In an earlier plan I wanted to have a Dancehall Cardio track right after the warmup. And I actually found the perfect isolations track to lead into it - "Whine Up" by Kat DeLuna. Unfortunately I couldn't find the right dancehall reggae songs to make a nice block in time so I've shelved both Whine Up and the dancehall plan. I will write about those when the right time comes.
So I was just randomly jumping from song to song in iTunes to look for a new isolations track. And somehow I have this 2008 Pitbull track in my Library. I don't remember where I downloaded it because it wasn't attached to any album. But like I mentioned previously, the vibe matched exactly what I needed and now it's an iso track, cued up after Sexy Bitch by David Guetta feat. Akon.
Choreography:
Intro/Chorus: Spring tap x2, travelling kick ball change to the side. Repeat other side.
Verse 1: Triple shoulder lift with head nod
Chorus
Verse 2: Chest R, L, Front, 2 shoulder rolls
Chorus
Verse 3: Double hip R, L with heel twist. Hip isolations F, R, B, L slow, then fast.
For the past 6 months or so I've already decided that this release will be a dance release, but finding the right warmup track was tougher than I expected!
When I first heard "When Love Takes Over" by David Guetta & Kelly Rowland, it was love at first sight. I immediately slotted it in as the warmup, and even considered it's Electro Remix for the second half. But the more I listened to it, the more frustrating I got. It has such a rousing and beautiful melody, but I can't seem to put a move on it! None of the moves I tried out really does justice to it. So I had no choice but to shelve it for the moment and look for a new song.
Then, the new Black Eyed Peas single "I Gotta Feeling" flooded the radio waves. It took some time to grow on me, but I can certainly see how the lyric "I gotta feeling, that tonight's gonna be a good night" will fit into the theme of a great warmup track.
I did choreograph some simple steps for it eventually, but I felt the music buildup took a little too long. And then finally, I stumbled upon "Sexy Bitch" and everything kinda fit into place.
A hallmark of a great track is that the moves just speak out to me as I listen to it. It's hard to describe the process, but it's like I instinctively know how I should choreograph it when the different parts of the music comes together. And within 2 days I feel I've got a great groovylicious warmup track.
The structure is a little interesting for this track:
Basic set up movements
Flava movements
Stretch sequence on Right
Breakout choreo ("Damn, she's a sexy bitch!")
Flava movements
Stretch sequence on Left
Breakout choreo
Winding down moves - lead to isolations
Usually there's only one stretch sequence in a warmup track, but for this I split it up into two because the bridge of this song actually has a tempo drop. Again this is what I mean by "the choreography speaks to me".
