Let us dance for you

In life it always helps to have a motto or a Disney-packaged life lesson to get you through the week successfully. You know like 'Hakuna Matata' which, in case you've been living under a rock and didn't know, means no worries. 

However, great as it is, Disney can give you a little bit of a toothache, because the films never show you what happens AFTER ever after:

Thus here at Dance Station we've decided it's far safer to be guided by these two insider-coined sayings:

1. Werk Now  - Work Later @MlleGinger
2. Bang Bang Bang LET'S DRESS UP @KatyMillsLondon 

We've chosen these as our guiding principles for life, for the simple reason that when they come together pure MAGIC happens.

This was illustrated once again on Thursday night by the 'Chorus line Waack.' 

Starting with some mad on the floor, floor-ownership skills, feeling the music, feeling the moves and channeling our inner Cassie-passion "We, oh people of Richmond, we are dancers!"  we got into the zone .... deep into the zone (not that we ever really need that much encouragement, let's be honest) and that's it we were off! 

The studio mirrors (so artistically playing the character of 'unidentifiable man of dreams'  that a Tony Award is almost certainly on its way) never knew what was coming for them - faced with all that lycra and all that drama they never stood a chance, I'd almost feel bad if it wasn't so much fun! 

This all building to the Pikachu moment with full on fierceness flying in all directions - and given some of the moves I'm very glad it was only fierceness flying believe me (I'm not sure loss of limb is covered in the insurance policy)! 

Everyone was going full out to convince ..... someone  ..... that they deserved .... something. A time for the word 'werk' to be banded about freely if there ever was one. 

In short it all became simultaneously totes emosh and totes amaze and, just like in a Disney movie, a happy ever after was reached .... with @MlleGinger and @KleioBows showing us how it's done (see in the video below). 

The concern is, of course, that when we leave the studio we forget to leave the zone that we enter whilst in it ... call it method waacking if you will. This can be potentially problematic out in the real (and very much more boring world) where I, for example, am constantly told in appraisals at work to be more assertive and immediately want to respond by entering all meetings in full on floor ownership mode.

This wouldn't have been such a problem last week but now it includes actually hitting the floor, something which is very hard to do in a pencil skirt and heels. 

At least it is for those of us with only elementary level skills in floor ownership, like myself. For experts like @MlleGinger and co. it would be a piece of cake I'm sure. Therefore, the solution to the problem must be to up my skill level. How to do this I wonder .................

........ no idea, I'll just have to keep thinking I guess (or get the name of a good doctor ;D ). 

Ah ha! I've got it: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT so come on Ginge, when's the next one?!!?!?!?!?!?! 

Until it occurs, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WiFh93Fiys

Werk IT!

Ok so our role as professional 'cheerers' is one that is very well established and (if I do say so myself) we're pretty damn good at it.....but what happens when we're the ones on the stage and not the ones screaming in the audience?!?!?!

Well on Saturday 20th April, we decided to find out.

Over a series of four rehearsals we put together an ab-fab set choreographed by @Kleiobows to a rather eclectic soundtrack that reflected our rather erratic natures with the aim of performing at the annual RichDance festival, this year being held in Hampton School. 

What did we learn from this experience? 

For one that none of us were born with an internal compass. In fact pretty much every single one of us has an absolutely dreadful sense of direction. Indeed the number of times we had to run through the 'traffic' report so we could all get from A to B without taking anyone out made me seriously question my resolve to get behind the wheel of a car - seriously if collisions are that dangerous on two feet why on earth would you risk getting in one on four wheels!!!! 

Having said this, public transport became rather equally dangerous during this rehearsal period as, given its short length, we all took to squeezing in a little bit of extra practice whenever we could. This meant utilising every bit of dead time available. Thus the most common rehearsal space became the incredibly acclaimed Bus Stop .... except for in the case of @CaitlinLock who decided instead to thrill/terrify her canine friends instead*.

It paid off though because by the time it came to show day we WERE READY! 

Arriving at the school bright and early in the glorious sunshine, showing off our gloriously multi-coloured trousers, we hit the stage for the tech run and then just kept on running (not least because running across the stage in the first black out induced a certain amount of groping). 

Sure there were some pre-show jitters ..... let me tell you it's a very good job that Hampton School has good plumbing facilities otherwise it could have been in some serious trouble .... or we could have been  - whatever, it would certainly not have been pretty - but ...

