U.K.-based choreographer Botis Seva has been making a name for himself with his artistry, blending hip hop and contemporary dance, ever since forming his dance collective Far From the Norm at just 19 years old. With growing international renown, Seva and his collective are back on the road touring, presenting their latest work BLKDOG in Montreal from Nov. 6 to 9 at Théâtre Maisonneuve.
A very engaged, physical piece, BLKDOG is a show emphasizing the importance of mental health, depicting how individuals, particularly young people, navigate a variety of sometimes very difficult pressures in their lives.
“Mental health is quite apparent in the show, where a human being, a young child or a young adult is dealing with a lot of pressures, a lot of pressures internally and also outside of them as well,” says Seva.
The work explores challenging personal and shared struggles, driven by Seva’s own experiences of grief and hardship. It’s about finding a way to preserve our innocence as the spirit of youth fades, through the embodied performance of the seven dancers, faces hidden in the darkness of the mise-en-scène.
The narrative prompts viewers to reflect on their past experiences and how these shape their present selves, inviting audiences to consider their personal journeys and the impacts of their upbringing.
“It kind of jumps in between adulthood and childhood,” says Seva. “And a lot of the show is very imagery-based. The images were inspired by a lot of Basquiat paintings.”
This hour-long piece has been in the making for six years now, with the current tour its first foray to North America.
“2018 is when it was performed first, and it was performed as a 25-minute piece. And then after that, we felt like it had legs to walk on, so we developed it into a full hour-long show,” Seva explains.
Far From the Norm was in the process of organizing a tour with the piece when COVID ground those plans to a halt.
But in the wake of the pandemic, BLKDOG only gained relevance. The pandemic prompted many people to reflect on their experiences and emotions, sparking a larger conversation about mental health. This communal introspection aligned with the show’s focus on healing and addressing mental health struggles.
“For some people, it was probably a benefit to reflect and now come out of (the pandemic) and try to figure out, how do I heal? And that’s what the show also does,” says Seva. “It focuses on us as humans trying to heal through something traumatic that’s happened to us.”
A content warning: BLKDOG includes abstract depictions of sexual and physical violence.
But beyond the violence and trauma, Seva says BLKDOG promotes the idea of healing through artistic expression. It encourages audiences to channel their frustrations and emotions into creative outlets.
“The show is about trying to find healing, trying to make people dance and move again,” he says. “Even if you’re not a dancer, if you just want to go draw, you just want to go write, this is what we’re trying to evoke — a spirit of putting all your frustrations into something, rather than to go into alcohol or drugs, all of these things that are vices, that take us down.”
BLKDOG seeks to make audience members feel seen and recognized in their own struggles. It aims to open up conversations about shared difficulties and experiences, thereby creating a collective space for healing and understanding.
With his choreography style, Seva notes the importance of bringing hip hop into mainstream performance spaces. He emphasizes that, despite being a widely used cultural phenomenon and growing presence in the arts, hip hop is still often marginalized.
“A lot of people are using it, but they’re not crediting it. They’re not crediting it in a way that it should be,” he says. He aims to empower younger generations by demonstrating that hip hop can occupy prestigious spaces, encouraging them to see the possibilities for their own artistic expressions.
“People are not yet understanding how other stories can be told because we’ve been so used to ballet, traditional, contemporary. But this is a new way of telling stories and I think it’s always been there. It’s just about pushing it more into the forefront.”
Montreal is the final stop of BLKDOG’s international tour, which Seva highlights wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and dedication of the Far From the Norm collective.
“I just want to acknowledge them, the executive producer who’s made this work, the cast of artists, the team of people that work on the show. I don’t always get to credit them, so I just want to make sure they also get credited just for their amazing work.”
For more on BLKDOG, please visit the Danse Danse website.
For more Montreal arts coverage, please visit the Arts & Life section.
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