The Creation of "Ah Ndiya"

IMP-Style: "Ah Ndiya"


I've long been a fan of African music, and am also interested in keeping IMP-Style wide-ranging, so Ah Ndiya was my first experiment into the genre. It's definitely the prettiest song I've danced to; but my dancing is not exactly pretty, so I didn't know how the collision would turn out. I certainly have no training in West African dance, but then, I have no training in any other dance, either.

On Thanksgiving Day, 2008, I figured I'd take advantage of the potentially relaxed security, by shooting part of Badder Badder Schwing, at the Hollywood sign. As the sun set over the Santa Monica mountains, I figured it was time to start gathering footage for Ah Ndiya, which wanted beautiful backgrounds to match the music. I was joined during that silhouette shot, by a surprise participant, a gentle stoner who was also seeking to get close to the Hollywood sign. I told him it was likely that his footage would only make the blog, but he didn't mind.


The day after Thanksgiving also seemed like a good one to defy usual security, but it wasn't: I got kicked out two separate locations (including the one on the rose colored steps in the video, above). The first one I lost so fast, that I didn't even get any usable footage. Right around the corner from that, I found the fire truck doing some kind of maintenance or test or something. They held still while I danced in front of them for one and a half takes, and then doubled around to give me a nice closing shot.



I relied heavily on the Bunker Hill part of downtown (the same area I shot Grand Avenue in), because the locations were much more beautiful than most of my industrial spots. That area is ideal for parkour; there are tons of features, levels, and pedestrian walkways, with surprisingly little law enforcement. There are still potential consequences, however: the shots on the edge of the pedestrian walkways don't reveal the 25' drop down to traffic, below.



I love the tunnel shot, which provided a rich, beautiful background to carve out my silhouette. Shortly after that, I finished the evening playing with the twin fountains, and getting wet playing one fountain like a zither.

Under a stretch of Grand Avenue, there is a ground level utility road, for deliveries, etc. For some reason, they had a white dumpster parked in the middle of the road that night, and I loved the symmetry with the V-shaped overhead lights.



I wasn't at all surprised to be kicked out, when playing with my staff in front of the Bank of America building; just surprised it took so long for them to do it. "Some crazy guy's out front swinging a stick around" - I can only imagine.

The ramp from Flower to Hope offered two shots. The first (with the lit parking garage in the background), was just me taking advantage of the slope, and using the added momentum to change how I related to leaps and spins.

The second, the transition from one ramp to the other, was (as many things in these videos are) scarier in real life than in the video. You can see the 10' or so drop to asphalt; but what's not so visible (except in the clip, below), is how the space in between the ramps is over a 40' drop down to street at the ground level.



As always, I'm eager to share my bloopers, trips and stumbles. I cut the blooper reel to "Ah Ndiya"; funny how that song makes even falling down seem beautiful.