....luckily these nerves melted away once we got out there for the real thing, largely due to some very loud and supportive audience members in the form of @Mlleginger, @KatymillsLondon, @Hailstonehoop and @KleioBows. They were there telling us to WERK from beginning to end. This may have been much to the disgruntlement of the rest of the very much more sedate congregation in the auditorium, but who cares? - sure made me smile. 

And......what was the outcome you ask?

We all came off in one piece (or largely in one piece, a few of our b-girls were definitely missing some skin on their kneecaps) and on a rather massive high as we celebrated the lack of any major disARSters - whoop whoop!

A celebration was definitely called for, luckily the sun-dappled banks of the River Thames provided the perfect location for this. Here we could be free to upstage the street performers (really not hard when you try and sing 'Proud Mary' as a ballad) with @Katymillslondon and @MlleGinger's rendition of: "contemporary in three moves," and let out all the hyperness in peace .... that is until we tried to go in to eat and they decided that my lack of ID meant ACCESS DENIED, luckily the Ginger ninja was there to save the day (yay) ... quiet we may not have been but I'd take being FIERCE over being a push over any day. 

To conclude: 

WELL DONE GANG WE SMASHED IT! 

*No animals were harmed in the Dance Station RichDance production* 

Waack Date: Bringing Social Dance Back

Recently, for various reasons, Spiderman and Love have been some of the main themes organising my thoughts (and those at the studio as well). At first you would be forgiven for arguing that these two seem completely disconnected especially since, given my schizophrenic lifestyle, I am sometimes wont to going off on tangents, BUT if you dig a little deeper the two can be clearly linked by using THE Spiderman quote “with great power comes great responsibility.......’

Still confused? Allow me to elaborate: 

Love, in my opinion, is one of the most powerful emotions and with it comes the responsibility to promote, share, support and protect the thing that you love. 

For us at Dance Station, that thing is dance as a whole, more specifically the ‘dance scene’ and most specifically (no surprises here) waacking.

It’s important to all of us that the heritage (i.e. the foundations of the individual styles and the fact that all these forms weren’t born in the studio, they were born in the club) of waacking, and other forms of ‘street dance’, is conserved  but not preserved. 

The difference being that preservation is what’s done when we want to keep something in its exact original state, like the Egyptians were trying to do when they created mummies, whilst conservation is what’s done when we want to maintain the essence of something but allow it to change in a natural way. 

In other far less flowery words, us lovers of waacking, (and lovers of other street dance styles), never want it to lose its foundations but also don’t want it to stagnate and stay the same but to grow, develop and EVOLVE. 

One way of doing this is to bring new people in; people with a love and appreciation of all these styles whether watching or performing people, with fresh insight and fresh ideas yet a shared understanding of where a style has been and where it’s going. 

But the question is how to do this?

In a way that is probably very indicative of the differences in the way our minds think, I spent an inordinate amount of time devising an algebraic formula that describes how and @MlleGinger created the one and only event: WAACK DATE - an event that simultaneously conserves the heritage of street styles by bringing the social element back and supports their growth by  allowing dancers of different styles to interact with each other in a completely unique way: 

By pairing one waacker with a ‘date’ of a different style and pitting the couples against each other in a fight to the finish, waack date allows waacking to reach a far wider audience than it has in the past and allows dancers, through observation and training and the creation of KICK-ASS combos, to expand their vocabulary and, consequently, take their styles up a gear. 

It really is a battle event like NO OTHER, one that feels fundamentally different in its energy and atmosphere, and the fourth date was on a whole different planet to waack date the 3rd with Anna Ninja and Sofiabulous appearing as guest battlers. 

Whilst there is still the hunger for the win on the floor, there is also an electric atmosphere where it is clear that all the people (and believe me there were A LOT of people with the doors closing just under an hour after opening!) in the building are absolutely LIVING their lives either performing or spectating. It being obvious that by not just bringing back, but celebrating, the social aspect of all these styles @MlleGinger’s event puts the fun and the sheer HYPE back into the battle ground. 

