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limits Walking up the spiral staircase at the studio you faintly hear the unmistakable sound of the tap dancers at practice and the voices of a few singing… “We will rock you.” Edging my way closer to them I get a glimpse of the performers at practice and am quite surprised to see that these ‘extreme’ dancers are quite young. “Our youngest dancer is just 10 years old,” says Shannon Raymond, choreographer cum director joining in for a quick chat about the concert. While there will be about fifteen dancers performing at the concert he adds that their oldest dancer is in her 20s. Having been involved in the English theatre scene for 25 years, Shannon has been in the forefront of the performing arts scenario in Sri Lanka and has directed, choreographed and acted in many plays and musicals over the years. Extreme Entertainers is basically, “something that is meant to be fun and is about the work that goes on at the studio.” The first half of the show is basically about the studio, bringing you everything from joining the studio to the whole process that goes with it. The show will give the audience an idea about how the students have to face a round of auditions before they are taken in and the class work they do. The second half of the show is completely different. Being an admirer of Bob Fossey’s style of dance, Shannon says that, “It’s basically a humble tribute to Bob Fossey.” According to him the second half is also about the students graduating and their maiden performance. Bringing to the audience a wide variety of songs from pre-war to post-war favourite hits such as You Are My Sunshine and Side By Side, rock songs such as One Vision and Hot In The City, their line up also includes other variety songs, like the ABBA favourites. Speaking about Extreme Studio, Shannon says that it’s not particularly a big studio consisting of only about 30-35 students. Starting off 18 months ago in view of promoting performing arts, Shannon currently teaches dance forms such as tap dancing and street jazz. As one of his students puts it, “even though he tortures us, it is a lot of fun.” Tap dancing and street jazz is not something that many people are familiar with and therefore having a concert of this nature will undoubtedly highlight the wonders of it. After being in existence for over one year what was it that made him realise that the time was right for him to direct a show of this nature? “I have always told my students that I will put them on when they are ready and I felt that the time is right,” he says. Something that I found very interesting was how the performers are encouraged to do their own choreography. “I feel involving them in the whole creative thought process rather than getting them to just routinely follow instructions would help them.” He believes this is much more different than theatre, where they have to coordinate with people, work with the stage; here their outlook on things broadens. “This is one experience I really want my students to have,” he adds with a smile. As he says, “not everyone who dances will become good dancers, but the experience of it will be much more.” For him it’s also about appreciating the effort that is put into making things work. For the performers, dancing is about bringing out their personality. It’s something different to anything they have ever done. Put simply by one of the dancers, “It’s something that’s energetic and a whole lot of fun.” Extreme Entertainers will jazz up the nights of Colombo from July 27 – 30 at the Bishop’s College Auditorium. Tickets will be available at the auditorium. |
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