Teacher performs old school Jamaican dancehall moves in impressive TikTok

Johanna Taylor teaches Jamaican dancehall choreography.

Taylor got her start by taking West African and Afro Caribbean dance classes in the Bay Area. As she became a student of the craft, Taylor got into reggae and began following choreographers. 

She made it a point to study under the local pros but eventually realized she had to go straight to the source: Jamaica. She’s made numerous visits to the country and even lived there for a few months. Now Taylor shares clips of her dancehall routines on TikTok

One video shows a montage of Taylor doing old school dancehall moves, including “Pon di River,” “Nuh Linga,” “Tek Weh Yourself,” “Wacky Dip” and “Skip to my Lou.” 

Taylor’s video received over 209,000 views. Let’s just say there was a lot of Jamaican flag emojis giving the teacher praise. 

“Yesssss!!! You killed this. I love this, I was literally dancing with you,” one user wrote

“Yesss, you did your thing,” another said

“She got moves,” one added

Taylor never planned on becoming a teacher. It wasn’t until she did a program with dancehall legend Latonya Style in Jamaica who advised her to teach in California. 

“Originally, I was never going to teach. I’m not Jamaican and I did not think it was appropriate. That was my philosophy for the longest time and I stuck with that,” Taylor told A Time to Dance

But with Style’s blessing and training, she decided to create a teaching model that centered Jamaicans rather than her. Taylor even takes her students to visit the country

“That’s my goal with teaching,” Taylor said. “It’s not centered around me. My goal is to create a scene where I start hosting Jamaicans to come teach. That’s what they do in Europe. Really, it’s important for Jamaicans to come anywhere where it is so that it can really, really be learned.”

If you enjoyed this story, you might want to read about this teacher who uses drive-by visits to stay in touch with kids stuck at home.

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