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

Valentine is WAACK: an epic evening

The legacy of Walt Disney is wonderful in many ways. The music in the films we love to watch when we're little (and maybe sometimes when we're not so little) for one thing, is GREAT - obviously why we didn't get excited by the Disney playlist in valentines ballet at all. However, it also has A LOT to answer for. 

In the films:

1. Boy meets girl

2. They sing a song

3. Something bad happens

4. They sing a song 

5. The problem is resolved

6. They sing a song

7. They get married

8. They sing a song 

9. The film ends 

10. They sing a song 

But the thing is that in reality, life doesn't work out that way because, you know, there's not as much in-tune singing - a great (probably the greatest) majority of the population are in fact tone-deaf and animal singing, if cats are anything to go by, is horrendous. 

So when St. Valentine roles around and Cupid hasn't struck you with his bow, or you don't want to celebrate the holiday for whatever reason, then it must be concluded that valentine is wack. 

To make it pass by quicker, some people bury themselves in their work. 

This is a legitimate coping mechanism but it isn't really DS style, instead we have @MlleGinger to fall back on. 

With a little bit of help from: the Ginger one, Gloria (Gaynor that is) and some FABULOUS 80s fashion, we chose to bury ourselves in our werk instead. 

By employing this strategy, Valentine got a lot more FIERCE and went from being wack to WAACK. 

This is obviously an attitude that is a lot more satisfactory and a lot less damsel-in-distress (which quite frankly is so 14th century (when heels were only beginning to make their first appearance and there were definitely no stilettos in sight). 

Getting into character, because you really wouldn't expect anything else from us lot, our 'oh hell no' fierce-faces reflected the fact that us DS girls are a force to be reckoned with and NOBODY: no man, no woman, no thing (living or dead) should forget that- because if they do, we will choose to show them the music and make it abundantly clear that they should: "walk out the door" because they are most certainly "NOT WANTED ANYMORE!"

Thus by banging out some FRESH choreography in this fashion we went from sappy to sassy in one verse and one chorus, proving that we will most certainly not 'fall down and die' due to a lack of suitable dating candidates being available on the market (seriously scientists get a move on designer babies have been around for a while when you going to go up a gear?!?!?!) because when you have dance, drama, disco and the absolute best friends around, then who needs dinner and a movie - we even had a rose to show for the evening thanks to the gorgeous @LolaLola_B's secret admirer. 

Such was the high that this fierceness created that even the prospect of Raggatone was a lot less daunting than normal.

In fact a feeling of (almost) eagerness fell over me and was, for once, not rescinded as soon as class begun due to the return of ANTENNA - and a super-extended definitelychoreographed100percentvertically version at that!

This routine is great because the cheese factor is so large that when melted from the heat in the studio it covers the parts of the combination when we're close to the floor and I start looking like a frog that's just been hit by a car and can no longer (poor thing) work out how its legs are supposed to work in a coordinated fashion.

As a result we all left the studio buoyed up and feeling like true survivors - something that proved to be extremely beneficial at Throwdown where the highly romantic, 'totes emosh' Krumpers threatened to take out @MlleGinger, @CarleeBanks and @MissEleanorOfficial in their bid to be crowned last ever krumping champion - the chants of VALENTINE IS WAACK should be heard loud and clear(until next year when it won't be on a Thursday)as you accept the fact, embrace it and look out for the footage coming soon. 

And just for good measure: 

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!! 

Celebrations!

And so the christmas party season begins! 

Monday night was our Christmas party. For once we all donned our glad rags rather than our sweaty socks and headed to vodka revolution to party the night away to tunes provided by DJ Dbo. Keeping our eclectic music tastes satisfied is certainly no mean feat, especially when someone is requesting something every five minutes, so the man probably deserves a medal for A)not despairing at the number of times the spice girls were asked for and B) for providing at least one track for everyone to bounce to! 

It was great to see everyone dressed up with numerous outfits getting the @MlleGinger seal of approval. 

 And it was the perfect opportunity to test out some of the moves that we've spent the last year *ahem* perfecting - a particular highlight being Cameo's Candy bringing everyone to the dance floor - funkiest looking line dance I've ever seen that's for sure! It might have been cold outside but it was definitely hot on the dance floor. 

So Cheers everybody! It's been a fantastic year and, although it's not over yet, here's to an even better 2013!

He's behind you ...

