Chocablock man!

Wowza! Jan 2012 kicks off much like last year with everyday this month being filled with something work/dance related. Where do i start...first up some funny business. Always keen to push the envelope when it comes to sourcing new ways to entertain and enlighten i took it upon myself to investigate some clowning around. More specifically i spent the 2nd week of Jan in London town with the fantastic Angela de Castro (the why notinstitute) and 11 other generous souls. What a week. De Castro was one of the original clowns who featured and created part of the now world famous Slava Snow Show. If you don't know, then get to know as i did. This workshop focused only on the state of mind of the clown. Although some red noses were present it was not so much about being funny, but putting yourself in a place where you can start to find out who your clown is. It was a throughly enjoyable and incredibly useful week. I would recommend it to any live performance artist...there's method in the madness.

Next up was some rehearsals on the west coast of scotland, but i'll come back to that later. The following week was spent revisiting Squish. This is the next solo venture in the R2M repertoire. I must be catching the circus bug as i spent most of the picking up juggling balls and trying to balance on a foam roller. It's looking good though and i may be sharing it with the rest of the world this summer.

More balls than most...any advice would be appreciated...

So going back to why i was way out west. Myself and my crew, Random Aspekts, have teamed up with Wild Biscuit Music from Mid-Argyll to develope a project entitled MOVE. This includes us (4 dancers) and a full pipe band with drums, bass, guitar, sax and vocals....quite an ensemble. Our rehearsals culminated in a blistering performance at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. There are already a few dates coming in for future performances so keep your eyes peeled for this 50 minute breakdance meets bagpipes spectacular. In the meantime you can see a few photos (some good ones of me i might add) here.

Prior to setting the stage on fire in Glasgow, we brought the heat to Dundee also. This time in the form of Breakin' Rules. This is a theatre showcase of local and nation hip hop dance that myself and colleague Matt Foster have been programming at the Dundee Rep Theatre for the last 3 years. Despite tightening budgets we still managed to deliver the goods bringing crews from around Scotland, Leeds and London to represent for the Taysiders. Not only were the acts great but our hosting banter was second to none...honestly we need our own TV show. Here's few snaps from the event...

Daniel Aing - A Life : Solo

Ghetlow Pirates - A Pirates Life For Me

Jackinthebox - iDance

And that brings us up to the end of another week of rehearsals with an altogether different project...variety is the spice of life as they say. If you have been keeping tabs on my blog then you'll know i spent some time with a visual artist last year looking into computer game glitches. This is with an aim to create an interactive installation based on the current console dance game phenomenon. Initially it was just myself developing material that was then motion captured. I now have my own computer game...well at least my own computer character anyway. The project has introduced some more dancers into the mix and also a composer. A few real world glitches were had during the process but all in all it is taking shape. The first performance will take place on April the 1st (no joke!). For more info visit the glitch choreography website.

I ended the working week doing my best impression of Simon Cowell as i sat in on the Breakin' Convention auditions for the Edinburgh leg of the national tour in 2012. I'm pleased to say the standard of what the crews are bringing gets better every year. I've no doubt that this year's BC is going to be a heavy hitter. Keep posted via breakinconvention.com.

Next week i don my dancer hat and join the curious seed company for rehearsals and a subsequent tour of their new piece PUSH. I am looking forward to getting my groove on in the pure dance sense...and maybe doing some singing in secret.

...and finally, i'm happy to announce that Room 2 Manoeuvre will be appearing at the prestigious British Dance Edition event for 2012. Happening every 2 years BDE is a presentation of the best of Britain's dance talent and, as one of only 2 scottish companies invited to perform, R2M will be very proud to be there. If you're around then come and support.

That's it...time to finish my tax return.