30th final and my dance intensive - December recap

Hey everyone! 2024 is coming to an end. That means that it’s time to recap the last month of the year. Welcome!

The word is out! On the 8th and 9th of February 2025, my Dancehall Freestyle Intensive is taking place in Brussels. I have been thinking about it since May/June 2024: I wanted to organise an event to focus on Dancehall freestyle. Specifically, the vision I have for the event is “to help dancers develop their Dancehall freestyle.” Besides a couple of online classes and programs, I haven’t seen anything that focuses on this during a physical event, as far as I can recall.

Over the past months I gradually fleshed out the event: what are the things I want to incorporate, and what would I want to see if I would go to such an event? I think that an event like this is missing in the Dancehall space. There are a lot of workshops, battles, and parties. And freestyle is part of the battles. However, when you see what is offered with respect to teaching and supporting each other in the area of freestyle, then there are more opportunities to explore. As a result, I created the Dancehall Freestyle Intensive. I will be joined by Di representing Mad Spirit, Ukraine, and my Kobo Zach Swagga representing Kobo Power, Belgium. Together, we will offer the participants a personal approach to developing their freestyle within Dancehall. I’m super excited and really looking forward to it! 🤩

Talking about freestyle, in December I participated in two battles: one in Italy and one in Greece. The first one took place in the city of Milan at the event Dancehall Milano Vybz on the 7th. It was my second time there. The first time was last year, in December as well. This year the event offered workshops by Rollx Hectic Dymond, Sashi Empire, and Marthe Vangeel. I took the workshop by Sashi because I really enjoy Skanking and his class at Dancehall Mecca in Jamaica during the Summer was great! 

After all the workshops, there were the battles: beginners, advanced, and female. I participated in the advanced category which was judged by Rollx and Sashi. They also judged the beginners. Marthe was the only one judging the female category. Because there were only eight dancers in my category we didn’t do a preselection and went straight to the quarter-finals. I was one of the two dancers who went first and, unfortunately, I lost that battle. So that ended very quickly for me. 😢 After the event, we got the videos of the battles and I, of course, checked my battle. I can understand why these judges voted for the other dancer but, honestly, I think I danced better. Even when only looking at our execution of the foundational aspects of Dancehall.

In the evening, there was also a party, which I attended! It doesn’t happen a lot when I attend a party after a battle because most of the time I’m so drained by the end of the day that I don’t feel like getting out of my hotel room anymore. Luckily for me, at this event, I was joined by my friend Sophia, who I met in Jamaica, and she basically convinced me to go. Also, it was good to go with two people because we could split the price for an Uber to go from the hotel to the party, which was a whopping 50 EUR! 😱 If I were alone and saw that price I would have just walked my ass back into my room, gotten into my pyjamas, and gone to bed, because no, no 🙂‍↔️ I’m not paying that much for an Uber.

In the afternoon of the 14th I touched down in Thessaloniki, Greece ahead of my fourth appearance at Battle of the Best. This time I was joined for the very first time with someone else from Belgium: Coco. She also participated in the battle. This one was judged by three ladies from Greece: Maria Filippidou, Zineta, and Alexandra Tunchiyu.

The preselections followed the same format as last year. We had to battle against someone but the judges didn’t pick one of the two dancers directly. Based on how well we did during these battles they picked the top 8 and this could include dancers who battled against each other during the preselections. Both Coco and I made it to the top 8! We both won our quarter-finals, and we both won our semi-finals. This resulted in a Belgian final! I think this is the first time I was in a Belgian final in a battle abroad. Whatever the outcome, Belgium was going to win.

After each of us doing our two rounds, the judges decided that Coco took this win. Congratulations to you, Coco! Of course, I’m disappointed that I didn’t win. I’m not gonna lie about that but of all the other outcomes this is the best one: Coco winning, Belgian final, first and second place going to Belgium. 🤩 While I didn’t win, I did get my 30th final appearance of my career! I was not really tracking this number, so it was only the day after that I realized it happened.

As I wrote earlier, this is my fourth appearance at this event but I haven’t managed to win yet. The first time I lost in the quarter-finals, the second and third time I lost in the semi-finals, and now in the final. I was so close but no. 😭 Will 2025 be the year that I win at this event? If I do better every time, then I should, right? Right?! 👀

I want to finish this month’s recap by sharing with you my favourite Dancehall song of the month: White Rum (Special) by Vybz Kartel.

Thanks for joining my dance journey and for your support! Happy holidays and talk to you next month.