AVIT | EVENTS | PERIDOT

INTERVIEW WITH PERIDOT, UK HIPHOP DANCE CHAMPIONS 2009

behind the scenes peridot uk street dance champs photoshoot Peridot have been the UK hip hop dance champions for 2 years running, this summer they make a return back to Las Vegas for the World Hip Hop Dance Championships. AViT have been sponsoring Peridot since 2007 after seeing the amazing amount of talent they have. AViT’s Journalist Shireen Fenner interviewed 6 members of the dance troupe; Eugene aka ‘Simmz,’ Harryson aka ‘Proes,’ Daryl aka ‘ Floe,’ Daniel aka ‘Frisky,’ Dwain aka, ‘Dubs,’ and Simon. Shireen talks to them about how they feel going to Vegas, being UK champs, what Peridot is about and their future.

I’m pleased to announce that on the 1st March 2008 the amazing dance troupe PERIDOT were crowned the new UK HIP HOP dance Champions of 2008! This means Peridot will be entered in to the LAS VEGAS HIP HOP WORLD INTERNATIONAL Dance Competition to represent the UK!!

peridot bboy simon in it iz what it iz tee Peridot have been the UK hip hop dance champions for 2 years running, this summer they make a return back to Las Vegas for the World Hip Hop Dance Championships. AViT have been sponsoring Peridot since 2007 after seeing the amazing amount of talent they have. AViT’s Journalist Shireen Fenner interviewed 6 members of the dance troupe; Eugene aka ‘Simmz,’ Harryson aka ‘Proes,’ Daryl aka ‘ Floe,’ Daniel aka ‘Frisky,’ Dwain aka, ‘Dubs,’ and Simon. Shireen talks to them about how they feel going to Vegas, being UK champs, what Peridot is about and their future.

So your UK Street Dance Champions again, how much training does it take to get this far?

Harryson - It takes a lot of dedication I’d say, I mean even though we rehearse as a group what we do individually we’ll go off and train, some of us b-boy, some of us go gymnastics, some of us go other dance classes and different styles of street dancing, so it takes quite a lot of training individually as well as a group to kinda put it together.

Dwain - a lot of training definitely, you gotta be committed if you’re not committed then it’s like if there’s a show and you get a phone call you have to be there.

b boy simon from peridot street dancers in joker tee

How confident were you that you were going to win?

(All laugh)

Daryl – we were confident with what we can do in itself, we were confident.

Harryson – yea pretty confident there was a lot of good competition this year. There were a lot of people we knew, and that we thought would give us a run for our money, or we’d give them a run for their money, there were a number of good people, but we were quite confident.

Daniel – don’t go there with a big head or anything because anything can happen, and anyone can come out, we may think were good, but someone can be better.

Eugene – you never know what’s around the corner.

Daniel – a lot of groups change their name and enter as something different so you never know really

danny frisky bboy from peridot streetdancers

This will be your second year at the World Street Dance Championships. Do you feel you have a good chance at winning?

Simon - a good chance, cuz from last year we got a good experience and grown, so hopefully when we go there this year it’ll be a good look with new material, yea I think we’ve grown a lot since last year

Harryson - yea I think we’ll do well, I’m confident

Daniel – I think we got a good chance of being in the top 3, because last year we went there inexperienced, this year we’re much more experienced because obviously we’ve been there and we’ve seen it, and we’ve researched a lot on YouTube, and we kinda know what to expect, but then again I guess it’s like UK ones you never really know what’s going to be there.

bboy glen aka pulse from peridot street dancers

Last year you competed, how did you do and what did you learn?

Harryson - last year we came 9th overall I think, but we got through to the finals, and there was about 30 groups, and that was the first time we went to America so it was a brand new experience, you kinda have to understand what other people do.

Daryl – we didn’t understand how the competition was going to be, it’s totally different to over here.

Eugene - just to be yourself really, and last year I think we were kinda nervous because it was the first time we had gone there as a group, we didn’t know what to expect. I do think with our piece we put together, that we could have pushed ourselves more, but because we didn’t know what to expect we followed the criteria, and just did what we thought would be enough. I know the level we were at last year; I know we still could have done a lot better.

How’s it different to the UK Championships?

Harryson – I think it’s just what people come with, but the aspect of what is good and what is bad and what is unique and what is creative, it’s like the whole different aspect is a lot more... I don’t know there was a whole different look on how people danced; we were completely new so there were a lot of people who had been doing this for 3, 4 years in a row.