This is a sentence often screamed loudly by hundreds of children in theatres across the country throughout December, whilst they laugh at the hero/heroine's inability to notice the baddy creeping up behind them. However, it can have far scarier implications as we found out on our theatre trip to the gala evening of the Bodyguard Musical last night. 

All being fans of: (1)the theatre; (2) scaring the public by going out en masse; and (3) dressing up,  it was always going to be an evening that couldn't fail to disappoint - and so it was with great excitement that we met at Richmond Station ... all looking a lot more glam than we normally do .... and headed up to the Adelphi Theatre in a fashion that was incredibly reminiscent of school trips (especially as we had several actual teachers in tow). 

Having made it to the theatre all together - no mean feat (obviously I've never ever been left behind on the platform watching forlornly at those sliding tube doors due to my inability to push) - we rushed to our seats and ignored the collective groan around us as almost four rows of the stalls were filled with giddy, photo-taking-obsessed, Whitney lovers. Then the show started and all went quiet. 

Though the singing and soundtrack were outstanding from the start, the pulse-accelerating plot line didn't kick off until the second half - but when it did, oh man talk about TENSE. Obviously I will not reveal the exact goings on but suffice to say there was A LOT of gasping, squealing and hand-squeezing going on (@trixiecantswim not being a main perpetrator at all) all leading to the emotional peak of 'I will always love you.' 

Not being in vogue to leave a west-end theatre audience feeling teary and on-edge at the end of a performance, especially with a show honouring Whitney's musical offerings, the encore came in the form of a high energy rendition of 'I wanna dance with somebody.' This was a great excuse for the dancers of the show to come into their own (including @PlagueDanceCrew's Dharmesh Patel), busting out some of their best moves to that banging beat. But more importantly it was a brilliant excuse for all of us to get up and boogie in the seats, in the aisle and all the way home on the train - with our flash-mob-style performance only being curtailed by lack of space on the locomotives provided by tfl. Needless to say the energy was high and all sorts of hilarity ensued - much to the other passengers delight - particularly noteworthy being LOUD renditions of 'I will always love you' to various members of our company across the escalators at Waterloo. 

Overall a great night was had by all, and it was a fantabulous way to kick-off the party season. Just make sure to lock your doors and check under your bed after you read this ... turns out your mum was wrong, monsters do exist! 

Shhhh.........

So we love Santa, how could we not, but given our ever-growing popularity we're just not sure he'll make it round all our members this Christmas and seeing as they are all equally deserving we have decided to take matters into our own hands. Yes to Dance Station Power! Thus we are having our own studio secret santa (wicked idea or what?!?!?!). The limit is just £5 and is going to be great fun - though the fact that they don't sell atlases for this amount may make create a challenge for whoever draws my name from the hat, luckily Geeks seem to be in vogue (about time too) and as such there are numerous appropriate accessories out there! If you want to get involved, let us know on the Facebook group before the end of the week.

https://www.facebook.com/events/385994564817476/386410818109184/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity

Video Phone

Even though I am right most of the time, statistically speaking anyway, sometimes you really shouldn't just take my word for it. The hype-ness of last Thursdays ThrowDown is one of these occasions - check out the videos below for PROOF people. 

Do the Hoedown (Throwdown) ...

... no Hannah Montana fans out there? 

Ok so I'm not talking about the Hoedown Throwdown but the one and only THROWDOWN - the monthly battle held in Brixton's plan B. It's always a hype night but tonight it was the LAST EVER waacking battle! As such, it was always going to have a little bit extra but I don't think anybody expected it to hit the levels that it did. 

For starters SO many waackers entered that right from the prelims the atmosphere was electrifying. Everyone was going all out and it was obvious that everyone had really stepped up their game. Particularly ingenious were the entrances with everybody werking it to the max. Of particular note were: (of the @Waacktitioners) the Prince of England (@NikSnode) standing directly under a red light and then strutting down the bleachers like he was on a deadly mission; Tin Mantis with his acrobatics and GLOWING GLOVES (which I wasn't at all tempted to steal); @EleanorOfficial werking a fur coat like only she can; Dance Station's own @MlleGinger intermingling with the unsuspecting audience to great effect; and Spike who went all tango-tastic to the crowd's delight. Even Dance Stationers @trixiecantswim, @susieq_licious, @CarleeBanks and DS friend Miss Mane seemed to have been infected - living off the enthusiasm of all present and (in the case of Carlee and Trixie) the fact that they KNEW THE SONG!!!!!!!!!. Unsurprisingly the aforementioned 5 (plus Bagsy, Divalicious K and Jade) went through to the quarter finals and this is where it got MENTAL! 

