Warm up

 Would you be able to choreograph a dance to any of these tracks?

 Which song would you choose for your dance? Why?
 What dance style would you choose for the track you've picked?
 Could you choreograph a dance in only 30 minutes?

Watch the video (0:00–2:54) and choose the correct options to complete the summary

Transcript

Carol Narrator Producer Kris Bennet Jannet Theodore Antonio

Carol: You gonna do this leg up. Here, hold it here. Higher. Higher.

Narrator: We brought two seemingly different groups of people into our studio to see if they
could unite in a one-of-a-kind dance challenge.

Producer: What is your favourite dance move?

Kris: Do I just do it?

Bennet: Let's see it, you got it. Let's see it. Hey, I like that.

Jannet: One of my favourite dance moves is what we call the Suzy Q. But then actually
adding some hips.

Bennet: I like the little Dougie, I like the little, you know, like that. A little Dougie.

Carol: I love tango. And I love the Ganchos.

Theodore: I do praise dance. I used to praise dance, so I would do like, you know.

Bennet: Ooh.

Antonio: I love a good shimmy. Start with a little step and then give a, ta.

Jannet: Hey.

Producer: Do you know what you're doing here today?

Kris: No.
Antonio: Not really, no.

Jannet: No, we don't.

Producer: Today, you'll be choreographing a 60-second dance routine to a song that I'll be
giving you.

Bennet: That's fun, that'll be fun.

Kris: Oh, Jesus!

Producer: You'll only have 30 minutes to choreograph and practise before your final
performance.

Jannet: Nice.

Antonio: Okay.

Theodore: All right.

Bennet: I love the challenge.

Antonio: I think because we work a lot together, it's absolutely doable.

Carol: It'll be it, yeah.

Antonio: Thank God I know them.

Producer: Before you start, we're gonna be adding a few more people to your team.

Carol: Oh, interesting.

Antonio: Oh, I see what you did there.

Carol: Are they dancers?

Kris: This is great.

Producer: Teammates, please come out.

Bennet: Oh, hello, hello. Wow.

Kris: Look at her, look at her. How're you doing?

Carol: Hi, Carol.

Theodore: I was like, oh lord. Now I gotta elevate my game or at least try to hang with
them.
Kris: Oh, I'm trying to be appropriate. I think I was thinking, "You better don't put your
hand too low on my waist, man."

Antonio: The moment that the coaches were added to the challenge absolutely changed the
vibe, what was possible.

Jannet: Salsa dancing has been used in sports to work on footwork or speed, so I was really
excited what we would be able to offer each other.

Jannet: Nice to meet you.

Bennet: All right. Okay.

Producer: Okay, team, this is your song.

Antonio: Often, non-dancers make the assumption with salsa that it's all sex or too sexy. But
I feel like, it's so often tied to culture and music. I think because I grew up in it my whole
life, I don't see it like that.

Jannet: It's a way for us to celebrate life, to celebrate our bodies, and what it is to be in
connection to one another.

Carol: It has that soccer feel

Jannet: I like that, - It does.

Carol: I like vibe to that, right?

Theodore: Well yeah, like...Yeah.

Producer: Your time begins in three, two, one, go.

What is the idea of the challenge?

____________ dancers and __________ coaches should choreograph a __________minute

dance. They have only _____________ to do it.

Key
 Three dancers and three coaches should choreograph a 1 minute dance. They have only 30 mins
to do it.

Discuss

 Would you like to take part in a challenge like this? Why (not)?
 How challenging would it be for you?
 What is the most difficult part of the task?
 Do you think this group will work well together?

Good job with the video! I'm sure that there are several new words that need to be clarified
before watching the second part of the video.

Doable, performance, teammates , challenges, assumptions

1. Kate often takes part in different _________ that she finds on the internet.
2. It's very important for basketball players to be in tune with their
_____________if they want to win.
3. Some individuals often make ___________ about people based on their appearance. Ho
wever, they
hardly ever check if they are true.
4. Christina spent about 60 hours preparing for her first big stage _______________
5. Your idea is ______________ in theory, but in reality, it might not be very useful.

key

1. Kate often takes part in different challenges that she finds on the internet.
 2. It's very important for basketball players to be in tune with their
teammates if they want to win.
3. Some individuals often make assumptions about people based on their appearance. How
ever, they hardly ever check if they are true.
4. Christina spent about 60 hours preparing for her first big stage performance.
5. Your idea is doable in theory, but in reality, it might not be very useful.

