Flawless
Rising to prominence on Britain’s got Talent; dance troupe Flawless wowed us with their amazing, complex dances.
They may have lost to Diversity and Susan Boyle in the final, but the 2006 World Dance champions were so very nearly true to their name.
Following their defeat though, Flawless became one of the stars of the film Streetdance, and toured across the country showing off their incredible dance performances.
With the release of Streetdance 2 on Blu-ray and DVD next week, we talked to ‘Steady’ from the group about the film, winning that world title and working with ballet.
So what can you tell us about Flawless in Streetdance 2?
For the first film we were the cool bad guys, the rivals of the main crew of street and ballet dancers. We got to be pretty mean, kind of like having an alter ego. In number two, it was a blessing to come back.
Our main scene is the battle scene where we get to battle the champions, Eddie’s (George Sampson) crew. He needs to get a crew together to beat the Americans, but he has a little altercation with us. We shot it in France and we really get to show off. A lot of people are saying that’s one of the best scenes in the film.
How different is it dancing live on stage to dancing for a film?
I like the interaction with the crowd. If you do a move wrong on stage, that’s it! You do a move wrong on film, you can just re-take it. I like living on the edge, I prefer doing live dancing and being on stage.
A lot of the crew, being perfectionists, like film. You can rewind it and do the scene again. But my preference is live, on stage, with the people.
You’re playing bad guys, is that something you have to put into your dancing?
In everything, our clothes, out choreography, the way acted, it’s all part of the persona. Obviously, we’re all nice guys, so to play baddies was great! It was so fun. We had to change the way we move, generally we don’t dance like that, but we had to set it up to be real mean.
Is the 3D something you have to think about?
Yeah, all the time. What happened first was that we went in to meet the crew and then we had a little go with the 3D cameras, find out what was possible and what wasn’t.
You really, really have to bear that in mind in choreography, because you want the 3D effect to stand out. So, we put more tricks in there, just for the 3D. We always enjoy a challenge though, so it was great to do that.
How long does it take to plan out one of your dances?
It depends what it’s for, but generally two or three days for a five minute set.
You’ve been touring with the English National Ballet, how did that come about?
It’s a long story. To put it quickly, we got invited to Buckingham Palace to dance for the Queen and we meet the guys from the English National Ballet.
Marlon had an idea, once we’d finished, why not do a show together. So, we did a show, the Peace One Day concert at the O2 and it went really well, so we thought about a tour. We put it to them and they were happy, so we took six weeks out, trained and then we all went on tour.
We finished on Sunday and it’s been an amazing experience. It was great for us to learn some of their techniques, and for them to learn some of ours. It worked out really well.
So what was the biggest thing you learnt from them?
Me personally, it’s the stretching. The way that we stretch and the way our bodies move for our genre doesn’t necessarily mean it’s right for them or vice versa.So, the stretching they were teaching me, as well as having partners (we’re an all-male group so we don’t have partners) were the big things. I’m not used to dancing with partners. Pas de deux I think it’s called.
Just the focus as well. I mean, we like to think we’re focused, but their focus is ridiculous. It was great, a whole lot of discipline.
So what was it like winning the street dancing world championships back in 2006?
That’s probably one of the best things. Some people say it was meant to be. Every single competition we went into that year we won. So, we won the regionals, won the UK title and then thought, why not, let’s for the world championships. Entered that, came through and won that as well.
The build-up was amazing. 52 countries competing and we came out first, it was an amazing experience. Unforgettable.
You were in the Jubilee celebrations too. How did that come about?
Well, we’ve gone down to Buckingham palace before, and I think she [the Queen] likes us! I think she’s got a thing for Flawless (laughs). We got asked by the palace if we could be involved in the celebrations and obviously we jumped at the chance.
We did it with Kylie Minogue. Usually if you see dancers with a singer, they’re in the background, but for us it was amazing to be artists dancing onstage with another artist. (07:42)
So, what’s up next for you guys?
I’m not sure we can talk about what we’ve got planned next. Well, there’s the promotion for Street Dance, we’ve got the Paralympics coming up, but I can’t say too much about that. That’s under wraps but it’s coming up real soon.
We’re going around the world, this month and next month we’ll be out of the country three times. There are a lot of things happening, but a lot of them are under wraps right now. Watch this space.
Street Dance 2 is out on DVD and Blu-ray Combi-pack on 23 July 2012, courtesy of Entertainment One
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith
Tagged in Streetdance