Pockemon Crew fuses hip hop, cinema and musical
World hip hop dance champion Pockemon Crew will hit the stage of the Tuoi Tre (Youth) Theatre on June 14 with a performance combining hip hop and silent films of the 1930s and 40s.
The French Cultural Centre in Vietnam will present the performance Silence, On Tourne! (Quiet, Action!) by Pockemon Crew, one of the most successful hip hop groups in the world who have won a number of top prizes, including the French Champion, Euro Champion and World Champion.
The dancers use actions and movements from silent films to express the energy and dynamics of street dance. The show reminds audiences that the energy of hip hop, sometimes gentle and sometimes frenzied, derives from the narrative power of old silent movies.
The colourful dance, inspired by American black-and-white films, describes Lyon city, the homeland of Louis and Auguste Lumiere – fathers of cinematography.
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The latest creation from the company is a tribute to cinema and pays homage to the dance performed in Broadway theatres during that period, which influenced the first hip hop movement.
Everything began in 1996, when certain street dance groups came across each other while practising under the archways of the National Opera of Lyon. United by a mutual philosophy and the same passion for hip hop, the group formed naturally and gave birth to the Pockemon Crew in 1999.
They participated in their first battle in Grenoble, a city in southeastern France, and a series of victories followed. They won the 2003 Battle of the Year France (Montpellier) and the 2003 International Battle of the Year (Hanover – Germany).
Pockemon Crew's notoriety exploded when they became the first French group to make a serious impression in Korea during the KB BBOY Masters in Seoul (2007). This victory ensured that they had become the most successful crew in the world.
Today, the crew comprises 20 members and is the most titled in the world.