Honey (2003)

Honey Honey Honey. Who doesn’t love Honey?! Who knew you could dance with a basketball?! Since when did objects come into choreography?! For me, this film changed the course of dance and how I saw choreographers.

Honey opened my eyes to feminine dancing and showcased women at the centre. That’s who I wanted to dance with. It showed me I can be femme and that this dancing is not only for girls.

That basketball scene inspired using objects, like balls and chairs in choreography. Other people had done this before but watching it on screen made me think “Oh, so I can do all this pop, lock and dropping and I can add a chair and use it as if it’s just part of the floor”.

Honey also introduced me to a different kind of R&B pop culture with groups like 3LW; it was a different realm of music, and the soundtrack was dope.

It is also so real. Dance is hard and being in these communities isn’t easy. People can be b**ches. I feel like Honey was a bit of an education – like “Hey, you can love dance but there are all these b**ches out there who can be mean”. In the back of my mind, I always kept that note. It’s never failed me yet.

You Got Served (2004)

I hope this is on everyone’s list when we talk about dance movies. This is a top 5. I used to mimic everything in this film. After watching it, I just wanted to be in a boy’s group, which I was. As a Black boy, who was into street dance, You Got Served made me realise that I could also be on screen one day if I wanted to.

Also, let’s talk about Pump It Up. This song gets me every time. It could be by playing by accident in Primark or it could pop up randomly on my Spotify whilst on a plane and it would make me want to start pop, locking and dropping in the aisles.

I can watch You Got Served again and again and there will always be something new that I didn’t clock the first time.

Kiki (2016)

Kiki is a film about ballroom. Kiki has been made with the scene, by the scene and is a very good documentary about ballroom culture, especially in the now. I feel this is what I aspired to be like; not a culture warrior but a warrior to help others be able to be themselves.

Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (2019)

For me, Homecoming showcases Blackness, and it showcases Blackness in so many different avenues. It shows how much talent and diversity the Black community has. Homecoming is a whole body of work, not just one thing. It embodies a piece of work I would want to be able to create by the time I get to her age. I can watch it over and over again.

It showed Beyoncé and one of her dancers, Dnay Baptiste, a couple of weeks after birth, in heels, bussin’ moves. I feel like a lot of mothers are told they should stop dancing, but Beyoncé and Dnay show that even pregnancy or childbirth can’t stop you doing what you love, and you can still buss it down in rehearsals and on stage in front of millions.

In terms of a body of work that has a concept and so much detail, this is something I look up to. I would hopefully want to make some sort of film or theatre production in my life and have it showcase different elements of Blackness and Black people.

Homecoming was definitely a big influence for me personally, in terms of being Black, and gay. The film told me “Yes, you can be Black and be gay!”

Rize (2005)

When I was into krumping, my choreographer at the time, Stefan, who used to dance with Unity was like “watch Tight Eyez” and showed me loads of videos. I became obsessed and then the documentary came out.

Rize is a documentary about Tight Eyez and about clowning. It was around the same era as You Got Served, and a lot of people were into krumping. But there is a difference between krumping and clowning.

The documentary speaks about people who are trying to be in his crew, about clowning and expression, and the difference between clowning and krumping. In my era of krumping, this is something I looked into a lot and watched repeatedly, as it was all about expression. I was quite young back then, about 14 or 15. I was obsessed with expression and emotion because bucking, krumping and clowning is supposed to evoke raw emotion, from a real place, to move and let that inner h*e out. This is really important to me as a voguer too. Krumping is ageless. Vogueing is a bit different in that sense.

Rize is just a good community encompassing documentary that taught me a lot about the culture of krumping. It’s not a style. It’s these b**ches’ way of life. I understand that.