Theatre and Dance

Jonzi D

TAG... Me vs. The City

Give us the low-down on Tag - Me vs. The City, what's it all about?

It's a story about a graffiti artist and we explore graffiti art as bodies dancing.  It started off with an idea with a graffiti-artist friend of mine by the name of Prime and I had this idea of a graffiti back-drop where bodies were hidden amongst the backdrop and they actually started to peel out of the set. 

So, that's the original idea. Then I started on it last year to make the first draft and it was basically exploring physical calligraphy with break-dancers, body-poppers and using the idea of waving as paint dripping and B-boys and break dancers freezing as a way of expressing physical calligraphy.

This year, we're working with a great performance poet called John Berkavitch - he's acting as 'the artist' and he represents this graffiti artist who felt excluded growing up, hence graffiti art becomes his way of expressing himself. He gets involved in a battle with another graffiti artist and he almost ends up killing himself and he realizes that the line between the artist and the vandal is something that he's straddling.

Does the show come down on either side - ie. is graffiti expressive art or is it just vandalism?

Well, this is the navigation - it starts off as an expressive art through this character and then he realizes that he becomes more of a vandal and realizes, just before he nearly dies, that actually he needs to return to the artistry of the form.  So, throughout the piece, we're exploring when the art become vandalism and when its an artform: graffiti art is basically within these two - polarized ideas - sometimes he's a vandal, sometimes he's an artist, but ultimately, he's a mixture of the two.

On your myspace page you've posted 'if you want to bomb the trains and buses, please use aerosol next time' - does that element come into the show at all, where art can really make a difference?

Yeah, definitely!  I think Hip Hop as a culture grew out of marginalization and rather than take out your frustration because you haven't got much and go and take out your frustration on each other, it's best to take it out in an artistic way.  A lot of the Hip Hop forms give one that outlet.  I think that graffiti art helps us to look at other ways to feel value: people outside the culture do not understand what it means to write their name on a wall, but actually within the culture, people see that as being a very valuable achievement.

You're very much tagged as bringing Hip Hop to the forefront of contemporary dance - how did you get into it?

I grew up in Bow in East London and it was something that everyone who was under the age of 15 participated in at the time. It was this exciting culture in 1982 and '83 that was just amazing: to see someone spinning on their head!  Any 13 year old boy's going to want to do that. So, I think it really appealed to me and my community at the time.

You've now made Hip Hop 'respectable' and brought it to the stage of Sadler's Wells?

I think because of the amount of years that it's been around… it came back and keeps coming back and has now left the 'poor, marginalized communities' thing.  Hip Hop is part of modern culture. 

You can hear the language of Hip Hop, see the dress styles of Hip Hop, the various elements of Hip Hop appearing in mainstream culture, so for me, it makes sense that Sadler's Wells would be like 'ok, we want to know what this is all about' and present it in a 'safe' way. 

But loads of people who probably have seen Hip Hop as a scary bad-boy thing, can actually re-interpret Hip Hop within the theatre.  I think that the bad-boy image of Hip Hop has been perpetuated by the media rather than participants of the culture itself. 

A lot of the participants of it don't see it as a bad-boy thing but see it as a cultural force, basically, that can help to motivate excluded people and excluded people aren’t just in 'poor communities' - if you just feel as though this world isn't right for you, Hip Hop often gives an answer to a lot of people. 

Because Hip Hop's roots have come from the streets does this help break down barriers for those who wouldn't think of themselves as a 'contemporary dance audience'?

Definitely.  I think one of the beauties of Hip Hop in the theatre is that we are developing an audience and we are looking for a new audience that wouldn't go to see contemporary dance.  Not only that, but also, the 'contemporary dance audience' also finds it interesting as it’s a new way of moving and demonstrates new explorations of dance technique.  For me, what's most important, is that we're giving voices to the voiceless.

So, does graffiti rule?  Does Hip Hop do it for you?  Are the arts more powerful than a loaded gun?  Go see for yourself and let us know!