What followed were some of the best rounds I've ever seen (and I know I'm not alone in this opinion) - they were just sooo exciting, especially seeing the @Waacktitioners pitted against each other and watching how this played out. 

First up was @MlleGinger vs. Tin Mantis both of whom bought it. With props (physical) and FIRE (metaphorical) galore it was hard to move your eyes fast enough. The originality and dynamism of these two is really something to witness and something that makes it very hard to determine a 'winner' meaning that an extra round was needed (yay from an audience perspective) raising the excitement levels of the battle to such a level that I'm pretty sure they were illegal. 

Then came @MissEleanor and @NikSnode -  fierceness overload and even more props (although of a slightly less savoury nature this time - hmmmmm). Again the level of dancing was off the charts but what was even more entertaining were the interactions between the two on the sidelines of the battlegrounds with @MissEleanor clearly portraying her disgust at the Princes' very unprincely behaviour (evidently Harry is the influencer and not William) to great aplomb. Thus it's the confidence and presentation of these two that always gets me. You've got to love how waacking let's you fully embrace self-expression and push it to the maxx and it still be enjoyable to watch. 

From here, it was the men who went through to the semis bringing more wonderful theatrics but being knocked out by Divalicious K and Bagsy who went on to create a final of two very different interpretations of waacking - something that is very interesting for the audience - that Divalicious deservedly won, great to see a fierce dancer not being afraid to embrace her femininity and make it look strong not simpering. 

By this stage the adrenaline of everyone in the building was so high I'm pretty surprised there weren't any medical emergencies during track from the hat (in fact I think I'm going to have to suggest that werkaholism is added to the medical dictionary as a genuine affliction to prevent any future catastrophes) only luggage disASters on the way home when delirium had set in. 

Overall it was an AMAZING night. It is really hard to describe the effect that events like these have on the collective morale of those present but I definitely don't think anyone feels blue the next day and for good reason. It's amazing to see a scene that doesn't discriminate but lets you get what you want out of it and evolves as a result. So major props to all involved, I could not have been in Alyssa's shoes. 

Thanks @KatyMillsLondon for the photos 

I whip my hair back and forth

So on Saturday we had a treat! One of our extended family, Lee B (@LeeB_official) from BBC's 'So You Think You Can Dance' was down to teach a contemporary workshop and so the leggings were out in force. Rocking out to a great soundtrack we started with a warm-up, full of the infamous split push-ups (or awkward crouch push-ups in some instances), working our way up to exercises from the corner and then onto the routine.

Considering at least 85% of those in attendance were complete contemporary novices, the fact that we didn't have any major casualties during the corner exercises was a major cause for celebration. In fact as we got the hang of them a bit more and the level of resistance of our musculoskeletal systems went from a level necessary for resisting the dinner invitation from your strange next-door-neighbours to that necessary for resisting a second slice of chocolate cake (i.e. virtually non-existent resistance), we came to really embrace them and were (at least trying very hard) to whizz across the floor. 

Thus we were well and truly in the mood by the time we got onto the routine, especially when we found out that it was to Ellie Golding's "anything could happen" which is a serious TUNE. With lots of  whiplash-inducing and tribal action it was a brilliant opportunity to completely immerse yourself and LIVE in the music - something that is always enjoyable regardless of the style. And so by really throwing ourselves at it, encouraged by Lee's unfaltering enthusiasm and compliments, we all got a fantastic sense of release, freedom and of course fun (even if the exact execution of all the moves reflected this!). 

Overall, although contemporary can sometimes seem exclusive - especially for those who haven't studied technical styles of dance for years - we found, thanks to Lee, something new to embrace and add to our style bibliography. You can guarantee we'll have him back in the New Year. 

Dancing in the Street!

Ok, ok we weren't actually dancing in the street - at least not in a hot lunch flashmob Fame fashion - but we were out actively encouraging the dance-seeking public to come down and join us at dance station by showing off some of our funky skills to great success! We will be out in force again on Saturday so keep an eye out for us and come say hi! 

