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Review and Q&A Special: Flawless, Chase the Dream, Royal Festival Hall | reviews, news & interviews

Review and Q&A Special: Flawless, Chase the Dream, Royal Festival Hall

Review and Q&A Special: Flawless, Chase the Dream, Royal Festival Hall

How did 10 self-taught dancers become a crack troupe? By chasing a dream

When not one but two street dance crews blasted into Britain’s Got Talent 2009, it felt like a pressure cooker blowing. An ardent, physical and excitingly exact form of dance that had been bubbling away, compressed and hidden, under the surface of British public entertainment exploded. Of the two, Diversity (the eventual winners) and Flawless, it was Flawless’s 10 men who had the almost scarily precise look of a serious dance company, and last night they crowned a massive year for them at the Royal Festival Hall, London, with a full-length show, Chase the Dream, that proves them to be fine instinctive entertainers as well as crack dancers.

The show feels like a committee job by the collective, masterminded by a business agent who wants to shift DVDs at maximum decibels. It is entirely a boy zone, studded with homages to idols, Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly, Jim Carrey in The Mask, X-Men, and with a deliberate and very gratifying exposure of some ferociously ripped young torsos. Amid the weighty, considered, unthrilling arena of most contemporary dance, I constantly marvel at the inventiveness and stamina of the best of street dance moves - it is the most laddish of all dance forms, almost cartoon-like in its defiance of your perception of the normal uses of gravity, fast as gunfire, feet sliding almost weightlessly along the ground, bodies rippling along the floor like caterpillars, or spinning in inventive headstand spirals. Several of the Flawless crew are brilliant; others are less flawless, but in a sense this shows the troupe's inexperience and still amateur amiability, that they haven't yet had the professional ruthlessness yet to take the level up to the best ones and make sacrifices elsewhere.

The bling is eyewatering, with sequinned suits, rhinestoned sneakers, and shiny silk city suits that look far too tight to take the punishment of weird leg angles, splits and backward somersaults. The hats and caps, the huge leather coats and flamboyant flapping jackets should be hindrances, falling off, dragging backwards, yet the boys do their flying flips and tumbles defiantly and won't be parted from their trappings, even making the retrieval of a fallen cap while performing a somersault and handstand sequence part of the challenge.

The communication with last night's sizeable family audience was direct and entertaining, despite a muddled narrative line, and confidence on stage was manifest in the easy swagger with which the guys entered or left the action, as if strolling off to catch a word with a mate before returning nervelessly to join the physical action. The sound is pulverising, and the lights are blinding, and the production's great flaw is how insistently it brags of Flawless the Brand, rather than Flawless the team of potential artists. This severely limits the theatrical effect to merely efficient business, and these guys deserve better than that. It's early days for street dance in theatre, but the ones at the head of the pack are those creators who have been able to harness fiction's power to street dance's physical wattage and reach soul depths.

Flawless's story is short as yet, but certainly inspiring. Winning UK and world street dance championships before they entered Britain’s Got Talent, they are exemplars of the swift rise of street dance among urban boys in Britain - for a long time thought the forgotten sector in mainstream dancing. These guys in their twenties all had day jobs, in shops or manual labour or law offices, but they had also, quite literally, formed a dream and chased it.

They’re all from one neighbourhood in north-east London, drawn together by loving hip-hop music and dancing, and spearheaded by the remarkably focused and aspirational Wallen, an only child of a single mum, driving with a singular vision to better himself through dance and inviting his mates to join in it. His mantra is "Chase the dream, not the competition." They got together in 2004 and gave themselves a proud, attention-grabbing name, Flawless, and an attention-grabbing image, not tracksuits and bling but slick, smart dudes in suits, hats and crisp white shirts.

It did take a long time to think of the name Flawless, but I wanted something that would be universal and forever challenging

Within five years, this self-taught bunch of men had, through sheer discipline and aspiration, not only adjusted street dance’s image but used it in short order to win the 2006 World Street Dance Championships, become finalists in TV’s largest family entertainment show, and then catch the featured dancing role in this year’s Hollywood movie, StreetDance 3D.

