Sunday 19 January 2014
6
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Review
THE MORUNG EXPRESS
DIVERSITY: Transforming dance Five minutes with... Ashley Banjo
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shley Banjo rose to fame as the choreographer for the dance troupe Diversity, winners of Britain's Got Talent in 2009. In his new television show, Ashley Banjo's Big Town Dance, he and the troupe spend two months teaching people in Stockton-On-Tees how to dance. Ashley chats about his earliest memories of dancing, how his physics background has helped him as a choreographer, and why you have to keep pushing yourself Why did you want to do this particular show? I loved the idea of dancing with normal people, showing that dance is for everybody. It just seemed perfect to go somewhere and use dancing to bring the community together.
Why did you choose stockton-on-tees? It's really run-down; the recession has hit them quite hard. Every other shop was boarded up. We wanted to help the community a bit with this project. You're not going to fix it in two months, but just put a little light back into it. And it really, really did help.
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IVERSITY are an English street dance troupe formed in 2007 and based in London. They are best known for winning the third series of Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, famously beating singer Susan Boyle in the live final. They also won the Families United Positive Role Models at the Spirit of London Awards. Formed in 2007, Diversity consists of friends from London (Leytonstone and Dagenham) and Essex (Basildon), including three sets of brothers and four other members. At the time they appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, some were still at school or university, while others had jobs of their own. The group, ranging in age from 17 to 28, consists of leader and choreographer Ashley Banjo and the following other members: Jordan Banjo, Sam Craske, Mitchell Craske, Perri Kiely, Warren Russell, Ike Ezekwugo, Terry Smith and Ashton Russell. One set of brothers have left which are; Ian McNaughton, Jamie McNaughton and Matthew McNaughton. They also have a Twitter account which was originally named “DiversityBGT”, but was then changed to “Diversity_Tweet”. They are currently managed by Ashley’s mother, Danielle and based at Dancework studio. Before Diversity: Swift Moves Before Diversity most of the group belonged to Swift Moves or Swift Moves Juniors. As Swift Moves, they beat KI (the crew Marlon Wallen from Flawless was with) during KI’s second run to seven wins at The Jump Off where Swift Moves battled a total of four times.
2007: Formation and early career Diversity formed in 2007, although there were a few lineup changes between 2007 and 2009 with Perri Kiely and Ike Ezekwugo joining the group. By 2008 the group consisted of friends from east London (Leytonstone and Dagenham) and Essex (Basildon), included four sets of brothers and three other members. Some were still at school or university, while others had jobs of their own. The group consisted of leader and choreographer Ashley Banjo and the following other members: Jordan Banjo, Sam Craske, Mitchell Craske, Warren Russell, Ashton Russell, Perri Kiely, Ike Ezekwugo, Terry Smith, Ian McNaughton, Jamie McNaughton and Matthew McNaughton. They also won the Street Dance Weekend 2007 competition and returned the following year as guest performers before deciding to enter Britain’s Got Talent. Ashton Russell left the group before they entered Britain’s Got Talent. He was playing the part of Michael Jackson in the musical Thriller live. 2009: Britain’s Got Talent In 2009, Diversity auditioned in London for the third series of Britain’s Got Talent. Judge Amanda Holden said: “Just when I think I’ve seen it all, you came on.” They received three “yeses” from Holden, Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell, and eventually progressed to the live semi-finals, where they opened the first show on 24 May. After their performance, they received a standing ovation from the audience and the judges, who all dubbed their performance “fantastic”. Later that night, were in the top 3 with singers Natalie Okri and Susan Boyle. Boyle was revealed to have received the most votes and went straight through to the live final, meaning that the judges would choose between Okri and Diversity for the second spot in the final. Morgan and Cowell both voted in favour of Diversity - Morgan believed that Diversity had a better chance of winning the show and Cowell admitted that he had been “a huge fans” of Diversity from their first audition. Following their performance in the final, Holden said she thought Diversity had “blown Flawless out of the water”, while Cowell said that “If I had to give marks on that, this would be the only performance tonight I would give a 10 to.” However, Morgan thought Flawless “just edged [Diversity].” They finished in the top 3 again, as did Boyle, along with saxophonist Julian Smith. In a shock result, in front of a record audience of 17.3 million viewers, Diversity were announced as the winners, despite Boyle being the clear favourite to win. Post Britain’s Got Talent