Snaps for Mademoiselle Ginger

Having spent the afternoon watching Legally Blonde 2 on sky, I have decided that we need to get our own 'snap cup' at Dance Station. Until I can arrange for a physical affirmation-providing beverage holder to be delivered, we'll do it digitally and the first round of snaps go to Mademoiselle Ginger for her epic win last night. Quite honestly if you weren't there I am ashamed, but sometimes people feel it necessary to pretend that they've got better things to do so for your benefit and for inspirational purposes watch the winning moves below. As the clocks go back this evening you've got a whole extra hour to kill, I highly recommend watching these videos on repeat - it's a much better use of time than sleeping and you will be helping to keep coffee providers in business. 

So here you are: SNAP SNAP SNAP (incidentally I'm going to suggest to supermalcom that we shout this out next year to indicate who we want to win rather than whatever it was we were supposed to be shouting as I never did work it out and was rather just making indeterminate sounds .... even though they still had the desired effect.) 

You've got to fight for the right to paaaaartay

So Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year. In case you haven't noticed, Wednesday is in the middle of the week. That means that we feel perfectly justified in partying both the weekend before and the weekend after. So to get things started we all entered a very scary fairytale hosted by Lola (@LolaLola_B) and DS friend Emily (@EmilySinclair3) on Friday night.

 Let me tell you when we dress up, we are very much of the 'go hard or go home' mentality. As a result Trixie, Lola, Mademoiselle Ginger, Kleio Bows, Wild K and Susie Q became: Gladys (the scariest girls world doll you'll EVER meet - especially when it follows yo around), dead Snow White, Withchy Witch, Spider Girl, a flesh-eating zombie and a PROPER vampire none of this sparkling like diamonds and falling in love with humans rubbish. Creations that were all set off perfectly by the AMAZINGLY decorated flat complete with myocardial-infarction-inducing scream mask in the toilet (it even managed to scare Gladys and she's a pretty tough nut to crack given the fact that she is plastic!) and horrific murder scene in the bathroom. Basically it's just a very good job that we all have battle-hardened nerves otherwise I'm not sure we would have coped. 

Brilliant as the night was (trust me you'll never see a bunch of guests that wouldn't look out of place at the Easter Bunny's funeral with better moves), it marked just the tip of our halloween-celebration iceberg. Keep your eyes peeled for many more treats coming up this week. For now though Lola and Emily - thanks for having us!

What a Weekend......

For some the weekends are for rest and relaxation, for wild Saturday nights and overindulgent lazy Sundays but not for us Dance-Stationers! Oh no, for us, weekends are made for battling. And this weekend was a BIG one. So big in fact, that I have had to re-write the lyrics to the Bangles classic "Manic Monday":

"It's just another voiceless Monday,
It's a result of Sunday,
Cos that's my cheer-day,
It's just another voiceless Monday!"

It was of course the street-talent weekender with battles in krump, popping, hip hop, house, breaking, 'me against the music' and waacking. No surprises - it was the waacking that was our main focus.

The Saturday comprised of the pre-selection and once again a few of our own decided to throw themselves to the wolves - all in the name of fun! Waacking disciples @Trixiecantswim, @SusieQ_licious and @CarleeBanks all entered as did resident teacher extraordinaire @MlleGinger - but with very different intentions, Ginge was in for the kill we were more 'in for the thrill.'

Despite this being our second time 'out' so to speak, it seemed infinitely more terrifying this time round for a variety of reasons. Consequently I feel that us managing to get through the 45 seconds (who knew this could last for an eternity) without throwing up was an achievement in itself, but we werked it out - @SusieQ_licious was particularly on it- and came off feeling sufficiently satisfied before going to quench the terror-induced thirst with a quick coca-cola. Thereafter, the weekend went on to improve exponentially as @MlleGinger qualified for the finals the next day along with DS friend @EleanorOfficial, Bagsy and Julia - and so the hype began! 

What can I say about the next day - aside from the fact that I am very glad of my ability to multi-task! The semi-finals came first (Bagsy vs. Julia and @MlleGinger vs. @EleanorOfficial) with Mademoiselle Ginger and Bagsy going through to the finals. You could already feel the passion burning at this stage, especially when @MlleGinger and @EleanorOfficial (comrades in arms and facing each other at Funkin Stylez for the second year running) came together to battle it out to the sweet sounds of Lady Marmalade - two fierce and fabulously dressed ladies + fierce track = FIRE! But this was nothing compared to what was coming ...... 

