Breaking Bad

NEWCASTLE’S Bad Taste Cru (BTC) are attempting to win the national break-dancing championships for the second time in three years and a chance to compete against the world’s best dance crews.

Eight members of BTC will dance in the Sony Ericsson BBoy UK Final at Islington Academy, next Sunday with the aim of taking on the world’s best later this year – Russia are the current champions.

BTC are mostly from Omagh, Northern Ireland, but became based in the region over the past six years after Robby Graham began studying at Newcastle University and was joined by his friend Dan O’Kane. Then Dan’s brother Conor, Paul Martin, Paul Kelly, Paul Allen, Timothy Butt, Daire Wallace and Colm Armstrong followed with Lithuanian Rokas Saltenis, Eroy Chan and Stefan Scholtz joining when the company became set up at Newcastle’s Dance City.

“Slowly but surely we’ve all relocated here and now all of us live in the Newcastle area, mostly in the Heaton area, since I graduated in 2005. We’ve been dancing together for about ten years and the Cru has changed many times over the ten years,”

says Graham, who reveals he was originally studying philosophy, but had been taking part in break dancing since he was 14.

“I didn’t think that dance was a viable means of study, not that philosophy really is, either. I was kind of set on a career path and at the last minute I didn’t want to do it. I was going to be an industrial designer and it left me with English and philosophy combined,” he says.

BTC has built a high profile since taking the 2007 national title and being invited to take part in the Breaking Convention dance tour. The company was chosen by the Arts Council North-East to feature in a dance video earlier this year which promoted the region’s creative stars.

“At first people obviously didn’t know us, but once they saw the quality of the shows they realised that we were guys who were doing something. With the restructuring that was going on in Dance City after Janet Archer (the artistic director) left, it hadn’t managed to get a Christmas show booked. So we were asked if we’d like to do the show, which was called Soul To Sole, and it was sold out every night,” he explains.

Despite victory for Diversity in TV’s Britain’s Got Talent raising the profile of group dance it hasn’t made that much difference to the Tyneside crew, according to Graham. “It doesn’t change the picture for us. We’ve been doing dance a lot longer than those guys. What we do is different because we’re a B-Boy crew and they’re more of a hiphop and fusion crew, and I must admit I haven’t seen Britain’s Got Talent because we’ve been rehearsing so hard,” he responds.

He does agree that victory in last year’s contest by dancer George Sampson did create more interest in young men learning to dance. I think with breaking we’re involved in something that does interest the young guys aged ten to 17 who normally become cut off from dance. We don’t see it as a barrier or with a stigma attached. You’ve got gymnastics in there and imitative movement from martial arts.”

The dancer is combining his preparations for London’s big event with rehearsals for an Edinburgh show, Still Breathing, with the 2-Faced dance company which he hopes will widen the experience of Bad Taste Cru.

“The rehearsals for that are pretty intense, but then you still might do an extra hour to keep on top of your own particular style. We also teach a lot as well.

We’re lucky enough to have created a reputation around the North-East that brings the work in.”

Ahead, BTC have three ten minutes rounds, known as battles, to clinch victory against seven other crews, including last year’s winners. “The strongest guys from our crew will compete and that will include solo battles. There’s no main choreographer and all the guys throw in ideas, but there will be someone on the day who is appointed to see the routine objectively, I suppose a bit like a football team captain. Usually it’ll be me and even though I’m supposed to be teaching in Swansea I’m looking to get the day off.

“We think we’ve got a fighting chance because we won two years ago and then chose not to compete last year because we had plenty of theatre work.”

Surprisingly, BTC is not a funded organisation and ploughs back money from teaching and appearance fees into funding its dance work.

“Our aim is to get better known internationally, to keep rehearsing and get as good as we can be. But I think we’ve done so well based in Newcastle that I doubt we’ll ever move to London. I’m 26 so I’ve got another few years,” Graham says.

■ Sony Ericsson B-Boy Championships UK final, O2 Academy Islington, London, 3- 9pm, Sunday, July 12.