Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, London
July 18, 2024
Energy, energy and then more energy! Crazy Smooth are exhausting just watching them!
A group of top street dancers from Canada, they take the Southbank by storm. This is a group of fierce individuals, each with their own style and story, and yet their ensemble work is outstanding. They move together in such cohesion, not a beat out of place, that would put many a classical ballet corps to shame.
In My Body explores the difficulties around ageing in street dance, an activity traditionally associated with the young. The group comprises dancers young and old, the oldest being DKC Freeze, who at just shy of 60, more than earns his stage rest after performing a complex set to perfection.
Photo Jerick Collantes
The piece also features 50-year-old grandmother Tash, making a return after a decade of trying to do other things, and realising that for her dancing is the only life. She moves with a liquid beauty that is quite mesmerising. It’s just a shame her solo is perhaps just a touch too long. I found myself wondering when it would end, a pity considering how good she is.
DJ Shash’U created the original music, although part of the piece is danced without accompaniment, which is also very effective.
Crazy Smooth’s In My Body takes the theme of ageing, and pits it against the effort required to dance, at the highest level, even as you get older. It is effective and makes its point, as some of the dancers’ stories are shared on the back screen.
If you like street dance, Crazy Smooth are unmissable. If you are not sure, go along anyway. You will not be disappointed.
Crazy Smooth: In My Body is at the Southbank Centre to July 20, 2024.