Blazin' B Boys

The rise of "street dance" -  a mixture of hip-hop b-boy styles and anything else that wasn't developed for original performance on the stage - has certainly been helped by the popularity of new variety: the whole Britain's Got Talent, X-Factor scene has brought what used to be an outsider culture into the family living room. In this background, shows like Blaze are almost inevitable: somewhere between classical musical theatre dance extravaganza and breakin' battle, they feed the need for melodramatic, crowd pleasing tricks and solid choreography.

Chris Baldock started off in musical theatre, covering jazz, tap and even roller skating: he was the choreographer for Prisoner Cell Block H: The Musical and resident director for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express. After co-directing Bounce, one of the earliest street dance shows to tour to popular acclaim, he turned his attention to Blaze.

“Having re-created the successful show Bounce 8 years ago, we felt it was time to make another project but more current,” Baldock explains. “To be given the opportunity to work with great choreographers such as Mike Song, Kenny Wormald and Lyle Beniga (USA) and Set designer Es Devlin (UK) was not an opportunity to pass on!” Yet this project went beyond the dance itself.  “The  superb technology of the mapping projection by Mega-Super Awesome -Visuals which, projected onto the set gives the show a new dimension.”

The nature of street dance – it is often as much about attitude as technique – led to a particular process of selection. Baldock remembers “We auditioned in London and Amsterdam. We had 300 attend the London auditions of which we found our cast purely by looking for individualism, performance versatility in styles of House, Popping, Locking, Nu style, Breaking.” From this selection process came the creation of the show: “The audience will also engage with the cast by identity and character. This was later established more once stylist Ryan Chappell styled each cast member for the show.”

Baldock acknowledges that there is a tension between the informality of street moves and the order of a theatre show. “Nothing like this is easy. But we are trained for the theatre, so it comes more naturally to bring this sort of show come together.” He has a strong idea of how to bridge the gap, however. “Hip Hop theatre always has to have either a narrative or concept to make it work. Otherwise, you're just creating something without substance that could be done on the street and becomes a free for all!”