© Demon Barber Roadshow
This Thursday, the Demon Barber Roadshow set-up camp for one night only at Theatre Royal Wakefield as part of the venue’s annual MOVES: A Festival of Dance . The week long festival features internationally renowned dance companies bringing a combination of traditional, contemporary and innovative dance styles to Wakefield.
In 2001 The Demon Barbers brought together some of England’s most exciting young traditional dancers to create their high energy spectacular Roadshow. After winning Best Live Act award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2009, the Demon Barber Roadshow now take a further step towards pushing the boundaries of English traditions in ‘Time Gentleman Please‘, inviting three young hip hop dancers for a night out at their local pub The Fighting Cocks. Clog, Rapper and Morris meet B-boying, Popping and Krump in this humourous and unmissable visual feast.
I managed to steal a few minutes with Roadshow founder and head honcho Damien Barber to quiz him on the origins of the group and their inspiration behind their new show.
Damien, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
Both sides of my family were reasonably musical, especially my father’s. When I was very young my granddad had a mandolin, fiddle and accordion in his cupboard and usually got them out and scratched out a tune when we visited – he also used to play a particularly wicked paper and comb! My father got into folk music in the late 60s and early 70s and I used to go to our local folk club in Northwalsham, Norfolk from about the age of 5.
The folk scene has a good reputation for encouraging people to perform, especially youngsters and our local folk club was no different. I began playing melodeon (type of button accordion) when I was around 7 years old primarily to accompany my father’s singing and during my teens began playing in music sessions in the pubs of Norwich. I enjoyed listening to other sorts music but the buzz for me was playing it live with other people and folk music is great for that.
What led you to form the Demon Barber Roadshow? What was the inspiration behind the name ‘Demon Barber Roadshow’?
There is a great traditional music festival in Whitby, North Yorkshire every August and I was a regular there for the first 15 years of my career. Performing solo can be a lonely business and once a year, at Whitby, I used to put on a concert called ‘Damien Barber & Friends’ where I would invite friends to perform with me. One year I invited some young dance teams – Dogrose Morris, Black Adder Rapper & Step and Black Swan Rapper who I helped form the year before. The following year I formed The Demon Barbers and we then put the two together. One of my main inspirations in folk song is Peter Bellamy who I had the honour of knowing for a couple of years before his untimely death in 1991. Peter’s nickname for me was ‘The Demon Barber’.
Why explore a fusion of folk dance and more contemporary dance styles, such as streetdance and breakdance?
The main focus for The Demon Barber Roadshow has always been to bring traditional English dance onto the main stages at festivals and arts centres, as quite often traditional dance is separate to the main music concerts. Along with performances we also spend a lot of time teaching traditional dance, especially in schools ,and the Roadshow has played a large part in enthusing children to participate in something that is usually associated with negative stereotypes. The main purpose for ‘Time Gentlemen Please’ is to help raise the profile and acceptability of traditional English dance.
When we first starting looking at developing our ideas for a new show we realised that street and break dance have many similarities with traditional English dance, especially Clog and rapper sword whose origins are from working class urban areas. Street and break dance are universally recognised as cool and we hope that by putting traditional dance on a platform with them, it will help us achieve our aims.
How did you go about your research/development for the piece? Can you tell us a little about your working process?
Our main priority was to look at the similarities between the different dance forms and it was obvious from the start that there were many! We spent the first couple of weeks skill sharing, brainstorming and workshopping with a view to creating a bank of raw material that we could work up in the second phase. We only had 6 weeks in total to put the show together . . . This was by no means a perfect situation to be in and we would have welcomed more time to work with everyone together, but a cast of this size is expensive!
How did yourself and your company of traditional dancers find working with hip hop artists? Were there any particular challenges or obstacles to overcome in producing the piece?
We couldn’t have asked for a better mix of personalities really, all the artists threw themselves into the process and had a mutual respect for each other’s skills and abilities. I think the traditional dancers particularly appreciated this. The greatest challenge for us was the fusion aspect; it would be easy for us to showcase exciting dance routines but mixing up the styles was always going to be a challenge. This was mainly due to time constraints as many of the dance forms are highly skilled and have been developed of a number of years – to exchange these skills fully is going to take some time.
Folk music in particular appears to be seeing a resurgence of late – what are your thoughts on this?
There is definitely a resurgence and obviously this is a good thing, my only concern is that the focus is tending to be on commercial success. The folk scene is an industry and, as such, it does need bums on seats and CD sales to survive – however it is also a thriving community and a custodian of our traditions. It is important to develop traditional music, song and dance while recognising and supporting its roots. Nearly all the artists in The Demon Barber Roadshow are members of traditional dance sides who perform in pubs and at social occasions as part of a living tradition and I think it’s important for us to continue doing this.
What has the general public’s reaction to the piece been like so far?
Overwhelming! I’ve never seen a standing ovation for traditional dance let along been on the receiving end of one! Half of those that completed feedback forms at our premiere had never seen The Demon Barbers before, which surprised us. Over 95% rated the content of the show and the mix of music and dance styles as excellent whilst all said they would be interested in watching further shows based on ‘Time Gentlemen Please!’ We couldn’t have asked for a better response really.
A few weeks back I was lucky enough to attend the premiere of the Demon Barber Roadshow’s new show ‘Time Gentleman Please’ at The Carriageworks in Leeds. We witness a series of local, and highly amusing, characters presenting a vast array distinctly different dance styles – from the swagger and athleticism of the hip-hop crew to the Morris dancing display of argey bargey between the two doormen of the pub itself. Soon enough, morris moves are emulated and interpreted by the hip-hop crew and clog dancers and beatboxers finish one other’s beats. The blending of dance styles is cleverly divised and suprisingly seamless.
The show is an energetic, entertaining and utterly infectious celebration of traditional dance forms, exploring issues surrounding the importance of cultural identity, whilst bravely diving into new fusion territory, at full throttle no less. Featuring a number of extremely talented musicians and dancers, the highlights of the show are too many to list – from acrobatics to sword displays, there are moments that will both delight and leave you wide-eyed with disbelief. As Damien himself said on describing the show “Think Riverdance with a false moustache, Stomp with bells on and both sitting in the front seat of a Bugatti!”
It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen an dance audience leave a venue so enthused and buzzing about a newly devised piece – even my dance-phobic partner was grinning from ear to ear all the way to the bar. It is the single most enjoyable performance I have seen so far this year and definately one that you shouldn’t miss!
Courtesy of our lovely friends at Theatre Royal Wakefield, we have a pair of tickets for the Demon Barber Roadshow’s performance of ‘Time Gentleman Please’ on Thursday 24th June to give away. To win, simply answer the following question:
What unusual, two-piece instrument did Damien’s grandfather play?
Email your answer to me at pirouettepundit@hotmail.co.uk and a winner will be picked at random at 7pm on Wednesday 23rd June. Good luck!
Demon Barber Roadshow
‘Time Gentlemen Please’
Thursday 24th June, 7:30pm
Box Office: 01924 211 311
www.theatreroyalwakefield.co.uk
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