{"id":963,"date":"2025-03-19T15:06:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T16:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/?p=963"},"modified":"2025-04-08T15:30:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T15:30:39","slug":"hip-hop-dance-theater-company-boy-blue-is-bringing-london-energy-to-new-york-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/hip-hop-dance-theater-company-boy-blue-is-bringing-london-energy-to-new-york-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip-Hop Dance Theater Company Boy Blue Is Bringing London Energy to New York City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Choreographer Kenrick \u201cH2O\u201d Sandy and composer-producer Michael \u201cMikey J\u201d Asante met at school in East London when they were 12, bonding over hip hop. After performing in local street-dance battles, they founded the hip-hop dance theater company Boy Blue in 2001, wowing audiences with precision choreography and explosive energy. Their show Pied Piper<\/em> won an Olivier Award in 2007, and was followed by acclaimed works including Blak Whyte Gray <\/em>and Free Your Mind<\/em>, and choreography for the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. Boy Blue\u2019s latest show, Cycles<\/em>, comes to New York City\u2019s Lincoln Center March 27\u201329.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been collaborating for more than 25 years. What makes this partnership work?<\/strong>
Sandy:<\/strong> I feel like the major thing is the level of respect we have for each other. That level of fellowship. We\u2019re both Libras, we\u2019re both from the same area, we\u2019re both older brothers. We both have the tenacity and the passion. And we promote each other, we push each other. There\u2019s a lot of real, brotherly love.
Asante: <\/strong>To find this is rare: two friends who managed to turn something into a business, and then into a movement, but still have the same core values of friendship. There is a true want to see the other succeed. With Cycles,<\/em> I brought the concept and put that in the ring for the other person to bounce off.
Sandy: <\/strong>We feed each other inspiration. When we come together we\u2019re jamming. This is not a job, this is a joy for us.<\/p>\n

\"Two
(From left) Michael Asante and Kenrick Sandy. Photo by Rebecca Lupton, courtesy Michelle Tabnick PR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tell us about Cycles<\/em>.<\/strong>
Asante:<\/strong> I wanted to make something that was in perpetual motion, where it constantly moved forward. At the same time, I was inspired by hip-hop mixtapes, a J Dilla or a Madlib mixtape, how the music would be on this constant loop. Then there\u2019s the different cycles that exist in life: life, death, seasons, the moon and tides. We also wanted to focus on hip hop, go back to the roots of the movement.
Sandy:<\/strong> It was going back into the grooves, the hip-hop social grooves, then flipping it and looking at all the different choreographic frameworks. It was about the never-ending process.
Asante: <\/strong>Creating a show that never looked the same way each time you watched it. The notion of freestyle was a big part of selecting the dancers. It\u2019s forever growing and changing.<\/p>\n

What has changed in the hip-hop dance scene since you started?<\/strong>
Sandy: <\/strong>My beard is gray now!
Asante:<\/strong> It was a style that no one considered to be of value when we started. We were just noisy, rambunctious children who people wanted out of their space. Now I look at other dance forms and I can see the influence of hip hop on all of them. When we started, just seeing boys dancing, let alone Black boys where we\u2019re from, they called us \u201cfunny.\u201d And now every child I know is dancing.
Sandy: <\/strong>There are students we used to teach when we were in our early 20s, they\u2019re now sending their kids to our classes.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it like performing in New York, the home of hip hop?<\/strong>
Sandy: <\/strong>It\u2019s really nice just to show what we\u2019re about. We appreciate hip hop so much, but our hip hop definitely has a UK slang to it. There\u2019s an influence from UK grime, UK garage, and also just the energy is very London.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s London energy like?<\/strong>
Sandy<\/strong> It\u2019s fearless, it\u2019s unrestricted.
Asante:<\/strong> There\u2019s a bop, there\u2019s a bounce, y\u2019know? It\u2019s confident about itself. But we\u2019re forever wanting to commune and connect. We travel. There\u2019s always going to be people in another land that share part of your language. Maybe they\u2019ve got a different accent, but to us the gift that hip hop has given us is that it\u2019s made us so many different friends all across the planet that are all connected through the groove.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The post Hip-Hop Dance Theater Company Boy Blue Is Bringing London Energy to New York City<\/a> appeared first on Dance Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Choreographer Kenrick \u201cH2O\u201d Sandy and composer-producer Michael \u201cMikey J\u201d Asante met at school in East London when they were 12, bonding over hip hop. After performing in local street-dance battles, they founded the hip-hop dance theater company Boy Blue in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fullrenovations.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}