Preview: Into the Hoods
“I feel nervously excited. We’re dancers, we all love to perform. We just want to get out there and give 100%.”
I’m on the phone with Andre Oporia, a Canadian professional dancer who’s snatching a lunch break between rehearsals for the fourth season of award-winning dance production, Into the Hoods.
In addition to popping and locking in his roles as the Wolf and Grandma, Oporia acts as Dance Captain for the hip-hop musical, drilling the intricate routines into new recruits until they’re as familiar as breathing.
One of the new recruits is Akai, the pint-sized dance sensation who won Sky 1’s Got to Dance earlier this year. The 11 year-old joins the stage show fresh from his film debut (this summer’s Street Dance 3D which also starred Into The Hoods’ director and choreographer Kate Price) as the musical takes to its largest stage yet – the Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall. Akai will play one of two runaway children who stumble into the murky Ruff Endz housing estate while searching for a lost iPod and proceed to meet a series of fascinating characters in this urban fairytale.
Since it exploded onto an Edinburgh Fringe stage in 2006 Into the Hoods’ spectacular synthesis of acrobatics, cutting edge music and every dance style you can name has been punching above its weight and drawing plaudits like confetti.
Despite the larger stage, bigger, newer cast and general upping of stakes Oporia assures me the only worrying variable in this latest run is the audience. “The Southbank is a larger venue so we need a bigger audience to fill it, just really pack it out.” He tells me, “That’s nerve-wracking.”
After working on the show for five years and seeing it evolve into a confident smash hit Oporia can’t wait for audiences to see the latest incarnation. “The new cast bring a fresh energy,” he says, “it’s great to showcase their talent.” But it’s not large elements like the cast that are subject to change. “Every show is different. We pick up on what the audience pay attention to then we tweak the performance. We could add this here to make it slightly clearer or put this move here or this suggestion here. We’re always trying to make it better.”
It’s very likely this will be the show’s best run yet. Either way it’ll resemble nothing you’ve seen before whether you caught the last season or not.
Into The Hoods plays at the Southbank Centre 30 July – 15 August
Info and tickets
Into the Hoods official website
