Former Team Spice Dancers Now Have Their Own Reality Show: “Dancehall Life”
A trio of popular dancers, formerly of the Team Spice dance group, has snagged their very own reality show. Thanks to the CEO of Downsound Records (DSR), Josef Bogdanovich, the crew comprising of Dancing Rebel, TC and Pretty Pretty are now stars of a new reality web series dubbed Dancehall Life .
The show premiered last Sunday on Kingston Signal’s Official YouTube channel to much fanfare. The episode, ‘Di Dolls’ Dem Out!’’ is currently trending at the No. 2 spot on YouTube Jamaica and it shows the girls coming together for the first time at a mansion in the outskirts of the city. The premiere pretty much caught the viewers up-to-speed with who they are.
Bogdanovich, who is popularly known in the entertainment industry for his involvement in Sting and particularly Reggae Sumfest since he took over the reigns in 2016, said his jump into the reality series business was in an effort to showcase another realm of the Jamaican Dancehall culture on international streaming platforms.
While Dancehall deejays are aviators on the forefront of the industry, key contributors like dancers, Keticia “TC’ Chatman, Christina ‘Dancing Rebel’ Nelson, and Tashlieka ‘Pretty Pretty’ Laird are often unheard and uncredited.
The three ladies were involved in a pretty public spat with their former boss, the Queen of Dancehall, Spice recently.
In December, the dancers were accused of being ingrates and hypocrites towards Spice, after they failed to defend her during the RT Boss revelations. The ladies defended those claims on social media, which would reveal their hard-knock life as dancers, i.e. getting injured on stage, being underpaid, sometimes working for free, and refusing to take other jobs to uphold their loyalty to the Queen. Eventually, these issues and more would see the fall of Team Spice.
Now as Bogdanovich’s Dancehall Life showcases these ladies in their very own reality show, expectations are spirited to see what’s to come. “It’s going to be different from the usual things people expect to see when they think of Dancehall. You will see the ladies as they are, dancers and complete entertainers. But you will also get to know who they really are and what makes them so dedicated to Dancehall and Dancehall culture,” he said.
The concept of the show is to display the ladies candidly as they are in everyday situations, nothing is scripted or rehearsed. “The reality series is about the day in the life of these three influential ladies of Dancehall, who amongst other things are known for their dancing skills,” Bogdanovich explained.
“The way we’re working on this project, the way it’s being produced and thought about, it’s really abstract and all about seeing these ladies in their natural element. We didn’t script any of it and so all that you’re seeing is coming through because of great chemistry. The girls are just hilarious, they are super-talented and I’m happy we get to help them establish themselves even more,” he said further.
Co-producer of the show, Ce’Cile, said that the dancers’ bond is undeniable. “So we really just allowed them to be themselves. We wanted their personalities to shine and so we didn’t bound them by scripts or any of that. We plan activities of course but the end result, what you see in the final edit, is all them,” she said.
The debut episode currently sits on 120k views on YouTube with several commentators liking what they are seeing.
“This is what needs to come out of Jamaica 🇯🇲 Well done 👍🏾 lady’s 👏🏽👏🏽🇬🇧,” said one viewer.
Someone else added, “Me a wait for this till me tired 😪💣🥳…on a serious note i love what im seeing and jamaica need fi invest ina them ppl, we need we own line of movies,more plays /comedies and aaalot more reality series just like this one ..💯💯🇯🇲.”
“I am very impressed. This was professionally done. I like the visuals and layout. Good job y’all. 👍” said another. Also, “Anybody who tek up them 3 girls here to invest in I looooove u!!!! Unfiltered talent them!! They’re going farrrrrrr❤️❤️❤️,” said one appreciative viewer.
Bogdanovich might be stepping out into a new territory of Dancehall entertainment but he’s confident the girls will pull through for the success of the show.
“We did a pilot series to see how it went, and afterward, we have a three-month plan. Moving forward will depend on what the response is like. These girls are very interesting and we are hoping their fan base will find them as interesting and entertaining as we did.”
He explained his decision to pursue this latest venture.
“I added Dancehall Life to my growing list of entertainment offerings because these type series are quite the rage right now. Everyone is streaming on platforms like Netflix, and Apple music etc. These reality-type shows are somewhat replacing regular movies and our objective is to get this program syndicated on some of these platforms,” said Bogdanovich.