Routines

Taking its inspiration from the Kander and Ebb musical, XS Latin B Team’s first routine will be Cabaret.  Featuring standards such as Money, Money, Maybe This Time, Mein Herr and the classic title track, the team hope to evoke a feel of the Broadway musical and the Oscar winning film starring Liza Minnelli.

A trip to the theatre in London in Autumn 2009 for several members of the team, which resulted in one member enthusiastically taking to the stage (and struggling to find his way off!), provided the inspiration for XS Latin’s 9th routine, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

After Hairspray, the XS Juniors were looking for a new and exciting challenge and so the coaches decided to give them the routine with which XS Latin adult team had won its third British National title in 2008 – Night Fever.

The routine, featuring songs like You Should Be Dancing, Staying Alive and How Deep Is Your Love, had proved very popular with the adult team and its supporters and so the juniors decided to rise to the challenge!  Wearing blue dresses with black fringing, the team debuted the routine at the 2011 British Junior Championships.

The Nicest Kids in Town seemed a fitting way to open the first routine for the new XS Latin Junior team and so Hairspray was born as a latin formation routine! Much debate amongst the coaches and members of the adult team led to the selection of Hairspray, which takes its inspiration from tracks from the film. Good Morning, Baltimore, Run and Tell That and The Legend of Miss Baltimore Crabs all feature in the routine which finishes with the toe-tapping You Can’t Stop The Beat!

The inspiration for this, XS Latin’s 8th themed routine, was the London stage production of Saturday Night Fever, which played at the London Palladium and was choreographed by Arlene Philips. One of the team members, along with her sister, displayed a worrying devotion to the production, having seen it on stage several times, and, after some successful campaigning, persuaded the coaches and the team to buy into this theme. Perhaps a little dancing to Staying Alive at the 2007 World Championship’s after-party proved the clincher …

Taking its inspiration from some of the classic musicals of the 1960s and 1970s, On Broadway aimed to capture the feeling of the Broadway or West End theatre land.

After five previous routines which were inspired by pop or film music, XS decided that the sixth routine was about time for a latin formation team to use authentic Latin American music and Song of South America was born.

Following on from the Aladdin theme did not prove to be an easy task. Former member David Mallabone, having turned professional in 2004, was now on board as a coach and so, as an easy induction, was given the task of arranging the music for the new theme. Having completed a My Fair Lady themed music and rejecting it and then completing a George Michael themed music and rejecting this too, things were getting desperate! Finally, using Bruce’s experience and inspiration, the idea for a Tom Jones theme was suggested and followed through.

A discussion in Vilnius Airport on the return journey from XS’s first trip to the IDSF World Championships turned into a brainstorming for a new theme and Aladdin emerged triumphant from that debate. Inspired by the Disney animated movie, this routine debuted at the British National in November 2003.

The arrival on the big screen of the Baz Luhrmann film, Moulin Rouge, provided inspiration for the third XS routine. This time, the music and choreography were done ‘in-house’ and the team, for the first time, appreciated the enormity of the task of putting together a music and choreography for 8 couples and 6 minutes that moves smoothly between the cha cha, rumba, samba, paso doble and jive.