Saturday night fever

Today kicked off with a trip to a presentation by a UK Theatre company at a British Council Connections Through Culture event. I can't remember for the life of me what the name of the company was but they will be appearing with 2 very large and red cargo crates at the Edinburgh Festival with an interactive and (almost) hypothetical environmental semi-disaster scenario (actually i've just remembered - 3rdringout.com). I have to admit to being more concerned about the fact i had had no breakfast and, even worse, no coffee. But there was an interesting moment where one of the pair giving the presentation described why the work was artistic and not educational when the point was raised by someone in the audience. It's beginnings, process and end result, which is an entirely personal one, were given as reasons why this wasn't an educational project. I just thought it was cool how they had made something that was purely artistic but also did or had the potential to reach beyond it's initial expectations. A sign of a good piece of work i think. The coffee issue just wouldn't lie dormant so when we broke for a short interval myself and some like minded individuals took this opportunity to chat briefly, exchange some business cards, say goodbye and go off in search of some java.

cosy CTC presentation

On the hunt for some coffee with some of Shanghai's movers and shakers on the independent arts scene. That's Tomaz opposite me, dancers Uma, Jiang Fan and Xiao Ke and then an actor/director dude i actually met last year but again fail to remember the name of...i'm bad.

The girls were keen to learn some "Hip Hop" so i give a brief class. Hip Hop 101 - poses

After feeling suitably re-caffienated we went our separate ways and i decided it was time to do some laundry. Apparently if you machine wash here it means your a wealthy man/woman/person. I had a few RMB to spare so what the hell i thought. I looked up a laundrette service, headed back into town, realised i had left the address at the hotel, looked around in the area where i thought it was, didn't find it, went home and hand washed some under wear...guess i'm not wealthy after all. With the plunging and scrubbing done it was time to head out to a house party i had gotten wind of from Ben. We met up at the apartment of a canadian stuntman and an australian graf artist/professional pick up artist...yes these dudes like from the film Hitch actually exist. I sat in on a conversation between him and fellow professional PUA where they were exchanging anecdotes on how the respective students were doing. I got no tips by the way. The stuntman also runs Shanghai's only parkour school. I will try and get a glimpse of that carry on at some point. With some dancers in the place it was only a matter of time and in due course Ben managed to instigate a salsa circle...which then became a sort of house-popping hybrid circle and finally a gymnastic face off. Nice guys, nice evening and as the party began to wind down my belly began to rumble. Apparently there was more party action to be had but i passed up on that for some authentic Shanghai street cuisine. Tasty & cheap but just don't ask where it came from.

The stuntman, Ben, Alex and Mr DJ

Tuck in and hope for the best...