#scanner's ink

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If I were in London this weekend ...

If I was in London this weekend I would ....

Friday 12 October - Go to see Avant Garde Dance's The Black Album at The Place. 

If you follow my advice you'll get to see a triple bill including Avant Garde classic Another New Day (LOVED this when I first saw it), A Classical Break that premiered on the Breakin' Convention stage a few years back and Dark Matter that makes its London premiere tonight!

Saturday 14 October - well personally I'd go to Breaking with Pervez at Central YMCA, 16:00-18:00. Then of course its the Knock Outs for the UK B Boy Championships. Get yourself nice and warmed up for the finals on Sunday night. The Champs are offering a two-day pass option this year so come both days and save some cash!

You can also catch Avant Garde Dance again tonight at The Place.

Sunday 15 October - UK B Boy Championships World Finals at 02 Brixton Academy is calling all B Boys, B Girls and lovers of the culture. This year instead of locking they have added a hip hop battle to the mix. Of course what we all love is to get down after at the official after party at Plan B. Don't miss it.

I'm in Korea so enjoy the weekend. I'm off to the Jazz Festival on an island tomorrow!

Peace

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Music video alert

I’m excited. Two recent music videos have excited me. They’ve used funk styles dance techniques, namely popping and flexing to make music videos that stray far from the norm.

Flying Lotus - Until the Quiet Comes is a short film by Kahlil Joesph that features the music of Flying Lotus. It also features New York born artist Storyboard P.

Filmed on 35mm in Los Angeles, it is a film, a dance short, a story, a complete and deep tale. The music is part of the narrative but its also the back drop. When I first saw this I wrote about it on my blog. It really stayed in my imagination, scenes of death, drowning, a body easing and sliding its way through a community almost unnoticed, untouched. It was not the booty shaking gun totting representations that usually fills the screen.

Then last week I saw this. Aluna George’s Your Drums, Your Love. With choreography by London’s own Brooke Milliner (Plague) the video is full of dancers from London, France and Canada.

So why did this video get me? It’s so well styled and slick, the choreography and dancing is on point and genuinely it is popping vocabulary that is used. There’s really nice playful moments, like when Greenteck is echoing the parallel black lines on the wall with his movement. It feels fresh and authentic.

I’m intrigued to see if this is the start of something new in the music video world. With the developments in technology and the infinite possibilities and worlds that a camera, animation and editing can now create I wonder what is next. These two films are examples of something that twists the expected. With Flying Lotus I was watching a short film and with Aluna George I saw real popping, something abstract and really original. I hope its the start of something new, something that challenges the music industry to be new and creative.

Over and out!

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The h.Club100

Innovators - Visionaries - Pioneers

The Hospital Club and Time Out London have come together on a national search for the most innovative, interesting and influential people in the creative and media industries in Britain today. The h.Club100 is that bench mark for those who stand out from the crowd and who are changing the shape of things to come. 

The list is epic. It isn't just celebrities, but it is a seriously inspiring list of influence and a hint of times to come. The judges and Time Out have shortlisted and now its over to us, the voters! Have your say.

There are ten categories and multiple nominees ...

Advertising, marketing and PR

Art and Design - from Anthony Gormely to Grayson Perry to Michael Morris this is a category full of familiar names for me!

Digital and Gaming

Film - including Riz Ahmed - seriously talented and a nice guy too

Fashion - including Michael Howells who does a lot of work in dance too

Music - including Jamal Edwards of SBTV

Performance - this is the biggie for me ... Kenrick 'H20' Sandy of Boy Blue (yes Ken!), Akram Kahn, Alistair Spalding, Betsy Gregory, Hiru Dance Collective, Hamish Jenkinson, Monica Mason, Wayne McGreggor ... apart from Monica I've worked with them all. The whole list are fantastic. 

Publishing and Writing - including the Ministry of Stories ... very very cool.

Theatre - tons here from Nicolas Hytner to Erica Whyman and from Jenny Sealey to Mark Ball. 

TV  

You have one vote per category and voting closes on 28 October 2012. All voters go into a draw for prizes! (including a days' access to The Hospital Club, £150 to spend in any of the lounges and tickets to see Silent Night, Unholy Night at the Old Vic Tunnels.

I know who I'm voting for, do you?

Get voting!

