‘I discovered dance like a teenager discovers sex; natural and inevitable.
To join a crew you have to battle everyone in the crew to get initiated but when I joined the Soul Mavericks I didn’t want to up show all the youngsters so I skipped that, but yeah if you want in you gotta gel with us, eat with us, train with us, n party like us!
If you wanna ski you go to the South of France! I want people to think that about dance and London… if you wanna dance you go to London. In the 80s we had the second biggest hip hop break dance scene in the world here in the UK, we gotta bring it back home baby.
The first time I saw breaking properly I was an adult, that’s no good. Kids in school, college and uni should see all dance all the time, no one should discover b-boying as an adult. That’s why I like the Dance Your City comp, it can reach everyone through facebook, that’s why I got involved.’
Always one of comedy’s most innovative thinkers this genre stretching performer is back… and for this brand new show he’s formed a double act… with a projector screen. And they’d like to show you their powerpoint presentation. Cast your powerpoint prejudice* aside, it’s not just for business meetings.
‘Gorman has seen his stock rise to such an extent that he’s poised, as never before, to make the leap from cult figure to mainstream phenomenon.’ (The Telegraph)
In July 2012, Southbank Centre will host the premier of U.Dance Ensemble with Hofesh Shechter as artistic director. This new company is the first UK-wide youth dance company and comprises of 20 dancers aged between 16 and 21 from all over the UK.
Rehearsals are now under way for the performances at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall in July so we caught up with Hofesh to hear his thoughts on this exciting new project.
“It’s great that the project is now underway, it was a fascinating experience to see young dancers from throughout the UK during the audition process. I’m looking forward to getting into the studio for the intense creation period, teaching them as much as I can and in turn I’m sure I will be learning from their vibrant energy and humour, of which I’ve already had a taste over the last months.”
Tickets will be on sale soon so check back for more info.
Blanca Li, choreographer and director of Elektro Kif, the new Street Dance show coming to Southbank Centre in March 2012, tells us about how she got into dance, her big break and the dance film she made that inspired our facebook competition Dance Your City (www.southbankcentre.co.uk/dyc). Blanca is one of the judges for the Dance Your City Live Final on 2 March.
How did you first get into dance?
I started at 12 as a gymnast for the Spanish national team and at 15 I decided to go into dance which I found more artistic, creative and less competitive. I admired dance since I was very little and I had always told my mother I wanted to become a dancer, I loved it! I also wanted to create my own dances, so at a young age I started making my own choreography. I could never do one without the other.
Tell us about your dance company
My dance company exists since 1992. There are between 10 and 50 dancers that works regularly with the company with really different styles like hip hop, flamenco, contemporary, classical, electro (some combine different styles too). Some dancers have been with the company for 15 years and new ones come in every year. This keeps the energy in the company. The dancers who really know my work for a long time assist me in helping the new dancers to learn and rehearsing, recreating the shows and keeping them in good shape. I have a really good team. Since the creation of the company we have been touring around the world with 13 different full length shows, across Europe, Africa, Asia and America, performing over a thousand times.
Did you have a big break in dance?
My big moment was at seventeen when I arrived in NY to study dance at the Martha Graham School. It was a great experience that lasted 5 years, I saw the birth of Hip hop and learned about all styles of dance from all over the world.
Also it was a very important time for me when I first came to France and performed at the Avignon Off Festival. This was the starting point of my dance company.
Tell us about the video you created for the Dance Your City competition
I love very much the Eiffel Tower; it’s very modern, even if it was constructed for the Exposition Universal in 1881. I think it represents Paris and Electro Dance started in Paris, so I thought it would be great to show this dance in front of the Tower to give it an identity. The opening scene of my first feature film “Le Défi” (The Dance Challenge) is in front of the Eiffel Tower because at the time I wanted to show how French hip hop had developed as its own style and with its own identity.
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