What is Commercial Dance?

Commercial dance is any dance style used to promote, advertise and sell product. Products can be from food, perfume, music and clothing. Because there is such a wide range that commercial dance can be considered and called an 'Umberella' term. This simply means you cannot isolate Commercial dance as one thing. Some of the most common dance styles used for commercial dance are; Hip-hop, Heels, Contemporary and Jazz. The commercial sector and dance industry are different, many believe the two to be the same thing. The commercial sector consists of Adverts, T.V, Music videos and stage performance whereas the dance style consists of fusions of other styles such as heels, 'hip-hop' and contemporary. Many argue that commercial isn't a style of dance but in fact a fusion of two or more styles performed in the commercial sector such as music video. Others believe it is it's on style and originated from pop culture. Theres a lot of confusion when it comes to commercial as though people its not a style of dance, commercial is taught as a style in class. But on the other hand commercial is normally taught as a fusion for example commercial jazz, which suggests its jazz but influenced by the commercial sector. In my opinion Commercial dance isn't a style but a term used for dance used in the commercial sector.

We're going to look into two examples of dance used in the commercial sector...

First up, the Kenzo advert. This advert for perfume is a perfect example that not all commercial dance is Hip-hop/urban. The director of the 'Kenzo World' advert was Spile Jonze who also wrote it. (IMDb, 2019) Famous choreographer responsible Sia's Chandelier Ryan Heffington is also choreographer for this advert. (Huffingtonpost.co.uk, 2019) The message of this advert is to take the mic out of previously released perfume adverts. It does this by taking the stereotypical perfume adverts to the extreme. (Anon, 2019) Margret Qually is the lead dancer within the advert. It was released within an article that choreographer Ryan Heffington admitted that the majority of the movement was improvised by Margret. He would say "let's have her improv,' and she would kill it," (Nast, 2019) The dancer’s movement starts with facial expressions to the beats. Hitting beats in the music is very common for any commercial video. The dancer showcases many different styles of dance which come together as a ultimate fusion. The meaning of the music video isn’t just the parody of all other perfume adverts but also to tell people to let go. The dancers movement does this perfectly by using all different styles of dance that usually don’t go together. The dancer also utilises tools such as animalistic improvisation and stage combat. There is a reference in the video to where she expresses herself as a mime in the mirror. Her animalistic movement reflects a monkey travelling, since we descended from apes (monkeys). All of her movement is free and expressive, from what I can tell she uses a combination of jazz, contemporary, ballet and hip-hop. Since she combines so many different styles I believe we should call it Commercial. 

Motivation music video by Normani...

Motivation was released by Normani on August 16, 2019 and directed by Dave Meyers and Daniel Russell. The music video is set in the early 2000’s, and the meaning behind the song is to entice her partner to stay at home with her rather than go out. (Anon, 2019).The choreography is called Commercial however it is very clear from the footage that the style is both dancehall and hip-hop. Sean Bankhead is responsible for the choreography within this video. The combination of both Dancehall and hip-hop create and reflect the feeling of this music video. Since the song is meant to entice her partner in staying home, the use of isolation in the hips & twerking is effective. Dance-hall has always been thought of as sexual due to the nature of its movement. This movement along with the hip-hip groove create a very cohesive piece of dance choreography. The video is set in the early 2000’s so they have chosen more old-school hip-hop movement. Most of these moves shown have been seen in the commercial sectors before, as most the moves are quite simple showing them on TV meant others can watch and learn them to. Other music videos such as Gangman style and Harlem shake but only so popular due to the trending dances. they were fun and simple enough that everyone could do them.  (Song Meanings and Facts, 2019)

In conclusion I believe that commercial is not a dance style but rather a term placed onto a given dance style used in any commercial sector. Commercial is the term given for a fusion of two or more different dance styles in commercial sector. 

References: 

IMDb. (2019). Kenzo World (Video 2016) - IMDb. [online] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6018502/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].

Huffingtonpost.co.uk. (2019). HuffPost is now part of Verizon Media. [online] Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kenzo-world-ad-spike-jonze_uk_57c6945de4b09f5b5e348df1?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAG4GlWmwzVa0k3ZM9Vlbbey-8agT8qhf2eZTWowJq_4gisLkXFzldmwaM0WMWx9wxW7tee8Azai3n1Hd_GjiWlk1HMXxzUIIOtTKiSa-bGi4gX-5XUnKL0ctLIKuDXn64Fl5-R8UAUdVfbViiWqOMfLCo5DHZZl0TarAGUxCTdOk [Accessed 14 Oct. 2019].

Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ariana-grande-feature-normani-next-single-869177/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].

Song Meanings and Facts. (2019). "Motivation" by Normani - Song Meanings and Facts. [online] Available at: https://www.songmeaningsandfacts.com/motivation-by-normani/ [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].