The energy that this creates makes all the spectators, even those who might not normally come to underground battle events, feel welcome and part of something HUGE and makes those on the floor feed off each other in such a way that it liberates and makes it feel, not only ok, but really great to try something new - a feeling that yours truly definitely enjoyed and proved to be a MAJORLY successful formula for Dance Station’s own @KleioBows who, along with her fellow musical-theatre-technical-breh partner Dharms absolutely killed it and went on to win the whole thing (snap, snap, snap)!! Throwing themselves all over the place in ways that I have never seen before and clearly having the absolute time of their lives - even when facing the fiercely formidable Anna and Sofia (who had taken out all the competition so far by being OFF THE CHARTS SICK) in the final

You can see how all of this WENT DOWN in the videos on @MlleGingers YouTube account (see below - and pay particular attention to my highlights: 1. Kleio and Dharms vs. Shyno and Bagsy - especially Kleio's round kicks - 2. Anna Ninja and Sofiabulous' first round of the night in their battle against Miss Eleanor and Kieran, 3. The 'split' combo by Kleio and Dharms and Kleio's knee drop in final) and, by listening to the crowd, you can get a sense of how hype it was in there. 

What you can’t get is even one tenth of what it feels like to be there, to be part of it, to scream and shout until you’re hoarse and to jump up and (if you are as diplodocus-ified as I am) fling your hands about until you knock beer all over the people sitting next to you (much to their annoyance) because there is simply no other way of expressing how psyched you are feeling when you see some of the stuff hitting the floor, and to come away feeling (especially if you are getting a lift home with the WINNER) as if you are high on life. 

To put it mildly, you walk out feeling like Eliza Doolittle i.e. as though you could have danced all night and still have begged for more. No. To get any of this you will just have to come to the fifth one - it’s going to be MASSIVE do not miss out!!!! 

Long live waacking, long live battling, long live @MlleGinger, @NickyShort, DJHooch, @The_TDA (the team) and LONG LIVE WAACK DATE! 

http://www.youtube.com/user/mademoiselleginger?feature=watch

The mind is a dangerous place

Raggatone is a pretty dangerous class to be in on any given day. I mean you have to control all your limbs at once in a very co-ordinated fashion, and try to avoid smashing the mirror with your reflection - nobody wants 7 years of bad luck after all. 

There is a safe haven however, it's called the mind. 

In your mind you can retreat to your happy place (the dinosaur bit in the Natural History Museum of course) and let your body just get on with it - I mean in my case it does its own thing all the time anyway irrespective of my very specific instructions so in energy conservation terms it makes sense to let it have a greater degree of autonomy during this one hour of the week. 

As a general rule this coping strategy works pretty damn well. This is evidenced by the fact that I have yet to be rendered blind by the sight of any of my ill-fated attempts to be sexy - a very clear indication of the ability of the brain to retreat and protect itself when faced with extremely traumatic sights. 

However, this week a couple of conspirators collaborated to remove even this option. They are called my ears and the brain of @Trixiecantswim. That brain is really like Wonderland - some of the things that you come across, just like Alice does, are truly brilliant but others are really truly terrifying. 

Unfortunately on Thursday the images it was conjuring were not entirely conducive to a trauma-free Ragga-sesh.  And I know that I am not, for once, being melodramatic because even the Ginger one had to struggle to keep hold of the plot before it was completely lost. 

So apologies Sean Paul for what we did to the legacy of your song. We will attempt to redeem ourselves next week - we ate A LOT of cake to aid in this mission (having more to shake can't hurt after all).

This is craaaazy!

On Thursday night, amidst the drills and the drama we took a little experimental detour into commercial inspired waacking territory, werking it out to Carly Rae Jepson's 'Call me maybe.' 

The result is that, as if we didn't already know it, we are now guaranteed to always be the fiercest girls in the club. So if you're out part-ay-ing with us, and trying to vie for all the attention, or trying to take us on at .. say Waack Date ... you better watch it - and here's why:  

We threw a waack in the air,
Don't ask why, we'll never care 
You looked to us with our flare, 
And now you're on our way. 

Waacking to pop's not a sin,
Footwerk and arms for the win, 
We don't care if you're thin.
Cos you're not in our way. 

Fierce pose we are holdin',
Disco pants, shoes we're showin'
Hot right? Moves we're throwin'
Where you think you're going, baby? 

Hey, we just met you, 
And this is a call-out,
But here's the tra-ack,
So go on, Wa-ack. 

It's hard to look right,
At your outfit, 
But here's my ro-ound,
So follow th-at. 

Hey, we just met you, 
And this is a call-out, 
But here's the tra-ack,
So go on, Wa-ack. 

And all the other girls,
Try to haze me, 
But here's my title, 
So follow th-at.

In other words, we're pretty damn feisty down at DS - must be all the Ginger spice, and we are in TRAINING so if you want to get as fierce as us you better come down to the studio soon.