Although there was a rather longer wait for this next instalment than anticipated (seriously does one not learn that there are ONLY sixty seconds in a minute at school these days - I need to have words with the minister for education) there were some highlights, including 'it's not unusual' dropping during the me vs music prelims - (although seriously if you can't do the running man like a dork then you shouldn't be allowed to dance to this track) and it gave the competitors some time to get 'in the zone,' besides, the final was SERIOUSLY worth the wait. 

True we were yet again reduced to gibbering, hollering, nervous wrecks on the side (even in the position of the not-so-glamorous assistant).

Yes we may have made some enemies in the form of other spectators by kneeling and screaming so loudly I'm pretty sure whatever the nearest doctors surgery to Brixton's Plan B is will be seeing a large number of cases of perforated eardrums in the coming days. 

For certain did I give myself repetitive strain injury from repeatedly making the Holla gesture.

But was any of this regrettable?!? - NO FRIGGIN WAY! Getting to see someone fulfil a goal -and not just satisfactorily but absolutely kill it -  as a result of pure power and passion is an experience that nothing can detract from. Bagsy put up a determined fight but @MlleGinger was sooooo embedded in the music, it was exhilarating and impossible to beat. For that oh Ginger one you amply deserved your crown and we salute you with this aptly named track: 

Bronx to Brixton......

....... or technically Richmond to Brixton but that doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

In case you didn't know this, and quite frankly if you didn't I'm ashamed (I mean it's not as if I didn't know this time last year or anything because I totally did ..... really), this weekend was the UK B-Boy championships WORLD finals and Dance Station was there in force. Featuring solo popping, hip hop freestyle and bboy battles as well as bboy crew battles, it is one of the sickest events of the year. In fact it is so sick, it seems to have been responsible for causing a terrible affliction whereby all us dance-stationers were left almost incapable of any type of complex, higher-order vocalisation that involved words, or at least words that made sense, and instead were reduced to a more primal form of conversation - namely screaming. 

However, I feel there was a bona-fide excuse for the level of excitement responsible for this evolutionary reversion (oh how I hope Darwin isn't turning over in his grave) and that was the amount of UK and female talent representing on stage! Seriously forget about the 'super saturday' of the Olympics, watching Brooke Milliner get to the final for popping - a FIRST for a UK dancer - and Soul Mavericks also get to the final for the crew battle was such a heart-in-your-mouth, butterflies-in-you-stomach, jelly-in-your-knees experience that I'm not sure my vocal chords will ever quite recover. Although neither took their respective crowns in the end (depriving the DS-ers a chance to "Church" much to their collective disappointment) theirs was a moral victory, as both Brooke and the Soul Mavs crew not only showcased the level of talent in the UK from a technical perspective but the level of originality, community and pride - traits that we often forget about until events like these pull us together and make us remember - and for that we can only thank and congratulate them. 

This is not to say there were no trophies taken home by UK peeps. One of the more bizarre (surreal, utterly bonkers, disgustingly shallow - take your pick) events of the weekend is Crazy legs' "fresh award." Basically this involves members of the audience going up on stage and consenting to their 'look' being torn to shreds (or potentially in hip hop speak 'cussed to chunks') by the audience and crazy legs himself. And whilst I cannot ever fully condone an event that incorporates a "thong check" (in my opinion Bridget Jones has the right idea) it was a bit of a welcome light-hearted relief from the nail-baiting drama. PLUS this year Miss Eleanor (@EleanorOfficial) fellow crew member of DS residents @KleioBows and @MlleGinger only went and won it! Man oh man can that girl WERK, if only I could bottle some of that confidence and sell it I'd be a millionaire!   

Overall, it was an aMAZing weekend. These events only serve to highlight how passion can bring really REALLY diverse groups of people together in a way that cannot be replicated by anything else - in fact it was so inspiring we've all sworn to enter next year with the intention of not just smoking some brehs but annihilating them - see you all then! 

FIELD TRIP!

When they don't involve wading in rivers to measure flow rate or counting grass to calculate the impact of compaction on species diversity, field-trips are dope! This is why once a month we inevitably end up tearing our way to Brixton after class to get to plan-b for the infamous Thursday night Throwdown.

