There’s nothing of the roughness of actual street dancing in Blaze, the latest effort by Anthony van Laast, choreographer of Mamma Mia!, Sister Act and Hair. All the dancers are colourfully dressed, the moves are neat, the music runs smoothly for one and a half hours with no technical problems. Yet, the energy and passion oozing from the stage is real and pulsing, almost contagious. Blaze manages to bring the urban style into the theatre and make it appealing to the wider audience: teenagers and families fill up the rows alongside the expected black and hoodies crowd.
Different music styles, from hip-hop to house beats, and different dancing styles, from popping and locking to breaking, intertwine in a one-act performance made of singular vignettes where no story is told. The start is a bit slow, except for the showing off of sculpted abs by one of the dancers who takes off his T-shirt in the first five minutes of the show –nice move to set the girls in the cheap seats at the back of the stalls on fire. But when the notes of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean start to play for an original tip-tap rendition, the show really takes off. And then it’s a sheer ensemble of vibes and electricity.
Twelve dancers, three breakers and a well-experience MC, DJ Hazze (great robot moves despite being a bit overweight), perform in a variety of dancing styles, experimenting with new forms of body storytelling. The setting is minimal: a backdrop of luggage, a bed and a refrigerator; the props are reduced to a sofa, three big chairs and sets of headphones. The visual effects and the lights, however, become part of the choreography in more than one instance, making Blaze a real ensemble creation. The b-boys are particularly impressive. Their lack of co-ordination –breaking is in fact mainly a solo art- is made up for by the intensity and precision of their power moves: 27-year-old Machine will leave you gaping while sweeping the floor with his head. If the solos, duos and female- or male-only choreographies work fine, with a lot of role playing and acting, the routines featuring the whole crew lack incisiveness, except for the final number, which, in the best street dance fashion, lets the dancers show “what they got”.
The costumes, designed in a way that each performer maintains their personality, add to the diversity of the show, which seems to be the key to success. Choreographers include Ryan Chappell (Bounce), US-born Kenny Wormald in his first West End show, Lyle Beniga (Fame) and Mike Song (winner in 2007 of the Hip Hop International Championships with his crew, Kaba Modern), and Swedish Tommy Franzen. The performers too come from all over the world: Portugal, France, the US, the Netherlands and Britain, including Lizzie Gough, finalist in BBC1’s So you think you can dance.
Blaze might also be a polished version of the street dance culture, but it represents nevertheless its best part: the fun, the charisma, the enthusiasm.
The show, which makes its world tour debut in London, is at the Peacock Theatre from 11 to 28 March.
Rating: ***½
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