On a sunny Saturday afternoon you want to get those kids out into the fresh air. And there were lots of them on Twickenham Green yesterday to join in with and watch the fun on the Big Dance Bus.
As I arrived, tip toeing through the picnicking families and excited teens, there were a group of very young girls in long, floating pale pink and baby blue dresses (Bonny Kids) to some bhangra music on the stage. I’d missed the routine that they did with batons.
Then Hampton Hill Theatre School – wearing purple vests over black outfits – fielded some street dancers. This was followed by a three girl mime act from Greece with part of “Laugh and Cry”. The audience certainly laughed along. There was an energetic host who kept encouraging us all to “make some noise” – and we did!
The presenter pulled some folk from the audience – two young lads (Jay and Jerome), someone’s dad (Ravi) and a mum with acting experience (Liz). The presenter made up a story and the audience participants acted out the characters and parts – aided by one of the bus staff – and they did a splendid job.
Then Kids Dance – 20 kids in bright red tee shirts – burst onto the stage to some electronic dance music. The Resident Dance Company performed a piece called “London Calling” which started with “Bus Stop” (haven’t heard that one for a while) and moved into a medley of uplifting music spanning a variety of genres. The dancing was fun, included sign posts for key London tube stations and locations (including Stratford!) and some fabulous acrobatics. The dancers looked as if they were genuinely enjoying themselves and having fun and looked like real people rather than take-themselves-too-seriously stiff professional performers. But that didn’t detract from the quality of their performance.
Then Combination Dance from Richmond were introduced – and their piece called “The Big Finish”. This was a sort of sketch where each of the ordinary characters then performed in their particular style of dance – there were ballet dancers, modern dancers, an amazing break dancer and two incredible martial arts guys (who also included some sword work). It started with a piece around the five Olympic rings and the music included Adele’s “Rolling in the deep” and Rhianna’s “Only girl in the world”. I don’t think anyone in the audience wasn’t jiggling along in some way.
Finally, everyone was encouraged to go on the stage to learn how to do a simple dance routine. We’re loving open air events, we’re loving music and dance and we’re loving it most because it was fun and free!
For further information about the Mayor of London’s Big Dance Bus and other dance events throughout the UK and across London: http://www.bigdance2012.com/events.php Big Dance Week is July 7th-15th 2012 and apparently, there’s a big launch event next Thursday at St Pancras. There’s also some good information at www.londondance.com.
