Visual Culture: Latonya Style + Robin Clare’s “Stylish Moves” Dance Zine

Words by Natalie Weiner—
If you’ve never lived in the Caribbean, it can be difficult to fully grasp certain parts of the culture. There’s a lot of potential for embarrassment when your favorite dancehall song comes on and you want to be out there on the floor with the best of them… but your moves are not quite Kingston-ready. Or even outside-your-living-room-ready.

That’s where dancer Latonya Style and Australia-based Jamaican artist (and LargeUp favorite) Robin Clare come in. They’ve created a zine entitled Stylish Moves that includes step-by-step illustrations for 13 popular dancehall steps (in the style of Clare’s Dancing Words prints), as well as dictionaries of Jamaican slang, photos, and advice for aspiring dancers. Just as useful for experienced dancers as the choreographically challenged, it also includes some advanced techniques, too (like the Flash It & Dash It).

For Style (one of the major forces behind  the DanceJA Skool and leader of dancehall crew First Class Dancers when she’s not being featured in everyone and their mother’s music videos) the zine is the first step towards an entire book on dancehall choreography, also to be illustrated by Clare (whose large, graphic prints showcasing illustrations of different dance moves have already been turned into posters and t-shirts).

Catch a preview of the illustrations below, and pick up your copy here.