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Dance UK Dancers' mentoring scheme

Dance UK have just announced the recipients of their Dancers' Mentoring Scheme. If you don't know the work of Dance UK you should get familiar with them as they do much to support the UK dance sector. Dance UK is ...

A membership organisation for all dancers, Dance UK is the national voice for the dance profession. It aims to improve the conditions in which dance is created, performed and experienced

Dance UK have taken on 20 dancers who were nominated by their peers as future leaders. Dance professionals made up a panel who selected the final 20. Demand was so high that they are looking at raising additional funding to repeat the scheme in 2013 and 2014 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

She successful dancers are

1. Kate Coyne, dancer, Michael Clark Company 2. Shane Shambhu, Dancer, Actor and Artistic Director of Shane Shambhu Company 3. Neil Westmoreland, Resident Director for Matthew Bourne's New Adventures 4. Kit Holder, first artist, Birmingham Royal Ballet 5. Jonathan Goddard, independent dancer 6. Laura Jones, dancer for Stopgap Dance Company 7. Lee T Johnston, dancer, National Dance Company Wales 8. Henrietta Hale, independent dance artist 9. Sonia Sabri, Artistic Director of Sonia Sabri Company and independent dancer, choreographer and teacher 10. Malgorzata Dzierzon , dancer, Rambert Dance Company 11. Jonathan Payn, First Soloist, Birmingham Royal Ballet 12. Hannah Bateman, Leading Soloist, Northern Ballet 13. Angela Towler, dancer, Rambert Dance Company 14. Catarina Carvalho, dancer, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance 15. Anusha Subramanyam, Artistic Director of Beeja, performer and choreographer  16. Emma Dunn, independent dance artist 17. Naomi Cook, member of Springs Dance Company, and a freelance dancer, teacher and rehearsal director 18. Catherine Bennett, independent dance artist 19. Dena Lague, independent dance artist 20. Nicole Watson, dancer and creative director at Surface Area Dance Theatre

The scheme recognises the potential for dancers to become leaders and it focuses on developing leadership from within the dancer workforce. It aims to build dancers' confidence and make light of their many transferable skills. Over eight months each of the 20 dancers will work with a paid mentor who is a high profile leader from or beyond the arts world.

It's a fantastic scheme and much needed. The benefits to mentoring are widely documented and from my personal experience it really can transform your mental approach to yourself and work and support you as you grow in your career.

Hats off to Dance UK and to the 20 dancers; enjoy the ride!

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Acerone show in London

Acerone (aka Luke Palmer) is an artist from Bristol who has an new exhibition on in London this month. I don't know his work well, but really like this piece, Window on Bristol, that he painted with Andy Council.

The exhibition Where is Iron John?, is all new work around his exploration of masculinity and transitions into manhood. It's on at The Rag Factory, Brick Lane from 12-14 October.

Gutted I'll be away in Korea so I won't make it.

Gallery details

Where is Iron John? at Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, Brick Lane, London, E15LJ

10:00-19:00 daily

For more info email [email protected]

Art-El

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Flying Lotus ... featuring Storyboard P

Stark, dark and strangely peaceful. Words that I would use to describe the latest Flying Lotus video that features Storyboard P. 

Story creates such emotion and is able to vocalise deep dark emotions that you might struggle to find words for. I met him earlier this year when he totally blew the crowd away at Breakin' Convention 2012. The beauty and effortless movement that streams from his body had me mesmerised as he bought to life the music of Marvin Gaye. 

This video is dark, the start with a child bleeding, dying alone is horrific and when Story starts to move you feel the enormity of the thousands of young men lost to gang violence each year. For just one young life to end like this is a travesty. 

This really is a story, its a short film rather than a generic music video, it features one artist and really captures his work, how he reflects what he is surrounded by and makes you look differently.

Hope it makes you think too.

My post on meeting Story earlier this year

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Kate Tempest ... The Stage agrees with little old me!

Get down and see this show. Tickets onsale

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'A piece of Chalk'

Not many words are needed. Just take four minutes out of your day and watch this beautiful short film featuring 12 year old b boy Justen Beer (Hustle Kidz).

Apart from being a really touching and beautifully shot film; dance, breaking or what ever dance you love, can do this. It can lift you out of difficult times, times when you are struggling with your identity, with issues in your life.

Beautiful film and stylish young b boy.