Training with the Queen

When my time at the camp ended, it was time to move on to my next training. This time with the queen herself, Latonya Style. Before beginning her training, I came to know her from her famous A-Z videos she would post on Youtube that mainly consisted of her performing various Dancehall steps starting with a different letter of the Alphabet. This, however was only one tiny aspect of her greatness and magnitude in the Dancehall world. 

Latonya is not only a dancer and a teacher, but a certified business woman and CEO of her own company, owner of her own dance studio, and a well known and recognized cultural ambassador. She was one of the first Jamaican, female dancers to travel abroad to share her knowledge of Jamaican dance and culture, and subsequently opened her dance studio, Dance Jamaica to create a space where foreign dancers could come and learn Dancehall directly from the source. If you look back at Jamaican music videos from the early 2000's, Latonya is often the star, front row center leading the dancers in choreography and movement. To add to this, she has created her own brand, Stylish Moves, which includes her own steps that fuse Jamaican Dancehall with other styles such as jazz, hip hop, and Afro. She also has a clothing line, and various sets of manuals and tutorials that break down all of her steps, as well as "Old skool" and "Mid stool" female dance steps. 

I took my first real class with her the first time I visited Jamaica at her studio along with some other dancers. This time, it was just me and her alone. I had applied to be a Stylish Moves tutor and go through her training before returning to Jamaica this time around. The training was a week long, and lasted a minimum of four hours per day with small breaks in between. 

We began the training on Day 1 by going over some of the history of specifically Female Jamaican Dancehall, and some of the key moves and steps created throughout the various eras. Latonya didn't treat this as just a passing of information. In fact, I was required to take notes, and make sure I memorize everything she was saying. After the lecture finished, we went on to practice some of the steps she spoke about. Some of the steps we touched on were "Gogo Wine", "6:30", "Duck and Dive", and a lot more. I felt honored and overjoyed to be dancing in the presence of this Queen that I had so long admired. 

The next four days were dedicated solely to her "Stylish Moves" program, covering a variety of different steps created by her, covering all of the letters of the Alphabet. Our mornings were spent dancing, and going through the steps, followed by a short break of running to the restaurant next door to grab a nice snack and fruit. Much like the camp, at the end of the day I would finish sweaty and exhausted mentally and physically, but more inspired by the minute. On some of the days after training would finish, there would be an event at the studio, and I would sit in the corner as a fly on the wall, completely entrenched. 

During one of the days, Kool Ravers (a member of the group Ravers Clavers) came and taught a group of young children about Dancehall, and his famous dance move called "Fling". As the room filled with excited faces, wafting the scent of KFC and orange soda, you could feel the pulsations of excitement in the room. 

I was slowly taking everything in, still. The excitement was still far ahead of me.

Little did I know, I would soon become part of a music video.