Keone Madrid and Mariel Martin “Please Don’t Stop the Music” (video)

Thanks to Tessa for bringing Keone Madrid and Mariel Martin into my radar. Keone and Mariel are members of Choreo Cookies dance team in San Diego, and a real life couple, as seems obvious from this video. I've been watching this video of theirs every day or so for the past couple of weeks, and it tears me up everytime.

There's something about the combination of the song "Don't Stop the Music," the singing by Jamie Cullum, and the dancers / choreographers Keone and Mariel that just comes together perfectly in this piece.  

The overall tone of the dancing is romantic and emotional.  The dancers start off separated, facing away from each other. He approaches her, they check each other out and like what they see. They playfully dance together, and them with more sensuality. They come together at the end and embrace. So sweet.

And yet their movement is also hard-hitting and raw, without diminishing the romanticism of the piece. It's kind of ridiculous how seamless and easy they make it look.

There's lots of crazy musicality and tiny moments that I appreciate and notice each time I watch this. The section from 0:45-1:05 you can see how well they accentuate the lyrics with their movement. The headphone section at 1:26 is also fantastic, as are their brief solos. 

There are several versions of this choreo you can find online. The one above is my favorite, since it's well lit and you can clearly see their movements. The more produced music video version is also wonderful, particularly the vintage costuming and camera work.  Their performance at Rio H2K you can see people losing their mind at the end.  And there's the group adaptation for Choreo Cookies at the VIBE dance competition with dozens of dancers involved (the "Don't Stop the Music" section starts at 3:35).