Such a trajectory of success very rarely attends on most people with an accredited professional training in any walk of life, and it surely has to be down to more than just a passing fashion among the powers that be for the street. On Monday I met up in Wood Green with Marlon Wallen, 26, known as “Swoosh”, Leroy Dias dos Santos, 25, known as “FX”, and Anthony Duncan, 28, known as “AD”, and in conversation began to get an inkling of the unusual and focused willpower that has been deployed in Flawless’s very extraordinary and inspiring story.

To chase the dream is all too often used as a shorthand for waiting for someone to discover you without you making too much effort about it; Flawless’s rapid achievement so far shows that chasing a dream means dreaming as hard as you chase it, and chasing it as hard as you dreamed it.

Flawless perform in the final of Britain's Got Talent 2009:


ISMENE BROWN: It’s easy to say, like they do in movies, let’s make a dance troupe, but, for one thing, the pop world is so hard to get into - the hardest, probably - and for another, though street dance has been around, it has never been in the full public eye. Was it a big decision for the group of you to try to take this professional?

MARLON WALLEN: Yes, I think it was a big decision. Each of us had a very strong passion to effect change in dance as a whole, to be respected as athletes, and I think that was what drove us to have the determination. We brought that cool factor into dance. We brought something slick and different in image to the table. There weren’t really all-male dance groups at the time, so it was kind of fresh.

From the start did you always want that smooth, dark-glasses, Hollywood image?

LEROY DIAS DE SANTOS: Yes, from the get-go I think so. All of us are into fashion, and if you bring 10 guys that are so much into fashion and how we look, it affects the style we adopt when we move.

Groups wearing tracksuits dance in a different style.

LDS: Yes. Everything from the way we dress to how we stand is important. We wanted to put our own stamp on it.

Whose idea was it, this image? Was it a particular style icon?

MW: It was from within. You’ve got 10 different personalities in the group, and not everybody’s on the same page at all times. So we had lots of discussions, and our management as well was quite strict about making sure we’d come in unison dress to events. I think in 2004 it was us being young and developing, because nothing we were doing had been done before.

Who got the first sessions together? You? Or a dance teacher?

MW: I was the main person.

The first thing you had to decide was your name!

MW: It did take a long time to think of that name, but I wanted something that would be universal and forever challenging. Having a word that everyone could relate to. The point of Flawless is that we’re always striving for perfection, even if we can never reach perfection.

That’s a tall order... so Leroy and Anthony, is Marlon a hard taskmaster?

LDS: Yeah, definitely! But I think collectively everybody’s grown into that, they’ve put their boots on at some stage. Marlon does crack the whip when he needs to.

Marlon, this is a big group - why did you have 10 guys?

MW: It grew organically, it was just rounding everybody up, and some people had more commitments than others at different times. We’d only have five people available maybe when others wanted to be there but had commitments, so we just pretty much made it work together for everyone.

Did you have difficulty in instilling the discipline? Street dance has always struck me as nearly as physically exacting and codified as ballet, even though it’s not academic. Who decides what is the right move?

MW: I think generally I’m the person who’d be quite particular about things, but as years have gone by we’ve all grown as choreographers and directing, so as well as me being overall director I’ve got 10 choreographers too, because they’ve all grown to know what it takes to create something like Flawless. That does automatically make everybody a bit more strict on precision.

So you all started out with certain specialities, but you all have to teach each other and raise the bar for everyone.

MW: Exactly. If Leroy this week has something new, he knows exactly what to do and what we’re like. It’s got to the point where we’re more like a family - we know each other and what to expect.

Flawless_performanceHow did you make your first outfits? If you were going for the slick look.

AD: I think it was just a white shirt, at first.

MW: When people’d see something they hadn’t seen before, they’d turn their nose up a bit, but bit by bit they’d say, “Ah, that’s Flawless.” And we found that we developed a level of respect for the dancers because we dressed in a certain way. People would look at us, and say, “Oh, are you sure you’re street dancers, are you sure you’re not a band or a singing group?” We get asked so many questions just by our attire. We think that plays a big role in the look of street dancing. Cos people hear the word “street dance” and maybe they associate it with the negativeness of the street. That’s what we’re trying to make sure we are educating people about it.

Is YouTube an important source for moves? I think there’re about a quarter of a million tubes just about street dance out there.

LDS: In some ways it is, it opens your eyes to what is out there. In terms of dance and tricks, yes and no. You can always get the base for something but you’ll have to invent something on top.