Last night we went to witness the last ever seven-to-smoke popping and two-on-two bboy battles - we were not disappointed. Although I'd like to claim it was our presence that was responsible for the atmosphere being even more hype than usual, I suspect it had more to do with the Bboy champs (this weekend wohooo) providing international involvement for added tension. Where else do you get this much of a cultural induction as well as class? It may make work the next day interesting and the next three weeks seem like a really long time, but it is sooooo worth it. See you there next month or see you in class and we'll have our very own seven-to-smoke! 

Show Time!

Kleio (@Kleiobows) and Mademoiselle Ginger (@MlleGinger) proved that it's definitely NOT a case of 'those that can't do, teach' here at Dance Station. Performing at a private black and white party on Saturday night, they not only wErked the dance floor but ranked pretty damn high on the style stakes too showing us doubting Thomases that you really can take a jacket, rip off its sleeves and produce a banging waistcoat hey presto!! ( ... well so long as you're pretty nifty with a needle and can deal with the carnage of the first stage that is...) HOLLA! 

Welcome!

This is the brand new Dance Station blog to keep everyone up to date on all the shenanigans that go on both in the studio and out! The aim is to let people know that Dance Station is so much more than just another commercial dance studio, it's a community, and one that we are very proud and fond of. In keeping with this aim we'll post on anything to do with the dance world that our members are talking about (even if this mostly consists of SHOES) to keep the conversations flowing. In that vein if there's anything you want us to discuss just let us know! So for now get comfortable, read on and get acquainted with the wonderful world that is Dance Station.Warning the saying 'err on the side of caution' definitely doesn't always apply in our case and neither do we always err on the side of sane!  

P.S. Want to know why all the writing is in italics?? 

It's because everything is cooler with a tilt. This is a FACT. 

Waack Date the Third!

Shake Your Groove Thing!

Waack Date is an event masterminded (rather brilliantly, in my humble opinion at least,) by our very own Mademoiselle Ginger with the goal of putting the social back on the agenda of waacking and other freestyle dances. Every waacker brings a 'date' who specialises in a different dance style - be it popping, locking, house, breaking, jazz, tap whatever! The top eight couples (selected by a preliminary round in which only the waackers freestyle) then battle it out to be named waack date winners whilst everybody else supports and has a good old boogie!

This event has happened twice and both events have been hype! But what was the cherry on the cake this time (for us anyways) was the level of dance station involvement. The Dance Station Massif was out in force last Sunday at madam JoJos to support Ginger's event and members Trixie, Lola B, Susie Q, Carlee Banks and head instructor extraordinaire Kleio who all entered! For Trixie, Lola, Susie and Carlee it was their first time showcasing in a public arena - que knocking knees and butterfly bellies but although none went through the prelim they all survived without forgetting to waack, falling over  and/or throwing up - SUCCESS!. Kleio, however, went on to battle brilliantly with her locking date, Frankie, cheered on rather loudly by the rest of us. In fact the supportive screams for Kleio and Ginger, during her showcase, were of such ferocity, several of the massif were rather hoarse the next morning - a price well worth paying.

Overall, the whole evening was truly marvellous. The atmosphere was one that can only be created when a community comes together to celebrate a shared passion and the enjoyment that this created was evident on the faces and in the spirits of everyone in attendance. From this it is clear, that events such as these enable the inclusion of a far wider fan base than was previously possible and consequently ensure the future of a form of expression that we at dance station ADORE. So all we wanna know now is - when's the fourth date Ginge?

Happy Birthday to ya!

Dance Station turned 1 in September and because we need far lesser excuses to party we celebrated in style (or at least we tried to!). Vodka Revolutions in Richmond played host to us for the evening and for ambience and atmosphere it was great - it's music choices, however, were slightly lacking. Despite numerous attempted negotiations with the DJ we just could not get our own way, determined as he was to stick to the charts and not stray into the unchartered (in recent years at least) territory of disco and old-skool hip hop! This may have been because our demands were in the minority and not the majority but would it have really hurt to play cameo's "candy" at least once when we were so willing to perform the dance routine for what surely would have been the entertainment of the remaining clientele?!?!?! I think not! But apparently dancing on masse went out of fashion along with hair rats and platform shoes - Alas. Luckily our moves are such that we can dance to anything (within reason) so long as we've got good company and that we had in abundance. Thus all in all a good night was had by all - bring on the Christmas Party!