Elektro Kif

I've had many enjoyable nights out in my day, but a visit to see Blanca Li's dance company, Elektro Kif, was up with the best. A theatrical production based on electro dance.

Supposedly, elctro dance grew from the projects just outside Paris around 2007, but I could have sworn that I has struck similar poses, albeit with less poise, whilst jigging to Stuart McMillan @ Slam well before that.

I'll start at the end because the finale was the best bit for me. The 8-man dance group were freestyling to deep down dirty electro grooves and even the arty fart academic dance teacher grannies were grinding in the aisles. Amazing! Choreographed street dance sounds a bit of a contradiction in terms but that's what it was. The dancers were totally masculine, rather than the somewhat effeminate way male dancers often look.....ha says Mr Gay Bear!

My other favourite bit was the African groove type dance, the moves seemed Senegalese.... this sounds a strange statement: however, in my defence I once partied with a bunch of wild Senegalese students in their batiment a la Universite de Mediterranee in Marseilles. I love little triggers of memory.....and this dance did it for me.

On arriving at that Uni quite late at night, I found my lack of French to be a problem. I was approached by a 2m tall black guy who simply picked up my bags (one included a bike and my academic books), found where my room was and then he and his friends fed me. I went to their party the following night and they just had a few jumbee drums, no drink and just a little herbe!

It was one of these life changing moments, arriving in a strange city not speaking the language and having the native French being unhelpul in a way that only the French can be. Being helped in such a genuine way by a group of Senegalese immigrants changed my perspective forever. Anyway, I digress.....

It said in the programme that "Blanca Li mixes different disciplines and universes together in order to tell the story......." which she certainly did with the fusion of hip hop, classical ballet and street moves. I think this was the show's only slight failing. It was a wee bit like putting tomato sauce with chip shop chips.....it's not a marriage made in heaven. Maybe a bit conceptual.....but hey.... the only previous critique I've previously done on dance was to comment on how I had fallen in love with Darcy Bussel when she appeared on Blue Peter circa 1987!

Don't get me wrong, the dance in the classical piece was brilliant, flowing with wonderful souplesse. It just lacked the edge that was best suited to the style of the dancers. In her introduction Li says "there was something fresh that you only see in the first moments of a dance that has not come to maturity, in creative passion that the interpreters have when they invent new movements with all the freedom and excitement". Hmmmm, a statement that shouldn't be forgotten.

Of course choreographers will want to add their own touches, but with too much tinkering, the essence and emotion of street dance movements are lost. Of course, no art form is truly original. The artist is influenced by many of their previous experiences. Their art forms change, adapt and merge, resulting in something new. Street and club dancing to me is simply to react subconsciously to stimuli in a way that feels natural, feeling the music in parts of the brain and body that are not normally reached......the endorphins flow to give a massive sense of aliveness. Good electro is great for that!

Notwithstanding, it was a brilliant show, the dancers were amazing and it was well worth the money!

Chapeau!