One of the perks of writing these blogs is that every now and then the admissions office offers us tickets to certain events around Cambridge.
Tonight I was lucky enough to see the dance group Flawless on their “Chase the Dream” tour, at the local venue, the Cambridge Corn Exchange. Any Britain’s Got Talent fan will remember them as the troupe who lost out to Diversity in the show’s final a couple of years ago, however I reckon that Flawless were slightly better, I suspect I’ll get some stick for that comment. Regardless, deciding who to take was easy, as there was only one other person I knew (it seemed) who was remotely bothered at all by the idea, a friend of mine from my secondary school, studying at another college.
I was apprehensive at first; I’d never been to this venue and I struggled to predict how you could turn one group’s dancing into a feature length show, but they definitely managed it. It began with a typically energetic, fast paced introductory routine which promised a huge amount, but this was followed by a strange period where “inspirational” quotes made by each of the members resounded around the theatre, which didn’t half make me cringe and worry that the rest of the show would be some philosophical interpretive odd stuff, but that was soon over and they got back to what they are great at.
I understand that, to succeed as a production, the show would need some underlying moral message or story, but I wasn’t too sure about the life lesson business. There were good scenes and great scenes, some powerful, some just fun, where the choreography was mind-blowing and no matter which part of the stage you were looking at, there was always something going on. Without trying to sound emotionally intelligent, because I’m not, it was a great mixture of humour, meaning and Michael Jackson.
One part of the show involved the audience replicating THE MOST BASIC of hand routines which my mate and I just could not get to grips with, repeatedly being shown up by the various toddlers sitting nearby, but it was fun anyway, and dark which was fortunate.
Despite the overwhelming majority of the audience being young girls who would scream incessantly at one of the dancers (who found the concept of keeping his top on a bit challenging), and having to sit next to can’t-stop-fidgeting-and-waving-his-infuriating-epileptic fit-inducing-stick-kid, I had a great time and would recommend it to absolutely anybody, interested in dance or not.
So yes! Good acts do come to Cambridge! Turns out Chase and status are playing at the same venue tomorrow, something that surprised me. Anyway, thanks for reading, sorry if you were expecting more Cambridge related advice! More to come.