Weekend Music Break No.85 – The Dance Edition!

UK Afrohouse dancers Milo & Fabio

The weekend is here so let’s take a break to enjoy some music… and dance! This week’s edition is a collection of dance videos, official clips, fan made and otherwise. Enjoy a glimpse at the myriad of moves hitting dance-floors and streets across the world!

We start off in the UK with a impressively growing Afro-House dance scene, dancers (and musicians) such as Reis Fernando and Milo & Fabio incorporate influences as wide as Hip Hop, Kuduro, and House; Then, we move to Trinidad where the Afropop take over continues unabated, making for some great Africa-influenced Soca moves; Yemi Alade releases a new video focused on dance, so we thought we’d include her and her dancer’s Coupe Decale influenced moves here; Colombia does dancehall to great effect, and with this video by Leka El Poeta, we get a little “Choke” as well for those who are keeping track; Not relegated to history with Harlem’s Jazz age, the Cha Cha makes it back to NY, and this rotating cast of Yak Films dancers do their best to update it to 2015; We are winning anytime Just A Band release a new video, and this dance-focused video definitely is one of their best yet; Former AIAC contributor Wills Glasspiegel co-directed this video (along side DJ RP Boo) focused on Chicago’s Footworking phenomenon, shot at the South Side’s Bud Billiken parade; which reminded me that Flying Lotus had drawn some specific connections between Jazz and Footwork earlier this year with his video for Never Catch Me featuring Kendrick Lamar; And, last but not least, Pantsula dancers also get the Jazz treatment in another former AIAC contributor (Allison Swank) produced video for the UK’s Sons of Kemet.

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.