Barbican Artistic Associate Boy Blue Entertainment performs A Night With Boy Blue, judges the final of Dance Your City 3 (on the Freestage on Saturday 28 February) and hosts its BSI (Beats, Streets & Inspiration) Jam (on the Clubstage on Saturday 28 February).
A Night with Boy Blue features more than 80 dancers, some as young as seven. It combines sequences from some of the company’s most popular shows with newly conceived works.
Highlights include extracts from The Five & the Prophecy of Prana, which premièred at the Barbican in 2013 and was revived last year due to popular demand before going on a Dance Touring Partnership national tour.
Dance Your City is an annual, nationwide competition, organised by Dance Touring Partnership, that invites young dance companies to submit video clips of dance routines filmed in front of famous landmarks from their region.
This year’s three finalists—Freeman Dance from Coventry, HFC Youth Dance from Truro and RDC Youth from Birmingham—perform live to a panel of judges including Boy Blue Co-Artistic Directors Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante and Barbican Producer Angie Smith, hosted by Boy Blue regular Theo ‘Godson’ Oloyade.
The winning act then performs its routine as the curtain-raiser to the final performance of A Night with Boy Blue, after which Kenrick and Mikey J host the company’s monthly BSI Jam, the best R’n’B, hip-hop, funk, house and old skool music, until late.
Boy Blue was involved with hit film StreetDance 3D and the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Founders Kenrick and Mikey J have toured Olivier Award-winning Pied Piper and The Five & the Prophecy of Prana around the country.
This year, Kenrick judges the BBC Young Dancer 2015 award alongside Matthew Bourne, Tamara Rojo and Akram Khan. The final takes place on 9 May at Sadler’s Wells and will be screened live on BBC Four.