≈ 65 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: October 22, 2024
A Note from Caroline Ohrt, Executive Producer, NAC Dance
Good evening,
It is an honour to welcome the British company Far From The Norm with BLKDOG in my first season. Botis Seva is a poignant and powerful artist, a choreographer whose impactful and revealing works must be seen, experienced and appreciated. In BLKDOG, Botis explores trauma, a subject that digs into the depths of the human being and illustrates it with a graphic choreographic language that combines contemporary dance and street dance in a very effective way.
BLKDOG has been a resounding success around the world and received an Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production in 2019, nominations for the Black British Theatre Award, and the Dance Critics National Dance Awards in 2022. The performance has also received prestigious awards in several artistic fields, including the CHANEL Next Prize Award (2022), the Vimeo Best of the Year Awards (2023) and the Carmen Mateux Best Choreographer Award (2023). We are extremely fortunate to present its Canadian debut.
This showing also provides the NAC Dance team with the opportunity to present its first Black Out night, an important and intentional offering that was developed by my colleague Rose-Ingrid Benjamin. This initiative underlines our commitment to audiences and reflects one of the ways we are mobilizing to make art resonate with the public. It is meaningful work that I am proud of. I salute her and the English Theatre department who initially brought this to the NAC.
Welcome to all of you. May we emerge from the show touched and transformed.
A Note from Botis Seva, Artistic Director and Choreographer
BLKDOG has been on a journey since its inception in 2018, now 6 years later coming to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa is just unreal. This work has allowed me to grow as an artist but also to understand life a bit better. Every time I revisit BLKDOG in the studio or on tour, it always means something different depending on what is going on in the world. BLKDOG means the world to me, I share personal childhood events & feelings which still follow me to this day. My hope for making this work was to find healing but also to connect with people who are just struggling with daily life, to encourage them to hold onto faith. I believe we will all find the light one day and walk in it. This will also be the first Blackout night as a company we have collaborated on, I want to wish everyone who is coming to experience BLKDOG to let the work speak to you and allow it to grow with you – with love,
About BLKDOG
BLKDOG is Botis Seva’s beautifully brutal commentary on how the youth of today are coping in a world not built for them. In an emotionally charged hip hop dance performance, BLKDOG reveals the vicious connection of how self-discovery leads to self-destruction.
Through haunting childhood memories and adult life traumas, BLKDOG questions how we fight through our vices to find a sense of peace and reveals a vicious connection of how self-discovery can lead to self-destruction. The music has grown from a long-standing collaboration with Torben Sylvest and includes a mixture of original music and words that adds layers of meaning, highlighting the inner workings of the characters on stage. Tom Visser’s lighting brings a dark smog of disillusion as the choreography delves into the underbelly of life, while the hooded caps and padded costumes by Ryan Laight echo the protection and comfort of childhood.
“BLKDOG is for everyone who has dealt with trauma and grief. For anyone who has had to watch family members go through depression or loss. We live in a society where speaking about our emotions may never be understood; I spent my childhood never speaking about my emotions and now at the age of 30 I can finally speak up” – Botis Seva
Fun Facts
BLKDOG was inspired by a book Botis was reading in 2018, Sally Brampton’s Shoot the Damn Dog. However, Botis only read the first half!
There is a scene in BLKDOG called ‘Damn Dog’, it is a section where the performers remove some of their costume. One dancer has lost his top twice after throwing it in the audience and someone taking it home – a very sweaty takeaway!
Some of the dancers in the show have only just learnt how to ride the mini-BMX bikes.
The dancers don’t have a spike to hit their spotlights and must rehearse this a lot in technical rehearsals. So sometimes the touring production managers like to play a game and turn the dancer’s spotlights during rehearsals red as a big “NO NO you missed your mark!”
We now have 14 dancers that perform BLKDOG on rotation. During our time at National Arts Centre Ottawa, half of the performers on stage worked with Botis on BLKDOG’s original inception.
Text heard throughout the piece
Written by Botis Seva
At 28:56 (Jordan & Naima duet)
If you are a monster and you know it with your arms… if you are a monster and you know it with your arms… If you are a monster and you know it then your arms they should be showing it. If you are a monster and you know it, with your arms. Truth, love, alone, Eve, Adam, God, crown, hate, lack, we, to, you, to, wide speak, sleep, lie, move, pain, funny, joke, knock, stop, health, baby, born, Christ, do, you, see, eyes, wide. Ba ba black sheep. Have you been in war? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. One for the master and one for the Dame, one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
At 32:29 (Shango solo)
Shadows on the wall. Noises down the hall. Life doesn't frighten me at all. Bad dogs barking loud. Big ghosts in a cloud. Life doesn't frighten me at all. Dragons breathing flame. On my counterpane. That doesn't frighten me at all. I go boo. Make them shoo. I make fun. Way they run. I won't cry. So they fly. Life doesn’t frighten me at all
At 48:01 (Vicky solo)
Let’s start from the bottom. What happened that day wasn’t your fault. And how much you care. This is the same thing we speak about every time. The loop never changed, we just fast forwarded it. Hmm.. From the place safe.. Eh.. Standing, yep. Those who watch are also caught up in the drunk of life. Don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t. Look. Back. Just go.
