Ballet Boyz N Da Hood - Rite of Spring Review

"Ballet Boyz's Rite of Spring: Extraordinary blend of breakdancing, contemporary fusions, ballroom and poledancing. Splendiforous!"

That's what I would write, but in doing so lose all credibility for running TooMuchFlavour, let alone being able to comment on dance. It was really ballet in gimp costume... No, not really, I'm playing. But not far off.

This is great news to me. A week of Move Like Michael Jackson, then more dance on the Beeb with Ballet Boyz! It's a shame, because it wasn't that memorable after watching it.

Stravinsky: classical composer. Rite of Spring: Classically controversial. So the Ballet Boyz (with a 'Z,' gaining them mad credibility in our book!) decided to bring it back with a contemporary twist. They gathered dancers of different and contrasting styles. And they recruited the help of the Soul Mavericks. Step out of the woodwork, haters! They even met up with them at their London Bridge training sessions too. But didn't show the McDonald's the training studio is above!

In October we met up with Soul Mavericks for the UK B-Boy Championships, watch our interview below

"Stravinsky?" Kevin (aka DJ Renegade) answered when he heard the first few bars of music. Damn, after years on the b-boy scene he even knows his classical composers? "That's easy."

Funny how they can commission a piece of classical music for the programme, but had to use a licensed generic break to dub over for the training session...

So Renegade and the Mavericks get on with choreographing. Quite a challenge, as the piece of music is intricate and detailed with no set rhythm to follow, with climaxes and relaxed moments, but nothing is too hard when you're the crew representing the UK in several breaking competitions.

Then that's all you see of them for a bit. A little rehearsal footage midway in the programme at Laban before performance. You don't even get to see the bit where they slipped B-Boy Junior into the cast. Junior who? 13m views on YouTube Junior...



The producers seemed to have forgotten putting in that minor detail. Of course if you put Junior's style in your piece people will clap, the man defies gravity using his arms to propel him! It did look dope though, although for them to dance on beat when there are no obvious marks in the music isn't worth the criticism; the concept for when they moved and why was there.

It's just a shame that considering there were several different styles of dance here, most of the story of the documentary was spent on meeting the dancers rather than watching the pieces develop. I didn't just want to see DJ Renegade go "We're gonna do an eight there, then you guys do an eight when that bit is done." Whoopee-doo. I wanted to see how our b-boys adapted to the unfamiliar music, then how the contemporary dancers and the poledancers got along together with everyone else to pull the final performance together.

Give me drama dammit, I know what dancers are like, so watch dancers from one style argue with the another that does a different style!

It's not like it's the first time b-boying has been set to classical music. It works, and it works well - check this video. But if you're going to broadcast a show that adapts a controversial ballet, and does so with different styles, show us how it all came together!

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Searching... for Speech Debelle at Fenchurch

When I heard Fenchurch were hosting a live session with Speech Debelle at their flagship store at Seven Dials, there was no question as to whether it was worth checking out. I had to go. Fenchurch + hip hop!

I'd like to point out that I'm not riding on Speech's Mercury award nomination success, as I was there watching her perform after the B.Supreme show in April! Spotting her a few weeks later in the Observer Music Monthly I knew I should probably have stuck around longer to catch all of her performance...

Speech is a Mercury Award nominee who is beginning to make a name for herself in the UK hip hop music scene for her softly spoken voice, honest and poetic lyrics and feel good live beats - she performs with an acoustic guitarist, drummer and bass player. It's like hip hop crossed over with a jazz band, a female Abstract to an English Tribe Called Quest!

Fans will be waiting with baited ears for whether she's won on Tuesday, but to keep them excited she performed a few numbers off her album at Fenchurch as an intimate warm up gig before the winner is announced.

Free drinks were available for attendees, as well as plenty of cool freebies to grab (not sure what was more popular, the free alcohol or the Fenchurch branded lighters!).

It was warm inside the shop, which had all its interior shifted to make room for the band setup and the radiant lighting setup. People packed around in a circle, to which Speech remarked "Why are you in a circle?" making us spread the shape so everyone could see.

The performance started early and the filled room with the introduction of Searching. When she finished, everyone clapped, only for us to find out it was the sound check! Ha!

A few drinks later, if you were able to get any, the show kicked off at its correct time, now with slightly clearer acoustics. Like any true artist should for their fans, Speech performed a good few tracks (no 'two songs and we're done' stylee), including her latest single Spinning, Better Days and Badman.

Speech's performance style is unlike typical 'hip hop.' No jumping up and down, amping of the crowd, but a lot of introverted, personal moments (albeit in front of an audience) while performing. While she spits her lyrics she looks at the floor a lot as though she's thinking about every lyric she's saying, a huge contrast between the showmen you see trying to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Instead it was like sharing her inner thoughts with the people in the room set to melodic and upbeat tunes.

