The popular choreography of Single Ladies is surprisingly fitting to Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, to the point that the strings in the opening of this video closely match the ascending whistle that can be heard in the opening bars and in the background throughout Beyoncé’s 2008 hit. In the video, Beyoncé has her fiercer alter ego Sasha Fierce perform along with with two back-up dancers, where she traipses around an infinity cove.
With a styling inspired by a Vogue photoshoot, the concept behind the video is, in Beyoncé’s own words, “very modern and very vintage”: it was inspired by a 1969 routine by Bob Fosse entitled “Mexican Breakfast”, where Fosse’s wife dances with two other women. The choreography per se is performed in J-Setting style, a flamboyant lead-and-follow dance style that is especially popular in the South of the United States.
Clad in black asymmetrical unitard and wearing an elaborate piece of roboglove designed by jeweller Lorraine Schwartz, Sasha Fierce addresses an ex lover, telling him that, since he did not attempt to make things more permanent when he had the chance, he has no reason to complain now that she has found someone else (Dmitri Maybe?)