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The primary time she boarded a aircraft for Greece, dancer and choreographer Chali Jennings barely knew the place she was going. Some buddies from the Los Angeles industrial dance scene had booked a three-month gig in Athens and invited her to affix. “I used to be like, ‘Certain. Why not? YOLO,’ ” Jennings remembers considering.
Jennings, who had moved from Memphis, Tennessee, to Los Angeles at 19, had not often traveled overseas. The tradition shock started on Aegean Airways, the place the in-flight leisure included clips from the Eurovision Tune Contest. Since 1956, the annual tune competitors, a sequined spectacle of unique songs from member international locations of the European Broadcasting Union, has launched Abba, Celine Dion, and Riverdance, amongst different memorable acts. Whereas Eurovision has lengthy been immensely well-liked in Europe, till not too long ago it has been a lot much less extensively recognized within the U.S.
Jennings shortly grew to like each Athens, with its over-the-top, Vegas-style music revues, and Eurovision, which she attended for the primary time in 2012 when it was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. “I used to suppose it was ridiculous,” Jennings says, laughing. “Now I feel I’m the largest Eurovision fan in the complete world.”
She’s made 4 journeys to the competitors thus far, collaborating with groups from Cyprus, Greece, and Sweden, and taking over totally different roles for all three international locations: dancer, choreographer, dance coach, and artistic director. “Even the singers who carry out with out backup dancers must discover ways to use their our bodies in a kinetic means,” Jennings says. “There isn’t any Eurovision with out dance.”
In 2021, Jennings spent 4 months getting ready singer Elena Tsagrinou to symbolize Cyprus together with her catchy electro-pop hit “El Diablo.” Though Tsagrinou had “minimal” expertise as a dancer, Jennings turned her into one of many present’s greatest movers. “Our coaching pushed her to the subsequent degree,” Jennings says. Whereas Tsagrinou completed a disappointing sixteenth, that rating didn’t mirror the career-topping accomplishment that Jennings considers her 2021 efficiency to be. Jennings, now 42, served as one in every of Tsagrinou’s 4 backup dancers.
2021 additionally marked the primary yr that Eurovision was obtainable to stream on Peacock. Jennings had by no means encountered an American on the contest earlier than, however that yr extra Individuals watched. For the 2022 version, choreographer Kyle Hanagami booked a gig with Spanish singer Chanel.
For Eurovision Tune Contest 2024, which runs Could 7–11, at the least two extra Individuals are concerned: Los Angeles–based mostly choreographers Man Groove and Kelly Sweeney. “I truthfully didn’t know a lot about Eurovision,” Sweeney admits. However for her pal and pupil Silia Kapsis, she was keen to be taught.
Kapsis and her mom journey to Los Angeles every summer season to community and practice, together with taking courses with Sweeney at Millennium Dance Complicated. The daughter of a Cypriot singer and a Greek lawyer with a dance background, Kapsis grew up performing with the Australian Youth Performing Arts Firm and on Nickelodeon Australia. Moderately than maintain a public contest to decide on a Eurovision performer, Cyprus’ public broadcaster tapped Kapsis to symbolize the island nation for Eurovision 2024, and Kapsis, in flip, tapped Sweeney and Man Groove to choreograph for her tune “Liar.”
“I did my analysis,” Sweeney says, noting that she was significantly impressed by “Unicorn,” Israel’s intelligent, bouncy third-place entry from 2023. Sweeney described her choreography for Kapsis as “cool, female, and super-powerful.”
When she hit the studio with Kapsis in January, Sweeney was contemporary off performing in Jennifer Lopez’s new “This Is Me…Now” Apple Music Reside live performance, and introduced that “woman boss” vitality to her Eurovision gig. Even so, making a dance for a big thrust stage and considering a lot about digital camera angles “introduced me out of my consolation zone,” Sweeney says. She’s excited to see the ultimate outcome however can’t journey to this yr’s host metropolis, Malmö, Sweden, herself as a result of she’s busy with different tasks, together with a music video.
Jennings is sitting out Eurovision 2024 whereas making a serious life transition: taking up Christie McNeill Dance Studio in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the place she grew up dancing. However the Dance Cartel, a inventive company she based in Athens, remains to be going sturdy. She plans to proceed spending just a few months in Greece annually, choreographing for tv exhibits and dwell performances. And, sure, she desires to return to Eurovision sometime. “I nonetheless wish to return and get the crown,” Jennings says. “I wish to win.”
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