MW: I think we strive for originality, for what’s not been seen, to make dance better as a whole. We see ourselves as entertainers and artists in our own right. As Leroy says, if you’re not aware of XYZ there are sources to help you see where it is, but you’ve got to bring it up to the next level. Everything about dance is all about sharing. You’re sharing your expression, so people who upload their stuff on YouTube are sharing too.

What about the competitive area? I was talking with Jane Hollis [the teacher who founded Streetdance International, which supervises UK street dance teaching and competition] and she was telling me that when you came along in 2005 street dance cracked up a level. Competition and championships is really the place where the new moves come out. There’s not much else.

MW: Yes, that whole experience was something else. We didn’t go in to win but rather to establish what we do and what we’re above. Yes, in the competition you’re against others, but at the same time you’re seeing amazing talents from all over the world and you’re learning from each other. That’s the biggest thing about being involved in an event like that.

Flawless_world_champsTell me about the championships. How many routines do you make?

MW: You have all the heats, and there are like 93 countries in the competition, so you have a lot of routines to do. The challenge is the 2 or 3 minutes length; you get so many ideas but you’re stuck with, oh we can’t have that because we’re restricted in the number of minutes. So you’re thinking what’s going to be most explosive, what the audience will like; you think about the music, what you look like - so many things, it’s unreal.

Presumably you wouldn’t ever be in a world championships again given what you've now done.

MW: Oh no, no, we’re past that stage. We won UK championships, then International, then the Worlds (pictured left). You can see it’s not a case of going around the same circuit each time. It took us quite a time to think about going in for something like Britain’s Got Talent.

How did the idea of doing Britain's Got Talent get into your head?

MW: We wanted to get exposure, to go up to the next level after our exposure at the championships, and let people know what we were about, and commercially advertise street dance. Street dance was always there, in a way, but nothing much was being done about it, not enough opportunities, not compared with the dance shows that have happened since Britain’s Got Talent. That advertised street dance in such a way that there have been many dance shows then and it’s evolving and getting bigger.

Were there arguments among you that you’d be selling out street dance by going into a mainstream TV family show like Britain's Got Talent?

MW: No, not really. Not as such. We think, we’re Flawless, and we’re original, and we want to take ourselves as far as we can take it. However, we’re under the umbrella of this kind of dance and we do bear that in mind and we’ll do all we can to support it.

Bit by bit as we grew together we started to see results, and were thinking, this might be possible. Because it’s hard to imagine back in 2004 that this is where we could be by now

You must be quite relieved you didn’t win the show. The pressure on the winner to conform is massive.

MW: Yes, the general public does assume that if you win something, you shoot to fame blah-blah. But what happened is much more our story, about how we chased our dream as we wanted to. You can see our story is in there: we didn’t win, but we ended up becoming ambassadors for the Prince’s Trust, meeting the Prince of Wales, starring in our own movie, touring - that is an amazing achievement for us.

AD: It’s all about the journey.

You wouldn’t have dreamed that four years ago?

LDS: No way! I didn’t really dream about it. I just thought, I’m going to work the hardest I can work. And keep going on that journey.

And did Marlon keep being visionary and talking about dreaming the big dream?

LDS: Oh yeah, he did. Marlon always has.

Flawless_Beyonce_hip_hopMW: You know what it was, the blessing I’ve had is that individuals in Flawless have all been selective, and all believed in the journey, and believed in me. Or they’d have not given it the time to do it. And bit by bit as we grew together we started to see results, and were thinking, this might be possible. Because it’s hard to imagine back in 2004 that this is where we could be by now.

At what stage did you teach Madonna and Beyoncé (pictured right) street moves? Which it says on your website.

MW: [Laughs.] Well, we have worked with some amazing people... It was a period of Flawless when we had established our name in the dance world, before Britain's Got Talent, and individuals were being recognised in doing these big jobs with these big artists. That was a great experience to be able to say, I worked with this or that artist on that music video.

Do agents come along to look at the world champs, looking for talent for music videos, shows, for the big stars?

MW: That’s the problem - very few do. A lot of people aren’t aware of the street dance championships, and it’s not televised. So you have this huge competition going on, but maybe only a few TV reporters from Germany, maybe.

It’s really surprising that, considering the amazing global spread of street dance from Korea, US, Africa, Germany, UK.

