Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, March 25, 2014 - DanceWorks, Toronto's longest-running contemporary dance series now in its 37th season, proudly presents Ottawa's award-winning Bboyizm in a dynamic new work by its founder and artistic director Yvon Soglo a.k.a. b-boy Crazy Smooth. One of Canada's top street dancers, Crazy Smooth is dedicated to street dance culture. His newest creation, Music Creates Opportunity, forges a new frontier for urban street dance that runs Friday April 25 to Saturday April 26 at Harbourfront Centre's Enwave Theatre.
Bboyizm delivers precise and mastered technique, explosive movement, synchronicity and individualism together - as well as a festive and communicative joyous spirit of movement, music and life. Bboyizm was founded by Crazy Smooth in 2004 with the vision of elevating and preserving the authenticity and essence of street dance and introducing it into the world of the performing arts. Drawing on his technical background in rocking and b-boying, Crazy Smooth created his first stage piece IZM in 2010 as an exploration into the very nature of artistic expression. DanceWorks presented it in 2012 where it earned a Dora nomination for Outstanding Production in the Dance Division as well as critic raves:
"Absolutely belongs on the mainstream professional stage. Bboyizm raises the bar of how hip-hop can make an artistic statement that it is more than just b-battles and dance-offsŠcarrying urban dance to the next level... Every one of the Bboyizm dancers is very talentedŠ Bboyizm is definitely going places as the dancers carve out a new frontier for urban street dance." - Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, 2012
While IZM challenged audiences' expectations of both street dance and the stage, Music Creates Opportunity considers the intersection of rhythm, expression and community in the making of music and dance.
Smooth's previous study of traditional partnering and contact improvisation led him to conclude that street dancers express themselves in relationship to the music while "contact improv" dancers express themselves through a relationship with other moving bodies. The contrast between these two styles ignited his desire to explore the possibilities of partnering concepts and adapting it to his aesthetic. Music Creates Opportunity introduces his new concept of "Rhythmic Contact" into the vocabulary of street dance.
Music Creates Opportunity features traditional street dances including rocking, b-boying, house dancing and pantsula - a street dance from Soweto, South Africa - and showcases music as a universal language that offers a multitude of possibilities for expression. Whether the music is an external force or created by the dancers themselves, music is the critical link between dancers. Their environment becomes a theatre - sometimes harmonious, sometimes antagonistic - but always transformative. http://www.bboyizm.ca
Bboyizm are currently on tour with Music Creates Opportunity. They appeared at Charlottetown's Confederation Centre on March 15 and are currently touring Ontario: Kirkland Lake (Mar 22), Deep River (Mar 26), St. Catharines (Mar 29), Dryden (Apr 2), Sioux Lookout (Apr 5), Burlington (Apr 11), Kitchener, ON (Apr 17), Toronto (Apr 24-26), culminating June 14 at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa.
CRAZY SMOOTH BIO:
Dancing since 1997, Crazy Smooth is one of Canada's top street dancers, performers, choreographers, instructors, judges, and community leaders. He is the founder and artistic director of Bboyizm, an award-winning street-dance company that has been instrumental in the preservation and proliferation of street dance in Canada and internationally. He was the first b-boy to obtain a Canada Council grant to hone his art and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Diamond Jubilee Award (2012), the Urban Dance Generation Choréart Trophy (2008), the Most Valuable B-boy Award at Kings of New York (2006), and the Absolute Canadian B-boy Award at Cypher North (2005). He has performed, taught, coached, and judged competitions in cities and events throughout North America and Europe. In 2004, Smooth founded Bboyizm and the company has successfully brought authentic street dance into the professional theatre setting. Two of his full-length creations - The Evolution of B-boying and IZM - have toured throughout Canada and his latest piece, Music Creates Opportunity, is currently on a national tour. The company has been nominated for a Dora Award (2012), and won both the Atlantic Presenters Association Touring Performers of the Year Award (2013) and the Ontario Presenters Network Emerging Touring Artist of the Year (2012).
DanceWorks presents Ottawa's Bboyizm in
Music Creates Opportunity
choreographed by Crazy Smooth
Friday April 25 - Saturday, Saturday April 26, 2014, 8pm
Part of Harbourfront Centre's NextSteps at Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West, Toronto
Tickets: $18.75 -$37.25
Harbourfront Centre Box Office: 416-973-4000 OR online at www.danceworks.ca
Photo: Bboyizm. ©2014.
2014-03-25
Toronto: Ottawa’s Bboyizm presents "Music Creates Opportunity" April 25-26