Choreography and direction: Blanca Li

Music: Tao Gutierrez

Reviewer: Peter Jacobs

The Public Reviews Rating:

France-based Spanish choreographer Blanca Li thinks Elektro Kif is the first theatrical show based on electro dance. Electro is a form of streetdance with its origins in the streets of Paris that combines an eclectic mix of disco, vogue and popping and locking. The first question is whether electro is sufficiently distinct from what we know as ‘streetdance’ to clearly define it as a separate genre. On this showing? Maybe.

Although it shares urban roots with its American cousin, Elektro Kif does have a distinctly French style, with less aggression, attitude and urban threat. Musically this is reflected in the diverse soundtrack created and assembled by Tau Gutierrez, that combines electro and techno with afrobeat, samples and classical.

Elektro Kif is a show about eight young guys spending a typical day at college from morning greetings through classes, recreation, lunch, exams to the end of school bell, sharing friendship, laughs, rivalries and fights. The show is bright, lively and colourfully costumed and the eight French dancers have personality and great energy.

Which takes us back to the first question: is electro a distinct form of street dance? Well unfortunately Elektro Kif falls into a number of streetdance clichés beyond the all-male college setting – the Michael Jackson medley, the basketball section, videogames, the face-off, the dance-off, the underwear flash at the end. The choreography and dancing here is complex and performed with great technique and all the cast come shine individually even within the tightly-set group set pieces, but whilst the quick fire upper-body balleticism of vogue means the movement is technically expressive and fluid, like most streetdance this is not emotionally expressive in any way. The only relationships on show are male friendship and rivalry so there is no kind of story arc beyond a typical day at college, so it becomes a series of set-pieces. Characters vividly created in the opening scene – the geek, the cool kids, the outsider, the playboy, the rebel etc. – are largely dropped in favour of amiable playful camaraderie.

The show is bright, energetic, lively and colourful but beyond that fast-moving watchability there is something fundamentally uninteresting about Elektro Kif. It lacks any real drama or connection. This is especially telling in the slower solo/duo section. There are no real stories or explorations of male friendship or multicultural urban life. As for being edgy or breaking new ground, with its cartoonish characterisation, primary-bright costuming and electro-afrobeat soundtrack, the overall impression is actually rather nostalgic and old school retro.

Elektro Kif is brightly packaged and enthusiastically performed but is essentially superficial entertainment and dance theatre is capable of so much more than that. Compared to a show like Shaun Parker’s Happy as Larry, which toured the UK last year, Elektro Kif falls flat.

Runs until 16 February

 

Tags: Blanca Li, Blanca Li Dance Company, Dance, Electro, Elektro Kif, Lowry, Salford, Streetdance, Tau Gutierrez