At 1:01:16 (Outro)
It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.
You’re just like me. Someone in this room. It’s okay.
You’re just like him. It’s okay.
You’re just like her. It’s okay.
You’re just like me. It’s okay.
It’s just like God
Artists
“Seva is a choreographer on the cusp of a new direction in the shifting sands of British contemporary dance and one likely to have a big following in its future” Graham Watts
Botis Seva is a unique and seminal choreographic voice rooted in Hip Hop dance theatre but inspired by a freefrom approach to choreography. His work is grounded in real life and captures his own stories, as well as those around him, whilst borrowing techniques from film, text, art and other dance languages to continuously reinvent his approach to creativity and the stage.
Botis' passion from a young age was music, he’d spend time at his local youth club making beats and MC’ing. When he was 15 years old he was introduced to dance at secondary school and it was here Botis decided to pursue a choreographic career outside of mainstream educational pathways. He founded his Hip Hop dance theatre company Far From The Norm aged 19 in Dagenham, London, with friends that shared his passion for experimenting with the Hip Hop form.
In his early choreographic years, Botis honed his craft and skills through mentorship and artistic development opportunities with Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells, which gave him the confidence to apply for various platforms and slowly build up his language and portfolio.
From here, Botis’ work started to take flight across the stage, outdoor and dance film circuits. Since,he has been the recipient of numerous awards including Bonnie Bird Choreography Fund, Marion North Mentoring Award (2015), Copenhagen International Choreography Competition (2016), Choreography 30 Hannover (2016), Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production for BLKDOG (2019), nominations for Black British Theatre Award and Dance Critics National Dance Awards (2022), CHANEL Next Prize (2022) and Carmen Mateux Best Choreographer Award (2023).
Botis has also worked on numerous film commissions including Inside The Blind Iris with director Douglas Bernadt (2023), a collaboration with Director Freddie Leydon and Christies on Santo (2022), BBC Arts x Space CAN’T KILL US ALL (2020) and Channel 4 Random Acts REACH (2018). His film work has won Vimeo Best of the Year Awards (2023), Kinsale Sharks (2023), San Francisco Dance Film Festival (2018) and nominations include Cannes Lion Award (2023) and Young British Arrows (2023).
His other stage commissions include Scottish Dance Theatre, Rupert Goold, National Youth Dance Company, Wayne McGregor and Robin Friend, Battersea Arts Centre/Suri Krishnamma and upcoming commissions include Acosta Dance (2024/25) and NDT (2024/25).
Far From The Norm is a Hip Hop Dance Theatre company, led by Artistic Director Botis Seva. Their performers bring to the studio a range of dance styles from Popping to Breaking, Krump to House, and it is with their informed knowledge of different dance styles that Botis is able to question, learn and translate what else is possible.
They challenge perceptions of Hip-Hop and create work that empowers marginalized people. All our work is original, vital and fearless and invites debate on social political issues and the contemporary world.c
Their work includes live theatre performances, outdoor shows, immersive experiences and film. They tour nationally and internationally and we are continuing to develop strong partnerships around the world to nurture a new generation of hip-hop dance theatre.
Credits
Director & Choreographer
Botis Seva
Music Composer
Torben Lars Sylvest
Lighting Designer
Tom Visser
Costume Designer
Ryan Dawson Laight
Performed by
Dance artists from Far From The Norm
Rehearsal Directors
Victoria Shulungu & Hayleigh Sellors
Executive Producer
Lee Griffiths
Senior Production Manager
Andy Downie
Production Manager & Relighters
Chris Burr, Seth Rook Williams
Tour Manager
Gabija Cepelyte
Costume Makers
Jordan Goertz, Julie Sayers, Kelsey Vickery, Kingsley Hall, Lou Petty, Rosie Whiting
Mix Engineer
Pär Carlsson
Research & Development Rehearsal Director
Ekin Bernay
Contribution Artists
Charlotte Clark, Clarissa Shulungu, Ezra Owen, Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Savanah Anais Rowe, Shiloh Seva, Tyrone Isaac-Stuart
BLKDOG is co-produced by
Far From The Norm, Norrlandsoperan (Sweden) and Sadler’s Wells (UK) and supported using public funding through Arts Council England.
The creation of BLKDOG was generously supported by Arts Council England, Kingston University, Laban Theatre, Siobhan Davies Dance and UEL Dance: Urban Practice Department
NAC Dance Team
Executive Producer
Caroline Ohrt
Senior Producer
Tina Legari
Special Projects Coordinator and Assistant to the Executive Producer
Mireille Nicholas
Company Manager
Sophie Anka
Education Associate and Teaching Artist
Siôned Watkins
Technical Director
Brian Britton
Communications Strategist
Alexandra Campeau
Marketing Strategist
Marie-Chantale Labbé-Jacques
Production Team, Theatre
Head Carpenter
Charles Martin
Head Electrician
Éric Tessier
Assistant Electrician
Martin Racette
Property Master
Michel Sanscartier
Head Sound Engineer
Doug Millar
-
Official Hotel Partner
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees