The members of Versatile Ones strike a pose–
American singer, songwriter, and dancer Jason Derulo recently released the music video for his latest single, ‘Let’s Shut up and Dance’, and the visuals feature some Jamaican talent.
The three-and-a-half minute music video, which also features other dancers from across the globe, sees the all-female dance group, the Versatile Ones, making cameo appearances throughout.
Speaking with THE STARon behalf of the group, Kimiko Versatile said that the dancers were excited about the opportunity to be part of the music video. She explained that having had their eyes on the international market for some time, the group is grateful for the Derulo video, as it will help them to further push themselves beyond Jamaica’s borders.
“I saw this as the opportunity for us to showcase our talent as Jamaican dancers. It was our chance to show the world that we are versatile, and we can do choreographed dancing, and not just freestyle or the ‘jiggling up’ all the time. This is a big thing on our resume, and we’re just very happy,” she said.
“Jason Derulo is a dancer himself, and, for me, getting a Jason Derulo video feature, we knew it was a big deal. We had to step up our game because he’s very on point and everything with him is a ‘wow factor’.”
While still beaming about the feature that the group got in the video, Kimiko explained that opportunity caught them by surprise, as they had missed the live auditions due to a prior engagement.
“They had a live audition, but we couldn’t attend because we had a gig in the country on the same day. That made us very sceptical about them choosing us. But about a week after (the auditions were completed), the lady from abroad called and said they were choosing us to do the video,” she said.
REPRESENTING JAMAICA
“We were overwhelmed and that showed us that we are doing something different of good quality that can represent Jamaica on an international platform. They were so impressed that even though we missed the audition, they still wanted to work with us. That made me feel like whatever is due to Caesar, is for Caesar because that opportunity still came back around to us even without auditioning.”
The Versatile Ones are shown for a brief moment at three different points in the music video. The group shot their dance scenes in downtown Kingston.
Kimiko told THE STAR that although their feature lasts only a few seconds, they did a full day of shooting and had to work just as hard as if they had starring roles.
“Although you see us like three seconds in the video, we were working the whole day, and we ran the choreography over and over. It’s a video shoot, and we know how things go when it goes to editing and stuff, so we expected this (the short features). We’re just so grateful that we got this opportunity because people still recognized us,” she said.
“Just being in this international video, this is something we can put on our resumes, so we’re really grateful. It helped us a lot, the crew treated us well, they respected our talents, and so we can’t complain.”
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