On Saturday, June 22, the Memorial ACTe and the Bleu Outremer Festival team offered dance lovers two workshops as part of the “Urban memories”: the first, dedicated to the KRUMP, was held in the morning with Haitian dancer Makerson François; the second, dedicated to street jazz, took place in the afternoon with Guadeloupean dancer, Sébastien Nicolas, also known as “Babas”.
The least we can say is that Sébastien Nicolas aka “Babas” was eagerly awaited by the twenty participants in this workshop and the rumour was going around that once on the dance floor, it was awesome! The professional dancer had come to teach the trainees street jazz, an urban dance whose body movements are characterized by an explosive mixture of quickness and explosiveness, sometimes from hip hop, and wider and precise movements stemming from jazz.
Nobody was disappointed. Indeed, the dancer arrived in the Congress and Live Arts Hall of the Memorial ACTe at 15:00 pm with his two assistant dancers, Cindy and Octavia. After a short introduction by Guadeloupean dancer Natty Montella, “Babas” introduced himself to his trainees. Then, his two assistants started the warm-up exercises and, at first glance, everybody understood that they had to be rather flexible… Then, the “master” – with his two dancers – showed the participants what he expected from them by performing the very energetic choreography he was going to teach them during these two hours of intensive courses. After a “wow” of wonder, the trainees began to rehearse the various steps. At the beginning, there was a lot of hesitation, little by little, encouraged by Sébastien Nicolas, the choreography took shape, the movements were no longer “mechanical” but natural and we felt that the students took pleasure in dancing.
An experience with dance stars
It must be said that Sébastien Nicolas has a solid experience in the dance world. Indeed, he worked with many French talents such as Romain Antonini who performed with stars like Shym, Matt Pokora, Lelly Rowland, David Guetta, with Zack Reece who danced with Janet Jackson, The Mess, X- Factor, with Hakim Ghorab who put his talent at the service of television programs such as “Danse avec les stars”, “The Voice” or “NRJ music awards” and with the irreplaceable Yannis Marshall.
After France, he settled in Great Britain and worked or trained for 7 years with some of the greatest names in the so-called “commercial” dance at the global level such as Sisco Gomez, Shaun Niles, Josh Wharmby etc. Then, he landed in the United States where he lived between New York and Los Angeles for 2 years. This unforgettable opportunity allowed him to work alongside dance legends like Brian Friedman, Miguel Zarate, Jonte Moaning and Sheryl Murakami. His work is also part of artistic creation shows.
Participants in this workshop knew that they were in the presence of a Guadeloupean “big name” who is making his career in dancing abroad and they gave the best of themselves.
