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.

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.

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.