Being the weekly adventures of a flaneur. This week: London, dance, theatre, film and art.
A busy week in the cultural life of London started with a premiere of CRACKz at London’s Dance House Sadler’s Wells on Rosebery Avenue. Named for the original owner (Richard Sadler) and the discovery of springs on the site (Wells) there’s been a theatre on the site since 1683 – though it’s been through six buildings in that time. Charles II wouldn’t recognise the current glass-fronted structure, although he’d appreciate the legroom in the stalls. There’s a corridor of old play advertisements that are worth examining, and you can even stand on a glass cover and peer down into the Well that gives the place (half of) its name.
With the World Cup coming up Brazil is the country currently en vogue and Bruno Beltrao had arrived in London to give a reminder that his homeland is not all Pele and carnivals. As part of LIFT festival his Grupo de Rua showed a performance hip hop dance piece based on street dance moves stolen from artists online and inspired by cracked software [copyrighted software that has had its protection broken and is available to download for free]. Mass choreography replaced the individual moves of the bboy battle, but the return to individual displays of skill at the end brought the most applause.
On to the previews for the East End Film Festival (coming soon from June 13-25 at locations around East London), held out in Bromley-by-Bow – further than you think, especially when the tube is held by a broken signal. ‘The train will start, and the stop suddenly,’ the driver explained towards the end of the delay, ‘Make sure you’re holding on.’ The walk to the screening room in 3 Mills Studio passed derelict buildings filled with graffiti on the edge of the A12, before ducking right to the restored Mill and a more bucolic scene of goslings, long boats and a moored barge filled with litter.
I saw Tonight and the People, showing at Rich Mix on17th June. A virtually plotless film, it is described as an artistic sitcom. Unfortunately it didn’t make me laugh at all and was affectedly artistic. Still, you can play spot the red bandana, which turns up in most of the segments in various guises.
Waterloo East Theatre was the next stop in the cultural week for An Interview with Gaddafi. The world premiere of a new play by Reggie Adams, that dramatises the recent Libyan regime change through the eyes of a journalist. A serious topic that looked at the role of the media and political institutions in the world’s problems. Not dramatic enough, though thought-provoking in its anti-Western claims.
Finally to Shoreditch and the opening of Graffiti Street, a new online and pop-up urban art gallery. Cocktails, live music and live painting, with Spanish duo Pichiavo demonstrating their spray-can control with a large-scale Michelangelo influenced piece.
Avo of Spanish urban art dup Pichiavo
Watch this space for an interview with owners Rosh Niazi-Boroumand and Donna Haden who are bringing artists from around the world to street art fans in London.
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