0:00:02 > 0:00:05Dance has many faces, from the perfection and control of ballet,
0:00:05 > 0:00:07to the energy and daring of parkour,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10to the worldwide enjoyment of ballroom dancing.
0:00:10 > 0:00:12I'm fascinated by the connections
0:00:12 > 0:00:15between different forms of choreography and agility,
0:00:15 > 0:00:18as I enjoyed everything from gymnastics to tap
0:00:18 > 0:00:21before I joined the Royal Ballet School.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31In this programme, I've chosen two stunning new works
0:00:31 > 0:00:34from artists who also enjoy breaking conventions
0:00:34 > 0:00:36and exploring new territories.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Later on, the ice dancers getting as far away from sequins
0:00:40 > 0:00:42as it is possible to be.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46But first, the team who have taken hip-hop from the streets
0:00:46 > 0:00:48to this stage at London's Barbican,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52and from here, out to the nation's classrooms.
0:00:54 > 0:00:55Oscar-winner Danny Boyle
0:00:55 > 0:00:58and Olivier Award winners Boy Blue Entertainment
0:00:58 > 0:01:01first worked together on the opening ceremony
0:01:01 > 0:01:03of the London Olympic Games.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05Really drag and slide, yeah?
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Somebody said, "You should go and see this guy - Kenrick Sandy.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11"He runs a workshop in Stratford."
0:01:11 > 0:01:15So, when you go, tap, tap, toe... # Da-da-da, da. #
0:01:15 > 0:01:18I remember walking into it and the smell of work
0:01:18 > 0:01:20was, like, palpable.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23You could taste it. And there were people from everywhere.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26I mean, all shapes and sizes. They were there to work for him.
0:01:26 > 0:01:27And he introduced me to Mikey...
0:01:29 > 0:01:31..his music guy. And they introduced me
0:01:31 > 0:01:33to the concept of Boy Blue, what they were about,
0:01:33 > 0:01:37which was entirely in keeping with what we were hoping to inject
0:01:37 > 0:01:40into this massive thing - the Olympics -
0:01:40 > 0:01:43which is a feeling that the people who were going to really build it
0:01:43 > 0:01:46and represent it were the volunteers, were the community.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Now they've reunited to film Boy Blue Entertainment's
0:01:49 > 0:01:51Emancipation Of Expressionism,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54a piece that has its roots in street dance and hip-hop,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57which has been selected as a set work
0:01:57 > 0:02:00to be studied on the GCSE dance curriculum.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03I think it's amazing times, in the sense that
0:02:03 > 0:02:07the style of hip-hop, you know, it never had this as an intention.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09When it started up in Brooklyn, New York,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12it was a form of self-expression.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Hip-hop is definitely about freestyle.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17You're just structuring it, you're putting something around it
0:02:17 > 0:02:20in order for someone else to be able to take on your vision
0:02:20 > 0:02:22and your interpretation
0:02:22 > 0:02:23towards the music.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26He sent me the show -
0:02:26 > 0:02:29an earlier version of it done at Sadler's Wells -
0:02:29 > 0:02:31and it was just like I feel about all his work.
0:02:31 > 0:02:32I was just dazzled by it.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35By the precision, the discipline, the group dynamic,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37the individuality of it within that group.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41And so I said yes.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43Five, six, seven, and...
0:02:43 > 0:02:45I've learned a lot by doing it, actually.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48It's been really great to be up close to it, as well.