MW: It’s been like that for years. So we were going, “How are we going to change this whole thing?” That was the main reason we did BGT.

Flawless win the 2006 World Championships in Bremen, Germany:

At what stage did you start to get professional work?

MW: It was before Britain's Got Talent. Some of us individually had worked with artists and had experience of commercial work. [Marlon's past commercial work includes choreography for Virgin Vie, Nike, Unilever, Google and 3 Mobile.]

But it was part-time? You had day jobs.

MW: Yes.

AD: We had to hold down normal jobs. Some people were studying, people were working in everything, retail - I did gardening, so I’d start at 6 and finish at 1 to get to rehearsals.

What about paying for class and physio? Because I guess you get injured. This is an extreme form of physical activity.

MW: Where we were before, if we did have that issue it would just be about paying for a physio when we needed. However, now we have a physio on board for the tour.

AD: Also the whole prevention thing we take seriously; we do put in the time to warm up.

This Chase the Dream show is kicking off a UK tour. This must be a huge choreographic challenge for you. From what I've seen it’s rare in street dance to find something through-choreographed like Rennie Harris’s Rome and Jewels, or Kenrick Sandy’s Pied Piper. Most of them are done in a series of numbers.

MW: Yes, because we’re aware of these other shows, we’re trying to do something that hasn’t been done. So you’ve got a first half that gives you a storyline about chasing your dream, and the second is about aspirations, inspirations and iconic people. So it’s an action-packed show to take you on a roller-coaster journey, that takes you through emotional stages, the highs and lows, and also the different strengths of the individuals in the group.

Two things that street dance has a challenge to do in storytelling: one is showing girls as characters, the other thing is private sorrow. Street dance is so macho, so good at anger and exuberance. How does street dance do loneliness or misery, for instance?

MW: I think the show is so diverse in the sense that all ages can watch it, young, old, any kind of person, it mixes fusion, contemporary, everything we can find.

And girls? Do they appear?

LDS: We’ve got things in there that show girls!

MW: This is more about Flawless’s story. When you leave the show, I hope you’d feel, “I feel like chasing my dream.” I think the show uplifts you and encourages you, as well as fully entertaining you. That’s the most important thing. It’s not just about creating a fairy tale.

What does Flawless do next? I know you did the movie, StreetDance 3D, which I’m afraid I hated. I hated the bad ballet and the compromising of street dance in its story. I know it was an opportunity for you to shine, and in 3D too, in which you looked great, but in terms of the integrity of street dance, where would you like to take it?

MW: I’d like people to see how versatile street dance is, its full potential in its own right. It’s taken a long time, and it’s hard if you don’t have that opportunity. Obviously StreetDance 3D was an amazing opportunity for us, the highlight of our career, though obviously not how we would have envisioned the movie. But everything is contributing to the development and movement of street dance and how it’s recognised, and it’s the exposure it gave us that is overwhelming.

So many people are clueless in life, living without knowing why they’re living, seeing no future, not even beyond tomorrow, sometimes. We want to put that vision back into their heads that they can have a dream of something five years from now

You’ll be touring how long?

MW: 60 dates.

How do you cope with such physical pressure?

MW: Your bodies do get used to it, you condition yourself, and we all cover for each other. I know that we can handle it.

This vision you have about dance being aspirational - is that something you feel is very important for Flawless, to reach out and inspire?

LDS: Very important.

AD: We see ourselves as sort of role models for people out there, so that whatever you’re doing within your life, you can still be chasing your dream, it doesn’t have to be dance. There’s kids growing up now, and I feel personally and know other guys in Flawless feel the same way, people don’t dream enough any more. Hence we have so many people who are clueless in life, living without knowing why they’re living, seeing no future, not even beyond tomorrow, sometimes. We want to put that vision back into their heads that they can have a dream of something five years from now. (Pictured below, Flawless meeting a school class at the Festival Hall.)

Flawless_at_schoolMW: I think that was one of the biggest reasons we created the show. We had the motto “Chase the Dream” which was personalised to us, but then once we realised after Britain's Got Talent the effect that this had on people, that this was universal, we had to spread the energy. Because obviously people do get stuck in routine and you’re afraid to come out of your comfort zone. We’re trying to say,"Go for what you want. Yes, it’s going to be hard, but it’s about finding the way to make it work."

