How does it feel to learn a dance from two great dancers coming in from an entirely different genre?
The video opens showing two dancers on two separate screens. A guy in a plain red shirt walks into what appears to be an opening parking space – a concrete stage overlooking the city. Meanwhile, a woman in a short haircut and a loose burgundy pull-over starts bobbing to the beat. The wood floor and the covered furnishing suggest that she’s in a studio.
Both of them are dancing to the tune of “Contagious” by Cameo Club. And while they are two different people in two different places, they are unified by the universal language of body movement.
From the beginning, you’ll notice that their moves are a bit different from each other. Was it their style? Was it their skill?
It goes on for a while until you realize that they’re actually teaching two different sets of steps.
Glenn Ball, the dancer in the parking lot, starts off the routine with sleek footwork and a simple combination of moves with his upper body. Emeline Rochefeuille, on the other hand, shows elaborate movements with her arms and hands.
That’s because Glenn is teaching the entire footwork routine while Emeline teaches the upper body styling and the arm movements that go with it.
At some parts of the dance, their routines are almost similar but for the most part, they both shine in through their own ways and own styles.
Glenn Ball has been dancing for years and his experience exposed him to various styles of dance. His career took off at the age of sixteen when he successfully auditioned for the “Spirit Of The Dance” which brought him to the stages of UK, Europe, and the USA.
His talents gave him the opportunity to work with Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Lionel Richie, Take That, Jennifer Lopez, and many more.
Emeline Rochefeuille was exposed to the traditions of Sega, Maloya, and Zouk ever since early childhood because of her upbringing in La Reunion. Since then, she has always considered music and dance as key pillars of her heritage and identity.
Her experience in dancing goes back as far as the age of 12 when she competed in ballroom dancing.
But even with their backgrounds, they both proved that dance cannot limit anyone to a specific style or genre. Their talents in translating movements into art resonated even as they performed a routine that was not part of their competitive exposure.
As the chorus picks up, the simplicity in Glenn’s upper body movements was apparent, while Emeline played around with pops and locks with her hands. Glenn, meanwhile, has more pronounced leg movements and steps.
While most of us learned dance routines as a full set body movement, these two great dancers isolated two major areas that people can focus on according to their need, while also showing us the right way to do it.
You can watch how these two great choreographers give justice to “Contagious” and how they translated their skill into instruction.
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