The dance-floor education of Elaine – Texx and the City

Elaine beams at me from behind a pair of sleek Miu Miu sunglasses. “It’s a new era, it’s a new vibe, it’s a new BPM, new everything,” she smiles, her white fur coat wrapped tightly around her. “But I still don’t feel like it’s too detached from who I am. It still feels very personal.”She looks – simply put – like an icon. Elaine has been making dance music. The local singer and songwriter first rose to prominence with her EP Elements. Released in 2019, the project gained attention for its unctuous take on bedroom R&B, and can arguably be credited for ushering in the ensuing wave of the local Nu-RnB scene. 

While the blistering Afro tech-house of her new single “One More Dance” might seem as far away from Elements as you can go, if you look closer you’ll find that Elaine has always been somewhere in the club. She’s featured her voice on tracks by Skyla Tylaa and Kelvin Momo, but even in her own work, you can find traces of the dance-floor. The distant heartbeat and effervescent synth accents on “Changes” wrote from the booth in the corner of the dance-floor, but on this new project – Elaine goes fully in. “I think it was the reception I got for all the dance records I’d featured on,” she says. “I was like, ‘maybe I should drive the boat [in this direction]’ So I really wanted to launch myself into it and see what that looks and feels like. I’m having a blast so far.”  

But to get here, she made sure to do her homework. “Before I even got into the booth, I was doing research for, I think, two years for this project,” she says. “So, a lot of research went into it. A lot of paying my respects to people that have done it before. Lebo Mathosa has been my muse for this era.” Mathosa is a fitting reference – with her bleached blonde buzz cut and effortlessly cool swag, Elaine is fully exploring the path laid out by her predecessor. Part of that includes studying the iconography of artists like Mathosa, and unlocking parts of herself by playing with these aesthetics in her own context. “For me, it’s effortless South African swag,” she says. “Shaving your hair, dying it blonde. It’s classic SA. It’s all homegrown, but with so much attitude. It’s edgy. It’s young. It’s fresh.” It may have started as homework, but it’s clear from the way Elaine speaks about her dance-floor education that the work has become home. 

There’s no other way to make a record like “One More Dance” honestly than to fully commit to the culture of where this sound comes from, and Elaine has fully immersed herself in South African dance music’s past, and present, to arrive at her version of its future. “Dance music in South Africa is rooted in lifestyle,” she says. “I was going everywhere. Taking gigs where I usually wouldn’t take gigs. Going to festivals where I was the only R&B artist. Going to clubs in Johannesburg, clubs in the township, clubs abroad. Listening, learning.” 

The track brings together the Major League DJs, who she collaborated with previously, with Mpho.wav, and Atmos Blaq – producers who have been pushing the sound of local dance music forward with their evolutions of 3-step and Afrohouse. The result is something that ups Elaine’s BPM, but retains the soulful R&B voice that she is known for. “That vulnerability never leaves me,” Elaine says. “That’s really my superpower. I’m always vulnerable.”

The dance-floor is a historical site of liberation in pop music. It’s a rare space that allows artists to experiment with themselves and play with identity. For Elaine, it was the refuge she needed to realign with her purpose and perspective as an artist. And though she’s fully found her place in the dance music ecosystem, she still treats the scene and its community with reverence. “The dance community has been so welcoming,” she says. “I’m also just grateful to the dance community for welcoming me and being so supportive. It really has been amazing familiarising myself with that community.” She speaks of it like a polite guest — but she is no guest here. When I ask her to describe this new era in three words, she laughs before settling on just one: “Homegrown.” Home is, after all, where the best nights out begin.