Blaze, the 16-member dance group from UK, held
the audience captive with some extraordinary
dance and acrobatic feats. By Umer Nangiana
They were quick, acrobatic yet elegant and they stole the show. The energy levels soared for every quick snippet the Blaze performed at the Doha Summer Festival during the last three days. Coming all the way from UK, everyone in the16-member dance group, was a show stealer in individual capacity.
The visitors at the Doha Exhibition Centre (DEC) provided a large audience to the dancers every time the music went off, indicating the rockers were on the stage. Showcasing a blend of different genres of modern dance forms, the Blaze’s show was an enthralling exhibition of street dancing.
Deftly using the stage and the space around it, right in the middle of a crowded festival site; the group’s choreographers did an excellent job in making the performances more attractive. Having specialties in different dance forms, the performers displayed their skills in hip hop, jazz, break dancing or ‘Bboying’ besides other types.
Put together, the show generated energy that would pull the crowd in and capture their complete attention. People would simply join in on seeing these figures jamming the immediate space around them. Cameras were out and flashing. Some moves were simply breathtakingly superb.
“We all have different street dance bios like in Poping, Locking, House, hip hop, a bit of rave and we have freebie boys in the group as well who can break dance,” Kendra J Horsburgh, captain of the group and choreographer told Community.
“It is a very big show, very exciting and a family show. Any age can come, very entertaining and we get the audience involved as well,” she added. Locking and complementing each other on stage, the individual performers did display personal excellence with their hard-to-emulate steps. The Blaze performed three brief shows of street dance at the DEC on three days with their last performance on Wednesday.
Horsburgh, an expert in House and hip hop forms of dance, said she was also trained in jazz, ballet and the contemporary. “I started about 10 years ago at the academy for three years and then I trained myself in hip hop and I found my company in London. Since then, I have been doing lots of different projects before auditioning for Blaze and now I am the dance captain of the show,” said the performer.
“Break dancing, we call it B-boying, was performed by the two boys you saw during the acrobatics,” she added. The two Bboys had a show in themselves.
Like all other activities at the Summer Festival this year, the Blaze’s show was also set to involve the audience physically into the show. “We are performing a snippet of the show and we are performing it three times during this show. In the show we have a segment where we call the audience up and we teach them a part of the show,” said Horsburg.
“We teach them (the audience) a few simple steps of choreography from the show and they can join in and do it and then see. And then at the end of the show we encourage everyone to get up and dance with us and have a little party before they go home,” she added.
It was the group’s first ever appearance in Doha. The 16-member street dance sensation said they enjoyed performing here. The Doha audience, though little reserved, was very appreciative, said the dance captain. “It has been amazing, it has been really nice. We have had a variation of crowd,” said Horsburgh.
“Some people clap more, some people don’t. I think the Doha audience is a little bit more quiet then the audiences we mostly get, and a little bit more reserved but the beauty of it is that once we come on stage, everybody is congratulating us and letting us know how much they enjoyed the show. So maybe they are not making noise during the show but they definitely make noise after the show,” she added.
Horsburgh said they were planning to come back to Doha with a complete show sometime in future for which the dates were set as yet.
