Heart. Soul. Body. Sweat. The four pillars that make up the firm foundation that Boy Blue was founded upon in 2001, the very substance that makes up Boy Blue 25 Stories; a celebration of the 25 years Boy Blue has served as a radical force of movement. Boy Blue 25 Stories, brought together by the company’s founders composer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante MBE and choreographer Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy MBE, and the virtuosic poetic stylings of Inua Ellams, 25 Stories is powerfully nostalgic and outstandingly performed.
The first thing that hits you in a Boy Blue show is the energy of the audience. For 25 Stories, we are made up of fans, first timers, friends, family, Boy Blue veterans and alumni, creating waves of different responses. The Boy Blue company never ceases to astound, eliciting echoed excitement, anticipation and praise from its audiences. For 25 Stories, you feel it as soon as you enter Stratford East’s theatre. On the stage, projected onto a white screen, are the feelings they have evoked over the years. Messages from alumni and company members describing the feeling of being a part of Boy Blue act as the backdrop for their homecoming. One reads “Boy Blue isn’t just a company. It’s home.” This is reflected in Sandy’s choreography. Divided into 5 distinct acts, each one documents a journey of each dancer finding a way back to their inner “boy blue”, a place that feels like home.
Ellams’ writing, the words and memories of Boy Blue collective, folded in with his own life-affirming poetry, ushers us in between the worlds of each act and the lives of our dancers. The choreography is cutting, dynamic and felt deeply, with energy radiating from every beat in the music and every move on stage. The dancers don all black outfits with mantras written across sleeves and waistbands and chests. We cut to videos of Boy Blue’s journey to the present day, documenting early performances and rehearsals that feature the non-linear story of progress and learning to fall in love with this process. In Act 3, we see clips of dancers repeating moves, continuously, confronting failure and sometimes injury. As Ellams’ voiceover, working in tandem with Asante’s all-consuming soundtrack, professing that they “will not fold” and “will not pass out”, we learn a lesson in tenacity and discipline; mastery is hard, but it is certain if you persist and the result carries through on stage.
There is a meticulousness in every dancer that could only be born from that kind of pursuit of greatness, and this is the basis of the show. A perfect blend of contemporary, modern dance but never diverting from the undercurrent of hip-hop that Boy Blue is known for, and has continued to innovate. The performers move in unison, but bring their own distinctive energies, steering us back to the idea that Boy Blue is a home for everyone. The show felt deeply personal, with call outs to inside jokes and anecdotes, and sometimes even part of the choreography that only members of the company will understand, but the audience never felt alienated. This is the strength of authenticity at work. The specificity and intentionality of every part of the show makes it feel like something precious that we get the privilege of having access to. The significance of not watering oneself down to become palatable.
The choreography stretches the cast to the full extent of their creativity, comprising control, dexterity and flair. In Act 4, titled The Fall, we see founder Sandy take to the stage and perform a striking solo where it feels he is at odds with who he was and is becoming, fighting against his own blue, simultaneously becoming. He is eventually joined by the company, whose presence and joint power prove stabilising for him, and in his movement seems to make peace with the past while embracing the future, readying themselves for the ascent to Act 5, “The Rise”. In the final act we get the reassurance that the trajectory of Boy Blue is fortified, and that hip-hop dance will continue to thrive through them. The final act is edgy and futuristic, but contains remnants of performances past. A showcase of human strength and imagination, each body is a piece of a vibrant picture that inspires hope and boundless creativity.
Boy Blue coming back to East London, the place where it all started, feels like something between a full-circle moment and a manifesto to keep pushing for everyone’s inner Boy Blue; a complete acceptance of what your soul and body can be. 25 Stories brings together the best of poetry, music and dance and reminds us why we should all respect the blue.
By Melody Adebisi
★★★★★