2009 After winning the show, Diversity appeared on the US television news programmes The Today Show and Larry King Live to talk about their future plans. Diversity also became Patrons of Dance Aid organised by the UK Registered Charity, Hope for Children. They performed at the Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on 5 July, and appeared at T4 on the Beach on 19 July at Weston-super-Mare. On 31 August, Diversity performed at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens in a Michael Jackson tribute alongside George Sampson and Aidan Davis. This performance was on the same weekend as the World Street Dancing championships. They performed in London
to launch the new Disney channel Disney XD. They also performed outside 10 Downing Street in front of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during which Perri slipped and fell on his head after attempting a backflip. He did not sustain any serious injury. Diversity also appeared in the Gracious K music video “Migraine Skank” along with dance group Flawless. In January 2010, Ashley Banjo appeared as a judge on the Sky1 reality show Got to Dance, alongside Adam Garcia and Kimberly Wyatt. Diversity switched on Christmas lights at Chapelfield shopping centre in Norwich on 5 November, then in Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield on 6 November then in Watford on 12 November. On 11 November, Diversity conducted several hours of signing autographs and posing for photographs with thousands of fans at The Galleria Shopping Centre in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Afterwards, they hosted a prize-giving ceremony on stage and performed their “Michael Jackson” dance routine. They performed another Michael Jackson tribute at the MOBO award ceremony. Diversity “launched” Christmas at Lakeside on 1 November, where they took two members of the audience on-stage for a dance-off. There was a competition held in November, and a hundred people won a meet and greet with Diversity on 19 November at The Glades in Bromley. On 7 December, Diversity performed on the Royal Variety Performance, hosted in Blackpool and shown on ITV across the UK on 16 December. On the show Got to Dance Warm Up, they presented their Westfield Shopping Centre FlashMob, sponsored by T-Mobile.
dancer Nathan Ramsey took part in the Born to Shine roadshow. At each show two of the four would perform and take part in a dance masterclass for children. The group did a number of TV performances including Britain’s Got Talent, Got to Dance, Born to Shine and Red or Black. They also filmed the first series of “Ashley Banjo’s Secret Street Crew”. In September they supported the charity the Railway Children by producing a film for them and also a competition where the winners would meet the group on their next tour. In October the group performed at the Michael Forever – The Tribute Concert.
2012 The first series of “Ashley Banjo’s Secret Street Crew” aired. In the show members of Diversity took turns to help Ash teach small groups a street dance. The group also filmed the second series of “Ashley Banjo’s Secret Street Crew” during the course of the year. Starting from March Diversity did their first UK Arena tour called Diversity Digitized: Trapped in a Game. They sold out the O2 Arena with a standing ovation from the audience. Shortly after the Digitized tour Ian McNaughton, Jamie McNaughton and Matthew McNaughton left the group. Diversity were among the many torch bearers in London’s 2012 Olympic Torch Relay, completing their leg of the journey on 22 July 2012. Later in the year they brought out their DVD of the tour filmed at the O2 Arena. They performed on the Royal Variety 2012 with Spellbound, Stavros Flatley and Paul Potts.
2013 Got to Dance returned for its fourth series. As per previous series Diversity did a number of performance. The fourth series also saw Diversity members Jordan and Perri start hosting in their own right as they took on the role of the backstage presenters. This was followed a few months later by their own show. In spring of 2013 Diversity spent a number of months in Stockton-on-Tees teaching large groups of people to dance for the Sky1 show “Ashley Banjo’s Big Town Dance”. The second series of “Ashley Banjo’s Secret Street Crew” aired at the start of the year. The group have also been working on a third series of Ashley Banjo’s Secret Street Crew since April. In Summer 2013 Diversity members Jordan Banjo and Perri Kiely, hosted their own TV show Jordan and Perri’s Ultimate Block Party where they transformed a club (Swim Team, Youth Club etc.) into a dance place. In the run up to the limitless tour the group did a number of performances including one at the Danone Nations Cup (a football competition dedicated to children) at Wembley Stadium and another on top of the O2 Arena in London for Nickelodeon’s Fruit Shoot Skills Awards. Diversity did their third tour called Limitless from 30th November to 16th December. They performed one of the performances from the tour on Got to Dance at the start of the year.
