection of the inspiring standard of the competition as a whole, leading to some fabulous final action. Highlights have got to have been:

Hip Hop: Audience participation with the spectators acting as an impromptu safety net 
Popping: Best popping final I've ever seen - an all firehouse cracker - largely due to the musicality and originality being demonstrated by the fabulous four. The Fiyah House chants were definitely deserved.
House: 'The Roses' composed of two brothers including the absolute sickest kid, great to see the next generation coming up, ensures the progression of the scene we love and that's great! 

All of these factors led to hours of us hovering on the edges of our seats - in fact @MlleGinger was so dazzled she just had to put her sunglasses on inside, not that we're divalicious or anything at all. Major props have to go to all the dancers, even if the hardest worker of the whole day was @KleioBow's Shazzam app thanks to DJ DBO. 

The evening ended with us performing our own version of the clown car trick, with five of us squishing into the Kleio Mobile in order to get to Madame Jojos for the after party and bust some moves after being inspired all day. 

Final thoughts: YES UK!! 

What day of the week is it?

Last week we did a bit of a switcheroo in the studio with @MlleGinger teaching the Tuesday marathon and @KleioBows taking over Thursday madness for one week only. 

This meant two things:
1. People were temporarily very confused when walking in through the door - It's understandable, Tuesday and Thursday are similar enough as it is without turning things around to make one seem like the other, shame that April Fools is a Monday otherwise this would have been a good trick. 
2. Old Style Thursday night hip hop made a temporary triumphant return!

This second result of the freaky friday incident (now I'm just messing with your heads) was that for an hour we bounced, partied, moved around like a running man and isolated our necks like a chicken until we got whiplash - just like the good old days and I mean that seriously,  I mean I didn't have to found HARC  (the hip hop aftermath rehabilitation clinic). 

Absolute highlight though has got to be the bringing back of the GANGSTA WALK! Testament to this statement being the look on the face of @Trixiecantswim when she realised it was coming, like a five year old who was having a christmas-birthday-junkfood-weekend mash-up. I think the only way to explain the collective reaction in the studio is to liken it to Phoebe running in friends. She argues that the only way to make running fun is to run like you did when you were a kid, so for those of us (not naming any names) who are queen of the # arewenearlythereyet? whine when on foot, the only way to make it fun is to embrace your inner gangsta and style it out. 

With this in mind, I would, on behalf of the studio,  like to take this opportunity to apologise to all those pedestrians going about their lives in Richmond who will either be massively delayed by getting stuck behind an American Gangsta lope, or bowled over by an English rude boy offensive. If you can't accept this apology then all I have left to say is: if you can't beat them, join them. 

Hip Hop for the recession

You can't open a newspaper, or look online without seeing a reference to the recession. It's all doom and gloom all the time, which when combined with this miserable weather can make for a rather depressing mix. 

So what's the solution? 

Bring the recession into the studio and turn that frown upside down of course! 

Yes I know that sounds mad, but it is completely one hundred percent possible thanks to 'Thrift Shop' by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. 

Take this tune, some funky moves, a freestyle based on charity-shop shopping, and for an hour having only 'twenty dollars in your pocket' makes you the coolest person in the room. 

It's a pretty sure-fire way to cheer you up AND if that wasn't enough it reminds you that if you don't got it then all you gotta do is fake it till you make it. In other words you can choose to ACT FIERCE, even if you feel timid, and soon enough those around you will start to agree.

Move over Maria ...

... Maria Von Trapp that is. 

Raggatone is always chocka-block full of treats, I mean RARC (the raggatone aftermath rehabilitation clinic) wasn't founded without a cause, but this week there was an extra sprinkling of spice with random outbursts of song peppering the the evening. 

I blame the trigger-happy reaction to the cheese of Azonto.

The combination has got to be, hands down, the best one yet. And that's not just because I can do it without looking like a cartoon cat who just got its tail stuck in a plug socket and got the consequential shock of its life. No joke. That was only a contributing factor. 

It had, in reality, more to do with the fun-enhancing bounciness, which, when combined with @mlleginger's imaginative (not at all based on reality ;D) image-painiting skills, produce a hype that is like no other. 

In fact so great was the combo, I know we were all mourning its premature demise by the end of class (grief counselling will be made available and an address to which flowers can be sent can be requested via the "ask Carlee" button). 

However, the fact that there are 3 interim Thursdays between now and Valentines day (which has got all sorts of plans of its own) might mean that it will be possible to perform a miracle and resurrect this bad boy for one last outing at least. 

Obviously this needs to happen because if it fails, the only other option will be to go and do a Raggatone antenna flash mob in Richmond Station - and whilst my dangerous hip movements might entertain @LolaLola_B and @DelphiRose97 to no end, they are NOT something that should be inflicted on the general public under any circumstances.  

JINX

Ok so I know we spend a lot of time together in the studio but we don't actually live there (probably just because there are no beds ....) and so it really isn't an inordinate amount of time. 

At least that is what I believed until waacking on Thursday, when in the space of one hour, there were at least four counts of saying or doing things at the same time (of course this could just be because we're all way too predictable). 

Obviously this was too bizarre for @mlleginger and so the only way to deal with it .... a FIERCE FACE OFF of course!! 

So we learned a quick combo, turned to face each other and tried to fierce each other out. 

This had some rather interesting consequences with @katymillslondon and @Carleebanks going up against each other, which produced a lot of pointing and dramatics but nothing compared to @mlleginger vs. @trixiecantswim. That got dangerous with a serious amount of ducking and diving going on. Gotta be a good thing though as a certain Ginger person came very close to having a nose that matched her hair!!!

However, had this happened, it would have been painful - but perhaps not as much as it would in a stone cold sober situation. 

