In video clips of Michael Jackson and Britney Spears you saw nothing more than steamy dance scenes with a large group of background dancers. These types of clips have disappeared a bit in recent years. But dance scenes are back, with success for Dutch choreographers.
Dancer and choreographer Sergio Reis is sitting at home in Eindhoven when he receives a message via social media: whether he wants to make a video clip with Australian pop star Troye Sivan. The Dutchman of Brazilian descent is approached by Gordon von Steiner. That director cannot find a suitable choreographer in Berlin for the video clip for Sivans Rush and thus ends up at Reis.
“Gordon had a very specific idea of how he wanted the choreography,” Reis tells NU.nl. With references to Eastern European dance styles and ballet, the choreographer will work with his own dancers in a studio in Eindhoven. “Gordon was immediately enthusiastic. The style we chose fit perfectly Rushhe thought.” The choreographer travels to Berlin with part of his dance crew.
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Troye Sivan – Rush
‘Troye is not a dancer, but it looks like one’
Once in Berlin, Sivan also has to master the dance steps. “He put a lot of work into that,” says Reis. “He’s not a dancer, but that’s how it looks in the video. That’s a big compliment to the entire team that worked on it. But Troye also sweated and fought a lot. He didn’t stop until he perfected every step. When I said: “Well done Troye, that’s what it says”, he was still not satisfied. He wanted to perform it exactly as Mauro (van de Kerkhof, professional dancer who plays a major role in the video, ed.) and I did that.”
Reis builds a good bond with the singer on the set. So good that he is asked back for the video for the next single Got Me Started. This time the team travels to Bangkok. Once again, an eye-catching choreography is central to the video.
Who is Troye Sivan (28)?
Sivan started as an actor at the age of fourteen, when he first appeared on the silver screen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In his teenage years he was mainly active as a YouTuber. In 2014 he broke through in music with the single Happy Little Pill. He makes the albums Blue Neighbourhood (2015) in Bloom (2018). In the Netherlands he mainly scores hits with collaborations with Martin Garrix and Regard.
His greatest hits like Youth, My My My! in Strawberries & Cigarettes drag in hundreds of millions of streams. His third album Something To Give Each Other will be released on October 3.
‘Artists invested less in dance for a while’
Sivan is not the only artist who shows off his dance moves. Tate McRae also dances in her clip Greedy (currently the most listened to song in the Netherlands) the stars of heaven. And rappers Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion can be seen dancing extensively in their music video second collaboration.
According to Reis, it is indeed a recent trend that pop stars are focusing on dance again. But the commitment that Sivan showed has not been the standard for a while, according to Reis. “In recent years we saw that artists wanted to invest less in dance. It was used in music videos, but there were few artists who really perfected their choreography.”
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Troye Sivan – Got Me Started
K-pop and TikTok are helping popularize the dance
Reis partly attributes the return of large choreography scenes to the popularity of K-pop (Korean pop music). “In that genre, dance is at least as important as singing,” says the choreographer who also worked with BTS. “And K-pop has become so popular in the rest of the world that an example is being taken.”
The social medium TikTok, which has had a major influence on which music is popular in recent years, is also creating a dance hype. Users create their own videos in which they imitate popular choreographies. The same goes for Sivan’s videos. “TikTok creates a snowball effect. Many people want to learn the choreography and then post videos of it themselves. This way it spreads around the world very quickly.”
The choreographer himself says that he does not deliberately create dance steps that are imitated en masse. “There are probably people who make something with the intention of going viral, but that is not what I strive for. If people like it and imitate it, that is only nice. The best compliment I can receive is when someone is the music come to appreciate by seeing our dance.”
Also success for Dutch choreographer of Jungle
Reis is not the only Dutch choreographer who is in demand by international artists. The British band Jungle made the visual album Volcano and Dutch choreographer Shay Latukolan provided the dance for each song. The choreography of the song Back On 74 spreads all over the world via TikTok.
Sergio Reis and dancer Mauro van de Kerkhof on the set of Got Me Started. Photo: Sergio Reis
2023-10-09 03:01:00
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