Keone & Mariel Madrid

It had been a while since I devoted a few hours to watching dance videos on YouTube... And recently, I stumbled upon this video.

"We are"

"I don't have words for the video... Every time they release something new, it leaves me speechless. In each of their performances, they strive to go beyond a ""simple"" choreography and aim to innovate, whether it's through the story they tell, the message they convey, or by adding various elements to their dances. I thought it was a great idea to use this as an opportunity to put together my favorite videos of Mariel & Keone Madrid.

Mariel Martin

The first video I saw from Mariel was this one:

It's one of those videos I could have watched a million times and never got tired of. It was through videos like this that I started to discover different things... Probably at the time I saw it I was into hip hop choreography with similar types of songs (either very hip hop or more funky/commercial) and seeing this made me realise that there were people doing something different... Without a doubt, I loved the musicality in this video and of course the message it ends with.

It's very likely that I discovered Jillian Meyers with this video too!

Another thing that happens to me is that I discover a lot of musicians I hadn't heard before. After this video, I learned the entire discography of Jamiroquai:

I would say the same about all the videos: speechless. Once again, she always has a message that she manages to convey perfectly through dance, and in this case, with a touch of humor.

I take this opportunity to share Project Home, in which both Mariel and her brother Chris Martin participate. I had the chance to see it live, and it's incredible what they achieve...

Keone Madrid

I don't remember which was the first video I saw from Keone... What I love about him are the original ideas and his characteristic touch of humor.

And, of course, his ability to make something that's not easy seem easy:

Keone & Mariel Madrid

I don't remember where I read (or they explained) that individually they each have their own style, but when they create choreographies together, they create something completely different from what they do separately. And if choosing a few videos from them individually was difficult, choosing from both of them together is impossible...

That they are excellent dancers, I think there is no doubt... What surprises me is what they achieve as choreographers:

To finish, some time ago they started a Kickstarter campaign to create an interactive dance book, which I thought was a fantastic idea. At the end of last month, they revealed the book's name and that they plan to release it sometime this year:

As part of the campaign, they released 15 videos, and you have to watch ALL of them ('Preface' - Playlist). Of these 15, I think I'm captivated by all of them. I like them all, but since I like to end how I began, the last video is another one from Mariel & Jillian: