See lead players in the
hip-hop dance world ‘Boy Blue Entertainment’ host a ‘Who’s Line is it Anyway’ style show at Shoreditch’s favourite arts
venue. Watch the performers use their dance skills to answer each other back in
a dance battle format! This vibrant participatory event, will give you
‘charades with a twist’ and hosts Home
Bros will hype the audience and dancers in what will be a comical marriage
of hip-hop, dance and theatre. Only one performer will be crowned the FREESTYLE
LIVE Champion.
Starring dancers Tasha Gooden, Frank Wilson, B-Boy Mouse and Dickson Mbi, DJ Psykhomantus, human beatboxer Marv Radio, and violinist Amanda Drummond.
Audience members getting involved
Last Thursday, I headed to Rich Mix in Shoreditch to see Jonzi- D, the Breakin' Convention creator host Hip Hop's answer to 'Whose line is it anyway'. We were all involved in the process of creating the entertainment for the evening. Jonzi came to use for the stimulus and the dancers were the entertainers who brought it to life.
Highlights from the evening for me included the 'textures' section; we shout out a texture such as 'rough' or 'smooth' and then choose which dancer can bring it to life for us. We settled on 'velcro, bubbly, spiky and slimy' which much to our delight were danced out and improvised by the dancers impressively. Frank Wilson had me in stitches with his rendition of 'velcro', moving his body as though he was completely stuck to the floor and to himself! The 'stories' section was also a creative addition. Jonzi asked the audience for stories which were then improvised/danced out by the performers and music makers. The dancers worked cleverly as a team to portray the characters in a humorous way, becoming cartoons of people in the audience to provide a cheeky re-telling.
Jonzi-D breakin' it down
Impressive accompaniments were provided by pro Beatboxer Marv Radio who has just launched his album 'Change The Radio' and violinist Amanda Drummond.
I must give a shout out to Tasha Gooden, who is a sharp dancer. I adored seeing her talents flourish in 'Some like it Hip Hop' as the lead female and her ability to embody character in her dance is captivating. It's no wonder she is the Breakin' Convention poster girl!
It was a pleasure to be a part of this Hip Hop theatre evening, and I'll be heading to more events like this this year.
If you're heading to the U.S.A this Autumn, Breakin' Convention are going to be in Charlotte, North Carolina on the 9th and 10th October and in Harlem from Friday 16th-Sunday 18th October.
When I turned up to the theatre on Tuesday, I was afraid. I was afraid that this play, an adaptation of one of my favourite films from my youth; a coming of age story which appeals to my Indian roots, and spotlighted issues I had grown up with seeing and hearing about, wasn't going to measure up to the films greatness. Then I looked at the poster and saw that Gurinder Chadha was directing the production-Hallelujah! This woman along with Kate Prince, is another one of my female heroes due to the fact that she has given a huge voice to British Indian females in the U.K, using her comedic films to also explore some of the wider social and emotional issues around Indians in Britain. So I had a good feeling about this- that it would be in trustworthy hands. In brief- Bend it like Beckham follows the story of Jess Bhamra, who comes form a traditional Indian family, but lives eats and breathes football. Her family would love for her to attend University, get married and become a Lawyer. Jess wants to play football, and only football. She is talented and gets spotted to play for the 'Hounslow Harriers' girls team. She secretly commits to the team, making 'acceptable' excuses to her family about where she might be. A strong friendship is created with her friend Jools played in the film by Keira Knightly. As the story progresses, Jess has to choose between taking opportunities to let her talent shine in football, or follow the path that her family want for her. Immediately I was gripped, as the curtain went up and the stage was covered with a 'Goalie' gauze. 'Jess' was centre stage listening to the voiceover of football chants and Beckham commentary, then a huge burst of colour erupted as the opening scene began-set to uplifting music and storytelling through song about belonging to 'UB2'-Southall. A place where I have spent many days eating food (pretty much all day eating food. My family have been known to do two sittings in two different restaurants just for the joy of it!) and recognisable shop fronts spread across the clever set, including 'Jalebi Junction' which I was in a couple of days earlier buying Indian sweets with my cousin.
The show never loses it's pace as it goes from song to song quite rapidly actually, some more uplifting with the energy coming from the beat of the dhol drum, some more emotive with sweet lyrics and memorable melodies. The songs were well pitched and humorous, linking strongly to the humour in the film. The set was so clever, with revolving panels that revealed Southall Broadway, the training ground, the German football pitch. The bedrooms of Jess and Jools came out from the wings on a raised platform and the highlight for me was the lit up recognisable Semi- detached in Southall with a picture of Babaji coming from the flys. Very cleverly done. I also loved the fact that we could see the orchestra all the way through, and they had chosen to place them at the top centre of the stage backdrop so that we could see them in all their glory-the glory that an orchestra deserves. Some highlights from the show for me where:
The football scenes with the girls team on the pitch- I thought the choreography was very clever. If someone told me to go and choreograph a football dance, I could imagine feeling quite limited at first, but the choreographer did a great job with this, and the song sung by Jools felt very liberating and fun!
The 'engagement party' sequence was hilarious, and touching. When the families were discussing how they had arrived in England and what they had achieved, it made me think about my own Grandparents and how they had settled in Hounslow after moving from Bombay. I wonder what challenges they may have faced that I didn't know about? The song and music in this section were beyond brilliant! Celebratory, fun, very Indian, and made me want to get up and dance.
The musical 'mash up' arrangements throughout were fantastic. A brilliant mash up between Jools, Jess and both of their Mum's made for a sweet rendition that moved me, and the mash up towards the end of the finale between the Wedding song and Jess' final game was outstanding. Really outstanding.
Jess' song before the interval where Beckham appeared and a light projection of a football was used to show the scoring of the goal-very clever!
I could go on, but I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who is going to go and see it. This is not a copy of the film (although classic moments such as 'Lesbian? I thought Jessminder was a Pisces' were left in thank goodness!) but a brilliant musical in it's own right. I left the theatre feeling elated, feeling proud of my mixed race roots, and very proud to be British. Book your ticket now!