Watch the rest

Transcript

Carol Narrator Producer Kris Bennet Jannet Theodore Antonio All

Jannet: Okay.

Carol: Okay.

Theodore: All right.

Carol: I think you will take the centre with the girl, and the two—

Antonio: Flanking. So, oh, I'm holding hands?

Kris: Oh, yeah, well.

Carol: Like the girls should, like, go around the guys.

Kris: I'm non-binary, so I don't know, whatever that falls into.

Carol: So, you're gonna go around Antonio too. So, all the girls are gonna around.

Antonio: For an a—

Carol: Fa, nah, nah.

Antonio: She gets in front, and then we do, dip.

Carol: And look at each other at the end.

Kris: Oh, oh. This is it. I'm not, I don't... What the f— are we doing? I guess what was happening
was "Ladies do this, men do this", and I don't believe in that. It's just universal. What are you
comfortable with? I don't believe that I fit into a female or male category. I think I'm able to
bring both of those energies. I don't subscribe to the pronouns like they or them. I'm able to take
a he or a she, or whatever someone feels comfortable with, but at the same time, yes, I'm non-
binary and I can do all things.

Jannet: I do wish that in the moment I would have been like, hey, hold on a second, let's take a
moment and actually acknowledge what Kris just said. Sometimes in salsa dancing, we have
people playing certain roles. We do need to be having these conversations inside these spaces
differently. When it comes to partner dancing, a woman can lead in salsa dancing, a man can
follow and vice versa. A woman can dance with another woman. A man can dance with another
man.

Carol: And let's dip on eight.

Antonio: Do you wanna dip me? Should we switch it up?

Kris: Come on, let's dip you.

Antonio: It could be fun. It could be cute.

Kris: Let me dip you, yeah. I'm gonna dip you.

Jannet: Yes.

Carol: Oh, you gonna dip him?

Kris: I could hold you down.

Carol: Perfect. I love that. Six, seven, eight. And one, two, three, four, and five, six, seven, eight.

Kris: And then it should turn to hip-hop.

Antonio: Give us a move we can repeat.

Kris: May we hear that from that part? You can rave it.

Antonio: Okay.

Kris: You know what I'm saying.

Antonio: Let's do it an eight of that. So, we'll go, right.

Carol: One, two, three, four.

Antonio: Left.

Carol: Five, six, again.

Antonio: Right.

Carol: One, two, three. We repeat.

Antonio: Left.

Carol: Five, six, seven

Antonio: Now start raving. Now.

Theodore: There are things I wanted to say. But at the same time, it wasn't about me. I dance a
lot, but I never really choreograph. And I always wanted to. But I always had that wall up there
because I don't wanna mess up.

Antonio: You get the next move, what do you want?

Theodore: No, no, no.

Carol: We can come together into one line.

Theodore: This is, this is, this is when I think the one line comes in.

Kris: Yeah, jump back into one line.

Theodore: Instead of us separating in a triangle, we come into one line. So, this is where we
probably go, para pa.

All: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Carol: Nice, I like that.

Theodore: So, this is where the praise dance part comes in.

Antonio: What about you, what would you like next?

Bennet: My move is the Dougie.

Antonio: Let's do the Dougie.

Bennet: You know the Dougie? You know you get a little, little of that, little of that.

Kris: Yeah, keep the mouth open and all, I got it.

Bennet: Yeah, it's more like a swag.

Antonio: To be honest, toward the middle of rehearsal, I had a moment where I thought this
could not go well.

Carol: I think we need to have a lift in there. I definitely think we need a lift.

Theodore: How are we gonna incorporate the lift?

Carol: Like the lift is just something easy, like you just grab this leg and just turn me around.
Turn me around, just go around, that's it. This is...

Jannet: Antonio is such a good partner.

Carol: You'll be fine. You guys do something different, we're gonna do the lift, because it seems
like you don't want to do the lift. So, it's okay.