You see, during Thursday night madness the laughter can reach such a volume it is almost louder than the music and whilst, at first glance, you might think this a completely irrelevant thing to point out, you'd be wrong:

Dr. Bellace, author of "A better high" explains that when you find something funny, the reward centre in your brain is activated (the same part of the brain that is activated by drug/alcohol-induced highs), making it release dopamine and inducing a sense of euphoria. This makes you want to continue with that behaviour and, so if you do, your brain rewards you with:

1. Improved immune functioning

2. Stress relief

3. Increased tolerance for pain

4. Improved cardiovascular health

5. Reduced anxiety 

6. Improved mood. 

Now if that's not a convincing argument to come and join class, I don't know what is!! 

Learning to Walk

So according to a number of  notable child development sources, the average age to learn to walk for humans is between 11 and 18 months. 

The documenters of development have clearly never been to ballet basics at Dance Station. 

If they had their average would be extremely skewed. This is because whilst it may be relatively easy to stamp down the high street in your trainers, or even stride confidently in heels (if you're an advanced walker that is), as soon as this needs to be done:

1. In time to the music (even if this music is a fabulous new playlist) 
2. With arm movements that are not akin to those of a chimpanzee
3. With pointed and turned out feet at all times

It becomes an apparently insurmountable task.

Indeed we seem to have a talent for turning even a simple adage into something far more farcical although I must give credit where it's due - none of us ended up on the floor (something that proves we are improving exponentially) and, I do believe I can explain our seemingly regressive behaviour:

Subliminal messaging can have a large impact on the human psyche (just look at Chandler and the smoking tape - if you don't know what I'm on about SHAME ON YOU) and so I believe that seeing as  Alicia Keys was earlier in class leading us to believe we were 'on fire' we forgot how to walk in our understandable haste to run away from the flames lapping at our heels. 

Thus, all we need to do is change our soundtrack to include Katrina and the Waves instead and we will be good to go. 

And if this still fails we can always take some of that potion that turns you into Mice in 'The Witches' and that will, in the world of Angelina Ballerina at least, solve all our problems. 

We're having an affair ...

Ok so you might have picked up on the fact that we are in a committed relationship with waacking. It is, and always will be, our first love. However, over the last few weeks, thanks to the fabulous Xena and locking, it has been facing some strong competition

It started off as a simple flirtation with the basic lock, but as we moved up a few levels to the skeeter rabbit and such, we were hooked. Add to this a fierce soundtrack and thus began the affair. 

It must just be our obsession with groove and funk! 

The problem is that we're not very good at keeping secrets so not really sure how long it will be before we're caught out.....

Oooh Check us out......

We're so technicalogical (yes that's a word). We're all over the Internet like a rash. So have a sneaky peek:

http://www.dancestationrichmond.co.uk/

http://www.mademoiselleginger.com/

AND don't forget to 'like' us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube. 

https://www.facebook.com/dancestationrichmond?group_id=0

http://www.youtube.com/user/DanceStationTW9

http://www.youtube.com/user/mademoiselleginger

https://www.facebook.com/kleiobows?fref=ts

Feel the Burn .....

With the return of Waacking, there is also the return of RaggaTone  (Call 0208 RARC if you need help dealing with this news, operators available 24/7). 

Clearly, though people have forgotten (or nobody informed new people) that the left hand corner of the studio (where there are no mirrors) IS MINE for my sanity and for the safety of the general public - next week I'm going to have to put a sign up. 

However, this week the focus was definitely on cheese (not the food) and TONE so it was alllll good. Any combo with a beginning that makes us feel like we're in a production of the Lion King and incorporates a little bit of shaking we're not going to complain - oh no! 

In fact the proof of the hype lay in the fact that the music drew the people off the street into the studio, like bugs to a flame(it's soooo beautiful). It's like the people come on a pilgrimage to Raggatone - and seriously who can blame them. However, when a conga line forms from the street to the studio and back we might have to consider lowering the volume (...never gonna happen). 

Back to Waack

YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Waacking is back, it is back, it's BACK, after three weeks, it is back. YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!! 

Do you get the message yet?!?! IT'S BA-ACK! 

@MlleGinger did not disappoint, with a super hype soundtrack to get us psyched up (not that we really needed encouraging .. seriously, do we ever?) as we went through a play-by-play of the waacking rule book. 

Christmas jadedness might have had a slight impact on our floor ownership abilities though - maybe after all the ownership we did at various parties meant we were ownershipped out (if that's even possible?!?!?!). Never fear we'll be back on form in no time flat with the help of the ginger one.  The problem is that now Starbucks has stopped serving Christmas themed beverages we're going to have to find some more spices for inspiration - add some basil doesn't really have the same ring to it as, say, add some cinnamon. 

But this just means we have an excuse to eat (for taste-testing purposes only of course) and to Waack. What more could we ask for!?!?!?! 

 

Super Sunday

Sunday was our first day back from Christmas and boy did we decide to make it count! 

It must have been all the turkey etc. consumed over the break giving us extra-super motivation because so many of us were in for the Sunday marathon. 

First came jazz with the new uber warm-up - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? We will all be goddesses by the summer (or alternatively we will look exactly as we did before Christmas happened but who knows?). Here's hoping it gets easier though as the weeks go by, or we will all just be broken pieces of body within the next couple and that really wouldn't help with the technique! 

Hip Hop was up next, turns out N.E.R.D was all we needed to get us to recover from the jazz spectacular and we were back in the groove in no time. Our rhythm might have been slightly altered by perpetually listening to Christmas music for a good month or so but surely it is reversible (I hope). 

Finally, just to kill us, there was zumba. This was actually helped by Christmas, there was definitely some extra shake going on. 

One thing is for sure, Sundays definitely make us appreciate sleep.