Dancehall! {I'm gonna fake it till I make it!}

I love Dancehall style of dancing. I'm still in the fake it till you make it phase. I'll probably be here for awhile. Zumba has lovingly embraced the music and dance stylings of Dancehall. It is a presence at Zumba conventions, including visits from such Dancehall greats as Sean Paul. One of my favorite Zumba Jammers, LaToya Bufford, a Dancehall master, infuses her amazing routines with her special flav of DH.

I told my Zumba class that I would record and post one of my Dancehall inspired dance fitness routines.

Here it is.

Together we can fake it till we make. It's more fun that way!

Every choreographer needs to search for their inspiration. It might be through literature, paintings, poems or screen. Or the fabulous You Tube!

Here are a couple of routines that I found that helped to inspire some the moves. If you watch them you will notice that they are much more complex than the dance fitness routine I choreographed. That's because they are choreographed as dance pieces for trained dancers. Dance fitness routines are usually choreographed to make fun dance moves and great musical flavors accessible to a larger population, one that doesn't necessarily need to have an extensive dance background. Dance is for everyone. Everyone needs to dance.

This one is a great ensemble piece.

This girl got moves! Perhaps in my next routine I too will include twerked out splits (jk).

Interestingly, Dancehall is very popular in places like Russia and Ukraine.

Thanks for hanging out.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~Erin.

What's your favorite "fake it till you make it" thing? Found a great sounding Dancehall song? Let me know! 

Hunting Down Holiday Music {it's the most wonderful time of the year!}

Image source.


Every year around this time I start the search for pieces of holiday and Christmas related music to choreograph dances to for upcoming performance opportunities for some of the dance classes that I teach. In years past it's a task that I would dread. I would spend hours lamenting about how the beautiful, wide world of music became whittled down to a fraction of its glorious self when the main focus was Christmas music. Like being forced to stay just on a floating piece of wood instead of the whole ship.

Oh, and by the way, Rose and Jack could have both totally fit on that door...


Image source.

Last year I rolled up my sleeves, pulled on my big girl panties and straightened out my tiara. I ventured out of the box I allowed my vision of holiday music to be and started kicking over some different stones. I was pretty delighted with much of what I found. Here's a post from last year about it.

I haven't really found any new albums or singles this year that tickle my fancy, but I do have quite a lot from last year to rummage through. That's this year's challenge. Perhaps I will find that shiny new toy (movie soundtracks are my favs) this year after all. While searching for Christmas music to choreograph to is not high on my list of enjoyable tasks, I really dig listening to Christmas music around the holidays. One of the local radio stations in my area shifts their entire playlist to holiday music the day after Thanksgiving. I will usually play it while driving around in the car. But not while hitting Black Friday sales, because nobody has offered to drive me store to store while I ply myself with shots of Jäger. That's the only way I'm doing BF. Good luck getting me out of my mashed potato and gravy coma.

Thanks for hanging out.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~Erin

Do you have a favorite Christmas song or album?