FlexN Manchester
Manchester International Festival (January – July 2015)
FlexN Manchester was a new commission which I produced for Manchester International Festival, working with Brooklyn-based Flex dance pioneer Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray and a specially assembled team of dancers from New York and Manchester. Originating on the streets of Brooklyn in East New York, with roots in Jamaican bruk up and hip hop, Flexing encompasses an extraordinary range of styles including pausing, gliding, hat tricks, connecting, bone breaking and get low. This unique transatlantic collaboration revealed the best of street dance from both cities, and supported creative exchange between the Flexers and talented Manchester-based dancers.
To accompany the production, MIF offered groups from across Greater Manchester the opportunity to take part in free dance workshops introducing participants to the culture and foundations of the Flexing movement.
Read more about the project in an exclusive Guardian feature here.
“As a bringing together of two cities and two dance communities, it is splitting at the seams with energy and heart”
Judith Mackrell, The Guardian
* * * * * “The surprise star of MIF15… Powerful, accessible, fun but also thought provoking, FlexN Manchester is poetry in motion.”
Sarah Walters, Manchester Evening News
“For me I was nothing. I was on the streets a few years ago doing nothing, then I went to college, then I got this opportunity. Those dreams that I had, that I thought I would never achieve, I have achieved them so now I can aim higher. It’s a big opportunity for me. Big, big, big.”
FlexN Manchester participant
“You can see that the people involved in MIF think creatively, and the way that they express support for artists is so different. They’ve given people of this community a chance to come and be involved with what we’re doing and keep us all together. That has been huge. There are things that have happened in this process, and relationships that have been made, that won’t just go away.”
FlexN Manchester participant
FlexN Manchester (Manchester International Festival; Photo - SODIUM)