2010 Diversity promoted street dancing with Change4Life in January as a means of getting kids and families more active. The first dates for Diversity’s spring tour sold out in 24 hours, which led to further dates being announced, the first being at the Manchester Apollo on 27 March. The tour centres on toys “coming to life”. Diversity being the main toy as “Diversitoys”, fellow Britain’s Got Talent dance group Suga-Free as “the dolls”, Aidan Davis as “Bionic Boy”, and others. The group had also planned a tour at Christmas time, with a “Christmas twist”. The group teamed up with national retailer The Range Home and Leisure for a commercial to be shown in April and May, with the tagline “If you like Diversity, you’ll love The Range”. They also appeared in adverts for food for “great little ideas”. Diversity appeared in the UK film StreetDance 3D, released on 21 May 2010, in which they starred alongside Britain’s Got Talent 2009 finalists Flawless and 2008 winner George Sampson. They have also appeared on television and in magazines numerous times since they won the third series of Britain’s Got Talent, and hope to do a lot more in the future. They lent their names/act to DFS as a promotion tool, appearing in their advert. Due to phenomenal public demand, Diversity brought back their ‘Diversitoys’ tour in December with a Special Christmas twist ‘Diversitoys Christmas Special’. Just before their tour they brought 2014 Perri Kiely is taking part in the 2014 series of out their own fitness DVD which was bought by millions. Splash! Diversity new show “Ashley Banjo’s Big Their DVD is called Diversity Dance Fitness Fusion. Town Dance” (which has also been called “The Town That Danced Again” while in production) will air 2011 Ashton Russell re-joined diversity. In July and Au- on sky 1 from 8th January. They are due to appear gust Diversity members Mitchell Craske, Perri Kiely at the Barclaycard presents British Summer Time and Ashton Russell along with fellow Dancework studio Hyde Park with McBusted on the 6th July.
Did you have trouble convincing people to be on the show? Loads. It's a big thing to commit to. Over time, the 'Yes' got a bit easier, but within the first month, when the momentum wasn't rolling, oh my god, I was literally just getting 'No' and 'Go away'.
Ashley Banjo
Did they need to take time off from work? Yeah, some people took time off from work, then some people would literally work all day and come straight, and other people would rehearse in the day and do night shifts. That's what made it so special. These people were committing time, effort and money to it.
Were you worried you wouldn't be able to teach this many people to dance? Yeah, normally when I'm doing something I think, 'this is going to be harder than I thought, but we can do it'. But at one point during this show I said, 'I don't know if there's anything I can do to pull this off. There are so many people, and so many people who can't dance'. In the end, it came off from sheer hard work and determination. It was tough though. What was your earliest memory of dancing? Literally, from the day I was born I was in my parent's dance studio in my mum's arms. I didn't want to dance until I was about six though, I was too embarrassed. But when I was 15, my mum, who was the main teacher, had an operation on her knees and because we couldn't afford another instructor, I took over. That's when it all really started for me. Your parents have supported your dance career, but did they push you to go to university too? Yeah, my dad really wanted me to get an education. He said, 'Yes you've got talent, but you need to have a back-up plan'. I got into some of the top unis in the country, but I didn't go. I picked my uni based on what was closest to the studio, which meant I could then jump on the tube and go and teach dance. Do you think studying physics helped your choreography? It's handy for the planning of the choreography. When you're putting a show together, planning the structure, the narrative, how it fits - it's all logic. It's like you're planning a formula, a puzzle, and that's what my brain does. I'm pretty lucky.
Do you think people realise how much work it is? No, no way. I practice from 9am to 10pm daily, and go through three T-shirts, 5,000 calories and litres of water - it's a lot of work. Then again, if you gave me a month off, I wouldn't know what to do with myself... What advice would you give to someone who wanted to follow in your footsteps? Follow in mine? Don't... I'm joking. I suppose just work hard. When I think I'm working hard, I know there's someone working harder. And if I'm hitting a goal, I don't think to myself, 'yes I'm on target'. I think to myself, 'I could have done more'. I'm always pushing it. So never be satisfied. Always push and push and push.
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