As regular visitors to this website will know, we are giving away two family passes to Blaze, a new dance show that will be hitting the Sydney Opera House and Arts Centre, Melbourne, this January, having performed in London, Paris, Berlin and Bangkok. Nina Levy spoke to Blaze’s producer, Eric Holman, to find out more about the production.
Holman explains that the inspiration for Blaze came from street dance. “Blaze started three years ago as project of Eymert van Manen, Anthony van Laast and me. Our vision was to produce the best street dance show in the world. We had seen some many talented dancers on the street, in clubs, in video clips and we saw the potential to turn this into a big theatre show.”
Holman is pleased with the results. “Blaze is unique because we we are one of the few full length theatre shows based on street dance with high end production values, spectacular projections and some of the best dancers in the world. We combine the spectacle of a theatre show with the energy of a pop concert and the feel of a club night.”
Producing a show like Blaze has been a fantastic experience, says Holman. “My favourite part of working on the show is working with the most talented dancers in the business and seeing how they develop themselves from dancers into entertainers. I am proud that we have created a show that works in every country that we play. More than 200.000 people have seen the show and every night we have succeeded in creating a party! It happens in every city - people get out of their seat and are dancing in the aisles and in front of the stage.”
The latest news from the Blaze team is that 2008 So You Think You Can Dance finalist, Demi Sorono, will be joining the cast of Blaze for the Australian season, along with Melbourne break dancer Sid Mathur. A lawyer by day, Mathur is a B-boy out of hours, with his crew The Collektive.
Blaze plays the Sydney Opera house 8-18 January and the Arts Centre Melbourne, 23-27 January.
www.sydneyoperahouse.com
www.artscentremelbourne.com.au
Demi Sorono