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Some of the propulsive nature of what they've done
0:02:51 > 0:02:53is staggering to watch,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55but it's actually the beauty of him and Skittles,
0:02:55 > 0:02:57what I call the pas de deux.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59I have no idea whether that's the right expression,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02but it is this beautiful piece with exchange energy between them.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04That's a beautiful piece of work, I think.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07That's worthy of any kind of choreography
0:03:07 > 0:03:09in any kind of context, really. I love that.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Kenrick's choreography draws inspiration from Mikey's music
0:03:15 > 0:03:17and a wide range of other sources,
0:03:17 > 0:03:19from a stylised rugby scrum,
0:03:19 > 0:03:21to the mechanical movement of a Rubik's Cube.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25There's a section where eight of the dancers,
0:03:25 > 0:03:27and there's always one gap missing,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29and that one gap missing is for someone to slot in.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32So, as they're slotting in, they're moving in a particular way,
0:03:32 > 0:03:33just like a Rubik's Cube.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Drama does not tend to deal in groups, really,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41and that's one of the liberating things I find about dance,
0:03:41 > 0:03:42and particularly about Ken's work,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45is that the group dynamic is so powerful.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48It's such an extraordinary force that you experience.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51And it doesn't matter whether you know anything about dance.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Probably, if someone says to you, "Do you like modern dance?"
0:03:54 > 0:03:56you'd probably go, "Ooh, do I?"
0:03:56 > 0:03:59You don't need to... Don't even think of it as like that.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01Just watch it. It's an amazing experience,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03feeling what the body is capable of, you know?
0:04:03 > 0:04:06ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:04:42 > 0:04:45# Let, let, let the heat pop
0:04:45 > 0:04:47# Oh!
0:04:48 > 0:04:49# Oh!
0:04:50 > 0:04:52# Oh!
0:04:53 > 0:04:54# Oh!
0:04:55 > 0:04:57# Oh!
0:04:58 > 0:04:59# Oh!
0:05:01 > 0:05:02# Oh!
0:05:03 > 0:05:05# Oh!
0:05:05 > 0:05:07# Let the heat, let the heat, let the heat pop
0:05:10 > 0:05:11# Oh!
0:05:14 > 0:05:16# Oh!
0:05:20 > 0:05:21# Oh!
0:05:25 > 0:05:26# Oh!
0:05:27 > 0:05:30# Let the heat, let the heat, let the heat pop
0:05:43 > 0:05:46# Let the heat pop, let the heat pop
0:05:48 > 0:05:51# Let the heat pop, let the heat pop
0:05:53 > 0:05:56# Let the heat pop, let the heat pop
0:05:58 > 0:06:01# Let the heat pop, let the heat pop
0:06:04 > 0:06:06# Let the heat pop, let the heat pop
0:06:34 > 0:06:39# I feel you're the one, one, one
0:06:39 > 0:06:45# One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one
0:06:45 > 0:06:50# I feel you're the one, one, one
0:06:50 > 0:06:57# One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one
0:06:59 > 0:07:06# The one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one
0:07:06 > 0:07:08# One, one, one
0:07:10 > 0:07:17# The one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one
0:07:17 > 0:07:20# One, one, one... #
0:07:20 > 0:07:23MUSIC STOPS
0:07:23 > 0:07:27RAIN POURS
0:07:27 > 0:07:31LONG HIGH NOTES
0:07:53 > 0:07:55VIOLIN PLAYS RAPIDLY
0:09:06 > 0:09:08MUSIC BUILDS
0:10:21 > 0:10:24MUSIC STOPS
0:10:24 > 0:10:27PIANO PLAYS SLOWLY
0:10:49 > 0:10:52ELECTRONIC BEAT
0:11:14 > 0:11:16VIOLIN PLAYS
0:11:39 > 0:11:42ELECTRONIC BEAT RESUMES
0:14:26 > 0:14:29It is brilliant to see such a range of emotions and ideas
0:14:29 > 0:14:31expressed through a form that started out
0:14:31 > 0:14:34as a pure expression of individuality.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36For our next piece, I've travelled across London
0:14:36 > 0:14:39to Alexandra Palace Ice Rink.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43Here, as the fun skaters head home, Quebec-based group Le Patin Libre
0:14:43 > 0:14:47are preparing to film Vertical - a radical piece of ice dancing
0:14:47 > 0:14:49developed from a daring new perspective.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54Figure skating is so rigid in its rules
0:14:54 > 0:14:56and in the public imagination
0:14:56 > 0:14:59that we had to break a mould to achieve what we wanted.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03So, we break this wall between show and audience,
0:15:03 > 0:15:06and we break the wall between what the audience thinks
0:15:06 > 0:15:09figure skating or ice dancing or whatever should be
0:15:09 > 0:15:13and what it can be through the show that we offer.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19At the beginning, it was me hiring figure skaters
0:15:19 > 0:15:23for gigs on frozen ponds for winter carnivals in Quebec.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26We skated on rock music and we did stunts mostly.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29And the five skaters who are now in the group
0:15:29 > 0:15:31slowly joined and stayed.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34This is what allowed Le Patin Libre
0:15:34 > 0:15:38to grow into something more sophisticated, I think.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41I did a lot of ice dance competition,
0:15:41 > 0:15:46and it takes tangos and waltzes and...
