Dancehall me love...

Since I can remember I've always been fond of dancing.
And I always had a thing for dances that came from black culture.

For a very long time hiphop has been my true absolute love.
I took classes only for one year.
Dance classes were never something for me.
I've always been more of a "go where the flow brings you" type.

Then I went to university, in Torino.
I lived in the university's dormitory (best time of my life) and met a lot of people.

One night (29th January 2005) some friends brought me along to a dancehall.
DANCEHALL meant as a place where a SOUND SYSTEM played JAMAICAN MUSIC.

REGGAE, ROOTS, FOUNDATION, RAGGAMUFFIN, DANCEHALL, BASHMENT.

That night a new me was born.

I mean it.

I started going to every dancehall Torino had to offer (and let me tell you, some were just plain BAD. In a bad way that is).

Some months later I discovered the world of DANCEHALL QUEENS.

Up to that moment I never realized there was a distinctive way to dance to the music. That there were steps and wines and acrobatics!

Whaaaat????

So I started searching the web to understand better.
The music, the culture, the dance.

One year later I met Suna.
She's the first Italian Dancehall Queen to have gained international recognition and she plain crazy!!!
She tough, critic, focused, histerical at times and did I mention crazy???
I loved her to death the minute I said hi and she answered "I saw u dance. Why the fuck you didn't enter the competion???"
She became my mentor and from then on I really started studying and discovering the dancehall scene in Italy.

One year later I did the Dancehall Queen competion in Torino to enter the National Competition.
It was a big night. I remember people looking at me with sneering looks. There was this one blonde guy who totally laughed in my face.
Then I did my thing.
And the blonde guy came to me in shock and awe.
Dancehall Queen Junko from Japan was there. "Hey you can dance!!!" She said at the end of the night in her sweet slighty drunken voice!

It was October 2008.
In March 2009 I went to the national contest. A lot of girls didn't show up and it was just 7 contestants.
I felt like shit.
I weighed 2 times any other girl competing, I couldn't do a split, I couldn't do a head top and, compared to the other girls, I was so covered up that I looked like a nun. (not that showing my ass would've been a good idea...)
I kept thinking it was real stupid of me to enter this thing. I went to gain some respect but I felt like I would just a make a fool of myself.
Then I was just dancing and relaxing before the competition started and this guy came up to me and said "Are you partecipating?" I said yes and he said "Then I hope you win!".
WHAT?

Nothing could have prepared me to what happened that night.
I didn't even get on the podium. But I got the crowd. Literally.
At the end of the competition I had people all over coming to me to congratulate me and tell me how good I was and how they loved my performance.
I was STUNNED.

More than a year has gon by and it still happens. Every party I go I have someone coming up to me and say "OMG you're amazing!!!"
And that warm feeling I get in my stomach when it happens it's just indescribable.

I've been training and now I can do splits and backbends. I'm currently working on the jump and split and the head top. And have no doubt I'll reach them.

Dancehall has given me amazing confidence, amazing friends, opportunities and the love of my life.

And tonight, in Bologna, there's going to be the Italian Dancehall Queen National Contest.
And God knows how I wish I was there.

A friend told me last night "I can't believe you won't be on that stage! You bring the realness to it!!!"

A lot of girls dance now. They're young, pretty, skinny, athletic.

I ain't nothing of that. But I ogt one thing a lot of them don't have. And I guess that's my secret weapon. The one thing that makes me memorable.

I got soul.

But I'll get to that crown. Sooner or later.