Is this your personal intensity, or does it have a similar theme in street dance around the world?

AD: It’s probably more personal to us, but it does reach globally everywhere. You can look on YouTube and see kids in countries that haven’t got anything, playing on the street with no shoes, nothing, and they’re out in the streets and still so talented. Those kids don’t have the opportunity yet to learn, and they’re still so talented.

MW: And to add to what Anthony is saying, you’ve got a lot of people like that, and the only issue is that there isn’t a voice to speak for them, make people aware of what is going on.

I don’t want Flawless just to be remembered for Britain’s Got Talent. I want to be here for a reason

Is London hip hop different from New York or Seoul? Because these are the three big world centres for street dance.

AD: The music Londoners are listening to might be different from what they’re listening to in New York, but fundamentally the experience they’re all talking about would be the same.

What about Koreans? When you were at the champs, did you notice the Asians used different music?

MW: No, when you’re in the competition you’re going to get the same music used. Because I’m here and if I hear a new track from Justin Timberlake or Usher, and I’m saying, "Ohmygod, Leroy, listen to this...," and they’re doing exactly the same in Japan. So you’ll see so many countries at the championships but you’ll realise they’re all throwing their ideas at this same music. It’s a universal language that connects everybody.

Marlon, you talk with such drive and passion about this idea of aspiring. Where did you get it from?

MW: From old-school people like Gene Kelly, Michael Jackson, James Brown, Fred Astaire; I look at all those people who became legendary at what they did, and it continues. I see Flawless’s career going in that direction as opposed to just being successful.

Fred Astaire & Eleanor Powell in Cole Porter's Broadway Melody of 1940:

I don’t want Flawless just to be remembered for Britain’s Got Talent. I want to be here for a reason. And everybody in Flawless believes that we should be expecting to change people’s lives. Obviously my mum’s been behind me since I was young. My dad unfortunately passed away when I was younger. Mum being a single parent, whatnot, she’s a phenomenal mum, she’s been through hard times, she works, and she keeps us all in shape as well.

Mother of the troupe!

MW: Everyone’s mother is like that!

Do you all have qualifications to fall back on?

MW: Yes, all of us. I went to college and got a BTEC in dance. It’s very important we all had our qualifications.

AD: Also it’s the discipline side of education that we are applying to what we do now. Regardless of what you do, discipline counts, even if it’s dance or a law degree. The two may not go hand in hand, but the self-discipline you acquired from the one will affect the other.

Are you good at being punctual?

MW: Oh yeah.

It must be so challenging and exciting for you all to catch that split-second timing.

MW: Oh yeah.

Flawless_michael_jacksonWho’s your favourite dancer?

AD: Michael Jackson (pictured left). When I watch him performing he is literally magic, such precision, sharp, and very charismatic as a dancer.

LDS: I don’t think I have a favourite dancer, but the artists I look up to are Michael Jackson, definitely, the Electric Boogaloos for popping, and contemporary Alvin Ailey, and obviously you’ve got Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.

Marlon, Gene Kelly was the first name you said, which surprised me.

MW: He was an amazing kind of man, because the person who was my icon was Michael Jackson, and I look at him and think about the bigger picture and think, what inspired YOU? And then I’m looking back at Gene Kelly, and then Fred Astaire, Sammy Davis Jr.

What’s your favourite bit of Gene Kelly?

MW: When he’s tapdancing on roller skates in the street. And the one where he dances with himself in the mirror.

LDS: I love that one. I watch it over and over.

Gene Kelly sings tapping on roller skates in It’s Always Fair Weather (1955):

  • Flawless perform Chase the Dream tonight, tomorrow and Thursday at the Royal Festival Hall, London; they then go on UK tour in 2011 opening 4 Feb at the Lowry, Salford, then to Liverpool, Grimsby, York, Newcastle, Peterborough, Birmingham, Darlington, Coventry, Dartford, Northampton, Southsea, St Albans, Tunbridge Wells, Wolverhampton, Nottingham, Cambridge, Skegness, Cardiff, Worthing, Buxton, Hastings, Aberdeen, Perth, Edinburgh, King’s Lynn and ends in Poole on 8 April
  • Flawless's official site - and on twitter and YouTube

Gene Kelly dancing with himself in Cover Girl (1944):

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