Nitty gritty

Today i finally started to dust off some cobwebs, lubricate the joints and work off some those Willie Johns Stornoway beef burgers and blackpudding that i stocked up on, courtesy of the folks, prior to departing the UK. It's a pretty safe bet that my endocrine system will get a good rinsing out also as working up a sweat in this current heat, even in an air-conditioned studio, is no problem at all. So day 1 at Caster Dance studios involved getting the movement ideas i have in my head out into reality. I hope to do a chunk before i start working with the dancers. I do have a vague theme but i'm mostly keen to have the piece movement lead...no faffing about, let's just get down and dance. We'll see how that plan works out.

The Caster studio is one of 3 main studios (the other's being Dragon Studio & Dance Space) teaching hip hop, funkstyles & breakin' in Shanghai. Hip hop dance in china (well...in Shanghai & Beijing at least) leads quite a successfully commercial life. This is actually the norm and has been for a while now in other South East Asian countries such as South Korea and Japan. Dance teachers in these studios like Caster are on contract and are almost at pop star status. Yes, a very different scene than back in good old blighty. But then again, in this financial city with a population almost at the brink of 23 million, you're bound to find one or two punters who wanna learn how to get down. FYI - Tomaz & George are producing a documentary on the scene in Shanghai, which will be able to give you a much better portrait than i can...i'll keep you posted.

Caster Studios (casterdance.com & facebook) 

And news from back in the UK is that Room 2 Manoeuvre has made it onto the selection group for the Sadler's Wells Global Dance Contest 2011. Go check it out and show some love.
R2M globaldancecontest.com