Breakin' Convention 2010 Unity and Unity Youth

You'll probably remember Unity from Move Like Michael Jackson, and their youth division, Unity Youth, from Got To Dance, but beside the TV appearances there's a deeper side to Unity that you'll see during their performance of Venus Vs. Mars Part 2 at Breakin' Convention 2010.

Interview with Tashan Muir, choreographer for Unity and Unity Youth
By David Barros


Venus vs Mars Part 2: What's it about?

It's a follow up to part one which we did last year, an in depth piece to make the audience realise how the first one came about. The first, performed at Serious About Streetdance was about domestic violence, this one showed how it happened. This is a prequel (although it's named part 2).
What I've done this time is incorporate the youth group. There are two young people in the youth group and it shows how they met at the start and how the violence started happening over the years.

The first one I had all the ideas, but it was rushed to get the routine out. We got a really good response to it. It's good that happened as we've been able to go in depth with it and explore it, hopefully it can grow into something bigger and better in the future.

What's the message?The message that we're tying to put across is domestic violence is something that happens. It's a thing where you hear about on the news. Loads of stuff happens in news every day, domestic violence is a thing that seems like it's not spoken about. A lot of women and men lose their lives for it, kids have to go into adoption and lose their welfare because of it. That's something we have to take. It's something I've gone through, and something others I didn't know others had too.

Finally, someone's speaking about it in a way that's positive because its a dance piece.

1) Women and men need to speak up

2) Let's tackle the problem.

Where did the idea come from?
My past. Going through it as a kid. It wasn't just about physical abuse, it was mental abuse. Just listening to people talk about it, that's where it comes from.

What should people take away from it?

The awareness. If you go through situations like that in your life and turn it to a positive, it's a good thing, also for the dance community. A lot of the dance community dance because they love it and coz they express themselves. If there are happy and sad issues, put it into your dance and see what can come out of it.

A lot of people say UK hip hop dance theatre isn't as good as the rest of the world. Breakin' Convention is the platform dance groups can use to express themselves. Hopefully we can push that along and others can express themselves and think about where you can take your dance: that's the message we want to put across.

Hopefully when people see it they will say "UK hip hop theatre can make it."