Wanted: Six racially stereotyped men to dance in new opera at Royal Opera House. Must fit their racial profile - referencing last summer's riots.
- That's not the exact wording, but if you read between the lines
When we saw Miss Fortune at the Royal Opera House (click to read review) there was something just a little off about how it presented the b-boys essentially as lowlife scum.
If you read the review you'll understand that we felt that wasn't cool, seeming a little bit racially profiley - putting street dancers in a negative light despite hip hop having worked so hard to get into theatres only to have it mocked by the venues that put them on: "Awfully intelligent isn't it - it's about the riots!" and so on.
Here in full we've uncovered the casting call for Miss Fortune with complete breakdown of what the Royal Opera House sought for with it's inner city b-boys. We've drawn your attention to a few points in bold.
Miss Fortune (Royal Opera House) casting call
We are looking for 6 young male breakdancers, preferably of mixed colour, for a new opera called Miss Fortune.
Rehearsals begin Monday 13 February 2012
The General Dress Rehearsal is on Friday 9 March 2012 at 11.00
There are 5 performances at 19.30 on March 12, 16, 20, 23, 28.
The director and choroegrapher would prefer teams of guys who have worked together, if possible. The choreographer is Ran Arthur Braun.
6 BREAKDANCERS
male
young 18-30
mixed colour
highly-skilled
teams preferred
look like "gangs"
good body to show off
physically impressive
look of "violence"
acrobatic skills
on stage a lot
We will audition on Sunday 11 December at 14.00 in the Opera House.
It was dancers from Soul Mavericks that later got the job.
What do you think? Do Soul Mavericks fit this profile of looking like a gang, or have a violent appearance, or was it just how the elitists in the world of high arts would like to see street dancing portrayed?
The artwork for the UK B-Boy Championships is being made - and so is a little bit of breaking history! And it's going to look as cool as the pre-visualisation artwork below, if not better. (Read the news story on AllStreetDance)
15 years of the B-Boy Championships and the creative they're putting behind it for its anniversary is surpassing past years.
Yesterday was a ten-hour day (not for me, as I turned up intentionally late) to get the promo for the championships ready. Everybody was in the house, from Soul Mavericks (national champions) to Plague (who had to jet off to Blackpool to rehearse for their show, MJ Timeless), La Familia, with members of Ruthless and Wet Wipez spotted around for additional faces in crowd shots.
The theme of this year's posters isn't just battles, it's all out war! Inspired by classical war paintings, the posters will be packed with action with hundreds of battles taking place.
At the start of the day shots were taken of four main 'hero' dancers in various poses, before additional 'layers' were added to the composition. Adding the layers meant that hundreds of photos had to be taken at different distances and angles from the cameras on what looked like a gaffer taped spider's web on the studio floor. It also meant a few costume changes to appear as different people in other shots.
What had to be done next was a lot of shouting and overreacting to cyphers until the photographers until they were happy with their shot. Here's the cool bit - as I was standing around I was asked if I wanted to be part of it! Somewhere in the background of the new posters you're going to see me overreacting and pulling a silly face at a dancer! To be a background face, even if it's the back of my head, in an anniversary poster for the B-Boy Championships - I'm honoured!
It's going to take around a week to make the poster artwork look perfect, although the graphic designers worked on early versions of the poster, live in the studio.
To give you an idea, the final poster is going to look something like the photo below:
Expect to see more 'making of' footage and photos as soon as we receive them...
"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!
From Channel 4 news, featuring appearances from Soul Mavericks and former b-boy, Carlos Acosta:
It turns out the powers that be think we should dance for fitness. When many reader of TooMuchFlavour live by a mantra of "dance or die!" does it really matter anyway?
Is it healthy advice, or bucking the trend (thanks Diversity!)? We're not political writers, so you decide. As long as the Government backs legitimate dance projects, and the grants don't go toward under qualified teachers or practitioners looking for an easy cash handout, bring it on, put more money into dance and let's push it forward.
