Teen dancer gaining ground with ‘Dirt Bounce’ dance
“Brand new dance, it’s simple,” assures Tyreke Pennicott, creator of the ‘Dirt Bounce’, which is officially the hottest dance for the summer.
Tyreke, 16, told Dancers’ Paradise that he had officially been dancing for a year, but his interest in the arty form dates back to when he was seven years old. “I had some bigger cousins who always used to dance. I watched them, practised what they did, and realised that it was something that I love to do,” he said.
So how exactly do you do the dance? The creator gave us this breakdown. “It nuh hard at all. Many people focus on the waist. But you see once you learn the foot movement and you can move your foot perfectly, your waist will literally rotate itself,” he said. Declaring that the dance just ‘poofed’ out of the air, the moves magician from Newlands in Portmore, St Catherine, shared that it wasn’t until his performance on a beach went viral that he fully comprehended the magnitude of this bounce.
“One of my friends went to the DJ and requested a song. From that, mi set suh an’ ah rock eeh crowd! Later when mi go home, di video gone viral. Mi couldn’t believe; shock, frighten,” he revealed.
After that, dancehall artiste Laa Lee, who saw the video, reached out to him with talk of doing a creative collaboration. True to his word, Laa Lee’s song of the same name matched the dance’s energy and the official music video was created after several months. Tyreke confessed that the experience was amazing and the feedback has been huge.
Both the dance and video have placed the teenager, who attends Bridgeport High School in Portmore, on the map. And with support from his family, classmates, community and the wider Jamaica, it is believed that there’s no stopping Tyreke’s bright future. Following the success, Tyreke has unreleased projects with recording artistes Stefflon Don, Rytikal and Chris Gayle waiting to hit the streets, according to his manager Prime. He highlighted that Tyreke is looking to venture into music in the near future and will be unleashing new dances for the summer. With the island’s entertainment sector being reopened, he is now excited that everyone will be able to Dirt Bounce in the streets.