Dancehall Family Tree’s ‘Looney Tunes’ Dance Featured In Olympic Opening Ceremony Choreography

Many Jamaicans may have missed it, but French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura not only performed with the orchestra of the French Republican Guard at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony but also incorporated the Jamaican “Looney Tunes” dancehall move created by the Dancehall Family Tree (DFT) group into her set.

Dancehall Choreographer and Dancers of Jamaica founder Maria Hitchins confirmed the use of the dance moves on Twitter on the weekend.

“And just like that popular Jamaican Dancehall dance Looney Tunes created by the DFT crew was featured in the #Paris #Olympic opening ceremony choreography during AYA NAKAMURA performance,” she tweeted on Friday.

She later added another clip featuring the DFT performing the dance moves, which were also the main thrust of the Ding Dong-Iwaata collab of the same name.

“Here are some of the Jamaican dancers members of DFT who created & popularized the Looney Tunes dance featured in Paris Olympics Choreo. These dancers also tour & teach abroad, especially throughout Europe, likewise many people travel to Jamaica for private classes,” she added later.

Hitchins, who also teaches a Dancehall dance course at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts’ School of Dance, followed up later with an Instagram video in which she praised the Jamaican choreographers.

“It was so fantastic to see Jamaican Dancehall dance represented once again on a global stage… Looney Tunes, the popular dance move that was created by DFT, Dancehall Family Tree Crew which is an amalgamation of several dance all dancers and dance groups that came together last year to really have a bigger presence on the entertainment scene, yeah? That’s their move right there. Looney Tunes,” she pointed out.

“How magical is that once again that Jamaica continues to just have such global influence and footprint… on Twitter where I posted it ..Somebody asked how is it that Jamaica with such a small population continues to have such large influence and it is because when we travel we take our art with us,” she added.

Continued Hitchins: “We take our cultural practices, our arts with us, our music, our food, our dance, our language. Yeah, the way we walk and talk and flex our swag or fashion. Yeah, we’re full of the passion for all things Jamaican and really because we do that it makes our art so accessible to the world”.