I know the blog is not very followed, but if you pass by and want to take a look at this I'd be thankful!
So che il blog non e' molto seguito, ma se passate di qua e volete dare un'occhiata a questo vi sarei molto grata!
In the description of the video you'll find the link of the site where to vote! (or just click here) Nella descrizione del video troverete il link al sito dove votare! (altrimenti cliccate qui)
If you want to vote for me you have to log in with your FB account, or create an account if you don't have fb (clic on the DHQ CLUB tab at the top of the page, once there you'll find the options for the login on the right). Then go back to the video and click the 5 stars! Se volete votare per me dovete loggarvi con il vostro account di FB, o creare un account sul sito se non avete FB (cliccate su DHQ CLUB, posto in alto nella pagina, una volta li' troverete le opzioni per il login sulla destra). Poi tornate sulla pagina del video e votate le 5 stelle!
So...on sunday I went to Monza and shot the video with Zuli.
IT'S BEEN THE BOMB!
I guess that the good ol' narcissistic me, that's been kept away too long during my teen and early twenties, just exploded.
I loved being in front of the camera.
I usually always love being in front of an audience.
Beda and stagefright? Never met each other. And I literally mean never.
But I've never been in front of a camera like that. SO much. So intensively.
It's been a blast!!!
Zuli's producer loved me and gave me some really great feedback.
The director and director of photography were super nice, loved what i did and also gave me really really good feedback.
Zuli was ecstatic. He thanked me like...a million times.
We had sooo much fun.
The video was shot rather quickly as it was entirely done in studio (which scared me a bit at first as it was nothing more than a room with dark walls and some curtains and carpets).
I was shocked to see the images as I looked a lot better that I thought.
A couple of movement shots were just fantastic and a couple of booty shots were also like...whoa.
I did look pregnant in other shots as...well...there's no way I can really hide my big tummy when I'm dancing.
Still I had a blast.
And I really hope more will come!!!
I was over the moon for the fact that D-Trix from Quest Crew had been added to the judging panel (replacing super-boring Omarion) and immediately thought they had picked some really really fantastic crews.
A couple of things did throw me off thou.
1) This whole superstar thing. Blah. Going through one whole episode on Kesha was a nightmare and next week is going to be frekkin Bieber and I already feel like throwin up. Seriously c'mon!!! I would understand J.Lo or T-Pain or Chris Brown or even David Guetta. But frekkin Bieber?????
2) The under-age assault. I'm talking about the Iconic Boyz. I take it a bit as an insult that these little white kids, trained by one of the best choreographers ever to appear on the show (Gio from Iconic - season 1), that have been dancing only for a couple of years and that are really young, are already on this show. They're good alright, but I refuse to believe they're one of the best crew's they've found. Yeah it's marketing, it's publicity, it's the perfect opportunity to justify a whole episode on songs of another teeny weeny (frekkin...I'm not gonna write his name again).....but DAMMIT!!! Because they're "so young! Just kids! And they dance! They dance good! So cute!!! So adorable!!!" I fear they'll go all the way to the top. And they just don't deserve it.
3) Last week Request Crew (that was my favourite crew) was thrown out in favor of Street Kingdom. Ok now. I LOVE Tight Eyez. And I LOVE Krumping. It's so unique and powerful and emotional and crazy and beautiful. But this doesn't justify the crew staying on. It's non sense to keep the crew because D-trix is a huge fan of Tight Eyez and because they're krumpin on national tv and because they're from the ghetto. As a crew they don't know how to stand out and it shows 'cos Tight is ALWAYS the center of attention. There's too many of them and most of the time they don't seem to know what they're doing. Request on the other hand was the perfect crew. They have attitude, skillz, swag, creativity, precision, versatility. I thought it was plain ol bullshit that they got sent home.
I thought that it couldn't get any worse.
And then: DISASTER STRIKED!
Episode 5: Rihanna. Challenge: dancehall steps.
Oh yes they did.
They brought DANCEHALL to ABDC.
The idea behind it made sense: Rihanna is from the Barbados and they play a lot of dancehall there.
But. Does Rihanna have anything to do with dancehall? Not so much actually. She has a couple of songs that get some inspiration from it (Pon de replay and Rude Boy) and she did a couple of collaboration in Jamaica, but really, she, and her sound now, have nothing to do with dancehall. A better artist to choose would have been Sean Paul (of course) or maybe even Wyclef. Or well...let's not forget that Damian Marley (son of Bob Marley) is one hell of an artist and just last year he released an amazing album with Nas.
They gave each crew a song by Rihanna and her choreographer, Tanisha Scott, give them the step they had to feature in they're choreo.
And that made me think again: this should have been Sean Paul's week. 'Cos Tanisha Scott was also his choreographer and did A LOT of videos with him.
So the girl is a dancehall dancer. And she knows what she's doing.
Or so I thought.
