Linking up in Germany after 5 years

The last weekend of the month of September I participated in my first battle in Germany in 5 years! The last time was in December 2019. I drove 4 hours to Bielefeld (No, I’ve also never heard of that city before 😅) where the 3rd edition of Link Up was taking place on the 28th. I arrived well on time at the hotel. Enough time so I could take a nap in my room before preparing myself for the battle. The venue was a 10-minute drive from the hotel, so that was very convenient. Initially, I debated whether I would drive back home straight after the battle or would stay the night. The length of the drive, together with being tired after the event, and that I had to drive at night made me decide to stay until Sunday morning and then drive back home.

The event, organised by Connectingfamily, consisted of poetry, workshops, battles, and a party. There were two workshops: an Afro workshop by Suela Wilsterman and a Dancehall workshop by Chin Foot on Flamez. Both of the teachers were also judges of the battles. They were joined by Emz Lawray and Kimbashy. Although I really like how Chin dances and enjoyed his classes before, I didn’t do the Dancehall workshop, mostly because I’m still working on the things I learned during this Summer’s classes. And just adding more material now would not be beneficial I believe. An added advantage was that I was more rested before the battles.

Dancehall 1 vs 1, Female Dancehall 1 vs 1, Afro 1 vs 1, and Afro/Dancehall 2 vs 2. A total of 4 battles were going to decide who the 5 winners of Link Up 2024 were going to be. All battles were open to everybody except for the 2 vs 2, in which only invited dancers participated together with the winners of the Dancehall 1 vs 1 and Afro 1 vs 1. You probably think that the invited dancers were already paired, 1 Afro dancer and 1 Dancehall. But no, that was not the case. There were 6 invited dancers for each style. Within each style, there were 3 1 vs 1 battles to determine the 3 dancers who would go to the 2 vs 2 battles. Each of the 3 Dancehall dancers that won was paired randomly with one of the 3 Afro dancers that one. This resulted in 3 duos, who were complimented by the winners of Dancehall 1 vs 1 and Afro 1 vs 1, who formed a duo as well. You might be a bit confused. If so, that makes two of us. But wait, we are not done yet!

These 1 vs 1 battles with the 12 invited dancers consisted of 2 rounds. Every dancer was told beforehand to prepare one round with a song of their choice. They would dance to that song and the other dancer had to freestyle on that song. So first, dancer A would freestyle on the song of dancer B, then dancer B would freestyle on the song of dancer A, then dancer A would dance what they’d prepared, and last, dancer B would dance what they’d prepared. As a result, you would hear song B first, then song A, then song A again, and then song B. I understand why it’s like that: if you would do song B, song A, song B, song A, then dancer B would have to dance 2 rounds in a row. Now the dancers are alternating. I know it’s a lot to take in but at the event, the host did a great job keeping everybody informed of what was happening! 💪🏻

I participated in the Dancehall 1 vs 1 aaaaaaanddd I won! 🏆🤩 I’m of course very happy with that. 🥳 Although some things didn’t go as I wanted during my rounds, some of the things that I have been working on were paying off on the dance floor. So that means that I’m on the right track for these elements of my dance. The organisers shared with us the videos of our rounds so I’m having a look at each of them and evaluating what I need or continue to work on. You can already check out the first round of my semi-final here. The DJ played us a Middle School song by Elephant Man. As you can tell from the video, I really felt the energy on that one! 😄

Winning also put me in the 2 vs 2 battle together with Eliana who won the Afro 1 vs 1. Check out her final round. We had like 30 minutes to prepare and were able to come up with a Dancehall and an Afro combo. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it through our first battle. Of course, it would have been nice to win, but looking at it honestly, we did what we could with what we had. I’ve never done a 2 vs 2 Afro/Dancehall battle before and I’ve never danced with Eliana before, hell, I’ve never met her before that day. So at the very least, it was a learning experience!

Overall, I’m elated with the result (obviously). It was a nice event and I would like to go back next year!

Thanks for joining my dance journey and for your support! Talk to you soon.