0:15:47 > 0:15:50..translates them, mimics them, on the ice.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53The contrast of what we do is
0:15:53 > 0:15:57we spent time deciding what made skating,
0:15:57 > 0:16:03and that movement on the ice, unique and interesting for us.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06I use traditional skating because that's how I can jump
0:16:06 > 0:16:08and spin and do all these tricks,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11but I have to, let's say, uncondition myself,
0:16:11 > 0:16:15and free my mind to find other ways of moving on the ice.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20We explore together, and it's very as a collective,
0:16:20 > 0:16:22and it's a democratic thing.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26You have to defend your point sometimes, but it's as a group.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30How do we succeed to skate well together?
0:16:30 > 0:16:34It's by spending a lot, a lot of time jamming together,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38gathering, improvising on some music and getting to feel each other.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42And this, along many years of doing it,
0:16:42 > 0:16:44created, like, magic between us.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49I composed the music for the show.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51So, I like to let
0:16:51 > 0:16:55a lot of space, also, for breathing, for sounds - skate sounds.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57SKATES SCRAPE ON ICE
0:16:57 > 0:17:01You can make sounds with the boots. You can sounds with the picks.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05So, sometimes, it's just nice to have, like, a little moment
0:17:05 > 0:17:08just to let the sound play its role.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Because we collaborate collectively, build our choreography,
0:17:16 > 0:17:18and don't have an external eye,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21the only way to see that was with a video camera,
0:17:21 > 0:17:23placed at the end of the ice.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28We found this new perspective and we thought, "That's it!
0:17:28 > 0:17:31"That's how we can play with an audience.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33"We'll put them where the camera is."
0:17:33 > 0:17:36SMASHING
0:17:36 > 0:17:40OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYS
0:17:40 > 0:17:46SKATES SCRAPE ON ICE
0:17:53 > 0:17:54LOUD SCRAPE
0:18:15 > 0:18:18PULSING BEAT
0:19:26 > 0:19:27LOUD SCRAPE
0:19:33 > 0:19:35PERCUSSIVE MUSIC
0:20:47 > 0:20:50ELECTRONIC BEAT PLAYS
0:21:48 > 0:21:55MUSIC STOPS, SKATES SCRAPE
0:21:55 > 0:21:57SOFT, LONG TONES
0:22:10 > 0:22:13TWINKLING MUSIC
0:22:28 > 0:22:30PULSING BEAT
0:22:38 > 0:22:41MUSIC STOPS
0:23:01 > 0:23:04SKATES SCRAPE ON ICE
0:23:24 > 0:23:27RATTLING
0:23:27 > 0:23:28Shh!
0:24:11 > 0:24:16CLICKING TONGUE IN TIME
0:24:32 > 0:24:36MUSIC RESUMES
0:27:24 > 0:27:26MUSIC FADES
0:27:33 > 0:27:37The traditional set pieces of ice dancing reworked and reimagined
0:27:37 > 0:27:40to make something that feels both coordinated
0:27:40 > 0:27:43and much more spontaneous. Really beautiful.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Each of tonight's companies have an important lesson for us all
0:27:47 > 0:27:49when it comes to creativity -
0:27:49 > 0:27:51rules are there to be broken.