Maybe it's the current attention she's getting, I don't know Speech's performance history. Frequently she'd make the occasional well received joke though, and it was like watching someone happy to be where she is, doing what she likes doing, and that's performing. Her band should also be credited too, those guys know how to make a live jam sound good. This was a different kind of vibe, a rarity these days in hip hop, and it's good to see humble performers.

The audience loved the performances, as did I. As did some of Speech's friends that turned up to show their support too! I'd only heard Searching - Amazon did a free [legal] download of it on promotion, and another song I never caught the name of, this opened my eyes and ears. Yes, the newspapers are making a deal about her because her style crosses over into what could be considered an easy listening market, but at least seeing her perform live (and in full) I now know what the deal is about, and it's made my mind up about buying the album too.

Click below to listen to samples from Speech Therapy, and if you like it, buy it and show support!



Something about the setup at Fenchurch reminded me of when King Apparel opened their shop doors to Guru. But there was no rivalry between the two shops (situated next to each other), in fact, King Apparel staff were also in the building. Hip hop love!

You can visit Speech Debelle's website at www.speechdebelle.com for more info on her, as well as links to her Facebook and MySpace.

Dance Off Stays On The Hook...

Billed as a big night where music and dance come together, Dance Off should have been a huge success. But it lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. Nicky Short reports...



Boy Blue, Nike D-Clash, Ironik, Killa Kella, Kymberlee Jay… What a line up! ‘Dance off’ in Matter at the O2 on Thursday 26th June lacked nothing; hip hop dance heads would have been hard pressed to think of something missing. So why did the night stay firmly ON the hook?


Theories might include blaming it on the venue: Matter is cavernous and featureless with bleak, unfinished looking décor that looks as though the plasterers have been in but no one has painted. It started filling up from 8pm- preliminary rounds of the battles were held earlier in the day- but even at its fullest, it felt empty. That said, the floor and space were perfect for the sneaker touting dancers, the stage was a good height with Amphitheatre style benches so the usual urban event sight issues didn’t factor. The sound was good with Kiss 100’s Manny Norte banging out fresh tunes and classics. That would be enough to ensure success, surely?


The night even ran more or less on time with dance performances interspersed with music sets, culminating in the battles and Ironik’s show. D-clash executed their varied set to completely instrumental music, demonstrating their prolific skills in contemporary and urban styles including an exemplary head spin from b-girl, Lyra. They were let down by the unnecessary dry ice which masked them so thickly that it was only when they stepped through to take a bow that the MC realised ‘oh wow, they’re all ladies!’


DJ Yoda mixed music and video seamlessly and cleverly, including cuts, scratches and footage from Everybody Hates Chris, Kindergarten Cop and Only fools and Horses. The technical set up and some of the less mainstream musical and visual references kept the geeks happy and as the general crowd lost direct interest, circles opened up on the floor.


Everyone remained mesmerised throughout Boy Blue’s set, Kenrick lead his troupe through the piece with charisma, and the dancers and choreography were fierce.


Killa Kella was equally aggressive, with a silver set of teeth round his neck he sang, growled, beat boxed and spat into the mic. A very laid back DJ and eccentric drummer in a wig who twirled and mimed the flute on his sticks backed him up. The audience warmed up and those fans who had specifically come to see him got a great show but, as in the case of DJ Yoda, the set was a little long for the dancers to maintain interest and they eventually trickled back to their circles.


The battles brought the focus onto the floor which Kymberlee Jay hosted with ease. DJ Renegade provided the tunes for Lucky Track- where anything goes musically- and Bonnie and Clyde battles. In the semi finals of Lucky Track judges Kenrick, Babyson and Junior favoured Kofi’s explosive style over Swarf’s effortless footwork. Raoul took his time and incorporated wacking and locking against Bruno who flung off his towel and tipped into the circle with shades on. The judges were unanimous in favour of Raoul. The Bonnie and Clyde battle final saw UK duo Roxy and Mouse take on Smiles and Zero from the US. Team America was aggressive and powerful but in the end the home team with their effortless funk, Roxy’s headspin and double-jointed freeze won them the cash prize and Nike gear. The Lucky Track final didn’t deviate too far musically from the expected in any of the three rounds. Kofi went straight for the jugular with a slick windmill and demonstrated his musicality, creativity and eccentricity but in the end Raoul the cool won the day.


Junior and Babyson showcased some nice tricks, freestyles and commandos. His gorilla arms didn’t disappoint as she took care of the top rock and he performed the equivalent on his hands!


By this time the murmurs of a rumour had started to ripple around the audience, triggered by a distressed Suzette of D-Clash interrupting Kymberlee mid-host to show her a text message. By the time DJ Ironik took the stage the audience was distracted to the point he stopped the show to ask people to ‘please show some support for UK music’. How Ironik. Everyone will remember where they were the night Michael Jackson died. For many London dancers it will have been at an event that, despite genuine quality of talent, for various reasons lacked the hype it promised.