Modern Muse Sonia Soupha: Lean, Mean, Dancing Machine.

First and foremost, you need to watch this:

If, like us, you watched that video thinking,‘How is that possible? Why is it so mesmerising? What are they doing with their LEGS?’ Then you’ll probably want to read more about French dancer Sonia Soupha, the human Slinky.

More about French dancer Sonia Soupha (like we promised).

Sonia specialises in her own unique form of street dance, which she says combines two very different disciplines: hip-hop and dancehall. That’s dancehall not ballroom, which was the first thing we thought of. So precision, strength and style, rather than twirling ballgowns and men prancing about in tuxedos.

Different things guys, different things.

Dance, not dunce.

Sonia Soupha is a dancer, choreographer and dance teacher in several schools and she’s also a member of dance troupe Sènsuafro. With that packed schedule, she probably doesn’t spend her evenings on the couch eating crisps and watching Netflix, which is partly why we chose Sonia to be one of our Modern Muses.

We’re pretty blown away by Sofia’s talent, but it takes a lot of hard work to become a real life lord of the dance. To get to where Sofia is now requires determination, drive and dancing until your knees fall off. Then re-attaching your knees, auditions, setbacks and successes, and your knees falling off again (probably).

Smooth moves, funky grooves and ...wobbly hooves?

If you’re an inspired mover and shaker (or already a dancer), here are some top tips for making it big in the land of dance (a.k.a Ireland. JOKE.):

• Keep super fit. Sonia can do all those crazy moves because she is in fact ridiculously strong. Regular people are usually ridiculously weak, which is why when we dance it looks like a blind giraffe rollerskating on ice.

• Tape your knees on so they don’t fall off from all the dancing. You’ll thank us later.

• Stay positive, despite setbacks. Being knocked back or disappointed in life shouldn’t ever make you give up on your dream. As a wise blue fish once said, just keep swimming (read: dancing).

• Attend Sofia’s dance classes! No really. She teaches in Paris and Lyon, as well as running workshops all over the world.

Dance is open to everyone, whether you fancy a career in dance, enjoy it as a hobby or just like being mesmerised by Sofia’s jelloid limbs... oh OKAY here’s another video:

They say that if you can move, you can dance. So what are you waiting for?*

*Dancefloors of the world, we apologise.

by Lilou, Lea and Lee