Kris: Okay, girl, you can lift me up if you can.

Jannet: Yeah, like, there was a lot of ideas being thrown around and I saw little bit of
disagreement.

Carol: This is after it, this is after that. It was a little stressful because I'm a perfectionist. We
were working with people that, you know, they're non-dancers, so they weren't really learning as
fast as I would want them to learn.

Kris: Got you, bro.

Carol: No, no, no, no, we have to... hang on.

Bennet: It was tough, honestly. I'm not the best dancer.

Theodore: We got nine minutes.

Kris: Oh, if you all do the lift and we do the macarena.

Theodore: Wait, wait, wait. If one do solo, we gon' all do solo.

Carol: No, we don't have time.

Theodore: So, let's stick to what we were doing.

Kris: We can do the macarena.

Antonio: I could tell that when we offered a suggestion they assumed right away it would be too
difficult.

Theodore: Can we be here, like we're in our own space as coaches, and they walk in. And as you
walk in, motivate us into getting into our inspirational dance.
Jannet: I like that.

Theodore: There's always a story behind a dance. Not just shaking your waist and shaking your
hip. And I felt like being coaches, being in that mind frame, and then the salsa dancers come on
to loosen us up. Just like you see in the World Cup. Just like you see at soccer stadium.

Kris: We should just, just wile out in the last one. We do the macarena. Simple, keep it simple.
Being African-American, black descent, you can come off as too assertive even if you don't try,
so I'm very aware of that. Say things continually and then put your foot down. We can do the
macarena.

Carol: Well, we can do it while we are walking to our places.

Jannet: Are you doing the whole full version?

Kris: The same way I've been doing since kindergarten.

Antonio: Ready? Final pose, final pose. Six, seven, eight.

Kris: I don't know.

Antonio: Let's see final pose, guys.

Carol: You can do this leg up. Here, hold it here. Higher. Higher.

Antonio: It's all right, I'll coach you through it. You just give me your leg, you breathe.

Kris: Ha, you'll coach me through it. Let's do this one.

Antonio: Ready? And smile.

Kris: We can just do trauma. Hold me up since you can hold me up, I'm heavy, man. Yeah, I
work out, remember?

Producer: All right, guys, your time is up. You are gonna go and get changed for your final
performance.

Jannet: Good job. Thank you.

Antonio: Good job, guys.

Kris: Yeah, shimmy, shimmy.

Jannet: I felt excited. I felt really happy with what we had created.

Bennet: I'm a pretty sweaty person in general, so I was already, like, sweating from getting it
down. But I was surprisingly not nervous.
 Kris: Boy, when my daddy see this. Man holding me up.

Bennet: Bring it in.

Carol: The dance went really, really well. Much better than what I expected. You need to relax
sometimes, and don't be so pushy, and have fun.

Kris: It's a win, we did it. I think the start of it, you can tell these different perspectives that
weren't meshing. By the end of the performance it was like "Oh no, we mesh".

Theodore: If there's anything I learned from this experience is if you believe in yourself, then
you can make it happen. And that's what coaches do, right? We motivate each other. We believe
in each other. And as a team, we win together.

Bennet:Come on, guys, come on. Bring it in, bring it in. Hey, did you like this video? Comment
down below and tell me your favourite part. And like and subscribe to SoulPancake for more
awesome videos. See you next time.

Put the moves into the correct order

 — Everybody is working on their final poses

 — One of the coaches offers to add the praise dance part.
 — The dancer in a red shirt tells everyone to start raving.
 — The woman in a black dress insists on doing a lift.
 — Another coach says that his move is the Dougie.
 — The dancer suggests doing a dip.
 — One of the coaches suggests adding a Macarena element.
 —. It is suggested that the girls should go around the guys.

Key

 03:00 — It is suggested that the girls should go around the guys.

 04:14 — The dancer suggests doing a dip.
 04:45 — The dancer in a red shirt tells everyone to start raving.
 05:18 — One of the coaches offers to add the praise dance part.
 05:22 — Another coach says that his move is the Dougie.
 05:41 — The woman in a black dress insists on doing a lift.
 07:09 — One of the coaches suggests adding a Macarena element.
 07:36 — Everybody is working on their final poses.