These are the steps she gave the crews:
Instant Noodles (the b-boy crew) got the HEAD TOP.
Does it look like a challenge to you? To me it doesn't. It was also really weird that she gave it to an all male crew, because it's a girl "power-move", 'cos men don't shake their asses. Especially not on their heads.
taken from taiwanesinamerica.com
taken from yardflex.com
Iconic Boyz got the GIVE DEM A RUN (video under pic.).
It's an iconic (ha-ha) step in dancehall, so I perfectly understand why it has been chosen but...it's been around at least 8 years now, as it became known in 2003 with "Pon di river" from Elephant Man and it was also shown in the video fo "Like glue" from Sean Paul. I mean...THAT IS ONE HELL OF AN OLD STEP!!!
taken from fanpop.com
I was afraid that things would go worst and of course they did.
I Am Me got The Spiderman.
Which was fine actually. It's not a step that usually get's called out in songs but if you dance dancehall it just kinda comes out on it's own.
And I Am Me did a really fine job on it. They're my favourite crew now.
taken from loyalkng.com
And then...Street Kingdom got the DUTTY WINE.
THE DUTTY WINE????
The original song by Tony Matterhorn starts like this: "attitude gyal!!!". And the Dutty Wine is the epidemy of a girl step!!! Since 2006 girls have been swingin their heads and weaves and breaking their necks to the song and not only to that song!
So what's the problem? Well outta 10 members there is only one girl in Street Kingdom (and can I add not a very sexy one). The idea of seeing these tough krumpers rolling their heads didn't appeal to me at all.
On top of that they got Rude Boy, which is a really nice song to dance to. Well...to slow wine to. The dutty wine needs ENNNNERRRGY and the songs doesn't have it. Period.
Was it bad? It was real real bad. And Lil Mama and D-Trix can cry and praise them all they want but they sucked!!!
And miss Tanisha Scott: u suck too!!!
Why in the world would you give the dutty wine to a crew like that??? U ran out of old steps??? I would have loved to see them Sweep or Rubba Bounce but if these steps are too new for you you could have give them a Signal di Plane or a Wacky Dip or a Shovel it!!! C'MON!!!
taken from poptower.com
787 got the Gallis Step.
To be honest I had no idea what it was. Well no...I saw it and did it loads of times but I never had any idea it was called like that.
taken from poptower.com
Still going through really old steps Phunk Phenomenon got The Chaplin.
And there my jaw and balls and patience just dropped.
The Chaplin????
A step where you almost don't move???
A Heel-Toe (as old and over-rated as it is) would have been a better choice. Well actually no.
taken from poptower.com
What really really pissed me off during this episode was the fact that ALL these steps are AT LEAST 5 YEARS OLD!!!
So what about what dancehall has done since 2006???
The way it's grown, the way it has spread worldwide, the thousands of dancers that dance and create new steps everyday, the artists that more and more support and show these dancers and their dances.
Considering that ABDC has always done an episode to showcase the new steps and styles of Hip-hop I've found this lack of acknowledgement -on the growth of dancehall- lame and disappointing.
By the end of the episode I was actually furious and wlaked around the house almost shouting (lucky my mother is used to the fact that I'm not normal) and actually fell in a bad mood over the next 2 days everytime I thought about it.
'Cos c'mon!!! They could've done an episode on Elephant Man and shown dances like: Nuh Linga, Sweep, Gully Creepa, Sassa Step, Rubba Bounce and Steady Wine. Or an episode on Mr.Vegas and have: Tek weh yourself, Raging bull, Hot wuk, Gallis swing, Sassa step, Round of applause. And I don't even want to think at an RDX challenge, that would've been the bomb.
If there's one thing I owe to dancehall is the fact that it made much more confident with myself.
Se c'e' una cosa che devo alla dancehall e' il fatto che mi ha fatto avere molta piu' fiducia in me stessa.
Because it come with a "no-shame policy" you just can't hide.
Perche' e' qualcosa in cui la vergogna e' proibita, semplicemente non puoi nasconderti.
Also with clothes of course.
E questo vale anche per i vestiti.
Although I'm not a fan of the "naked-ho-trying-to-sexy-classy-but-failing-miserably" look, I do understand that u can't perform just with any clothes on.
Anche se non sono una fan del look "zoccolaccia-nuda-che-cerca-di-essere-sexy-e-di-classe-ma-fallisce-miseramente" (wow questa cosa tradotta in italiano e' pietosa!!!), capisco che non puoi buttarti addosso qualsiasi roba per fare uno show.
Well I found my perfect spot.
Beh io ho trovato il mio angolo perfetto.
I'll just call it COOL.
Lo definiro' semplicemente FIGO.
For some reason I look so slim in this picture...I keep staring at it and think "where the hell has all my fat gone???"
This was an H&M shirt that I cut and made more Dancehall appropriate. I'm so happy I learned to modify shirts.I fear is going to become a sort of obsession!!!
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.
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.