Daryl - it was the whole thing that was different like the atmosphere, the whole build up, everything towards the competition is different to over here.

b boy simon from peridot street dancers

Were there any groups you liked last year?

Eugene – not in our category. The younger ones there were, like a group called Sweet n Sour they were really good, they were from New Zealand

Dwaine – they actually won their category.

Eugene - so there world champions in the Varsity section, there was a group called Dukebox, there friends of ours they were really good, there from Wales.

Dwaine – they came 3rd

What’s the main country that competes?

Harryson – There’s the Philippines, obviously you got America, New Zealand have a lot of good groups that no-one would really think of, New Zealand are quite strong competitors they always have a group that come in the top 3, Trinidad have a strong group as well.

simmz peridots choreographer

So know you’ve seen the standards of other countries, how do you feel the UK compares?

Harryson - I think it’s up there with everyone else, maybe better than a lot of countries personally because I think there’s an individual aspect about how we look that is different to everyone else. When we went out there last year it was like even though we didn’t place too well, speaking to a lot of the people personally, they were like wow like I’ve never seen any of that before, so I think we influence a lot of other countries, so I’d say were on the map. We haven’t got a lot of big names outta this country within the world street dance scene, but I’d say we still have a strong influence

Simon – I think you need to place a mark, and that’s what we need to do as a country. We need to let people know what we’re doing and other countries, in other countries people know that their representing the country, but in the UK people don’t really know what we’re doing as a country. I think sooner or later people are going to understand what we’re doing, that were representing the country to show were really good dancers and this is what we do. It’s not a thing with the UK or USA, it’s just we’ve got our own individual style were just trying to place that mark

Daniel - it’s not broadcast enough over here

Dwaine – there's no one who’s got the backbone to stand up to street dance, if you’re a singer then you have x-factor, and you can get somewhere from that, but there’s no field out here, there’s nothing

Eugene – Street dance is getting really big now and it seems like the whole world is on it, and doing so many things with it apart from the UK. You get groups like us, and a few other people that are fighting and trying to make street dance good and trying to represent, but this country is not, the UK has a lot of talent

Daniel – they don’t know what to do...they don’t know what to do with dancers, they don’t know how to harness us, or what market there is for us, but they are missing out because once we get exposed it’s going to be very crazy, so someone needs to do it

Dwaine – yea, and then America, they obviously have America’s best dance group, dedicated stuff, where we gotta do stuff like Britain’s got Talent where there’s no hope really

Eugene – there’s no field for it out there, there’s no market, there’s no proper room for street dance over here, the rest of the world seem to be jumping on it. People like Randy Jackson are making thousands from street dance, he’s doing it the right way, but there’s no-one over here doing anything for us. America is the home for street dance, and their still carrying it on, and still being strong with it, and the rest of the world are joining them, except London and the UK (laughs) this countries doing nothing

nicholas brother from peridot dancers

How many times a week do you train individually and as a group?

Daniel – as a group we train 2 times a week, if we have a show coming up we may train every day or every other day

Dwaine - We all do individual training as well, we all train ourselves to make ourselves better so when we come together as a collective, we’re even stronger

b boy dubz from peridot

Do you do any other dancing apart from street?

Dwaine – yea, some people do contemporary

Daniel – Gymnastics training and we got b-boys

Eugene – all different styles not just street, obviously a lot comes under street, it fills up a whole category but there’s a lot of elements within street that quite a lot of people in the group do

Daniel - some people come from a long way back in dance, like myself I’ve done tap, modern, disco

Eugene - so there is other professional dancing in there as well

Simon - I went ballet once and messed up so (everyone laughs)

behind the scenes at peridot shoot studio 101

How long have you been together?

Eugene - We started late 2006

Daniel – so 3 and half years

What does Peridot mean?

Eugene - it’s a precious stone. We all sat at my house, and we were going through random names of what we could be called. We were called infection before (laughs)...but that name didn’t really sound good

Daniel – yea it didn’t sound nice

Eugene - we had to get really picky, it was like ok Simms it’s your crew, is there something to do with you that we can name it after. A lot of the people in the group like green, I like green, but we were like ok we can’t call ourselves green, then I realised that my birthstone is Peridot and that’s green also...

daryll harryson and glenn from peridot street dance group

What’s your magic formula?

Harryson – I don’t want to give that away

(All laugh)

Simon – that’s a secret

Harryson – we work as a team, ideas kinda brush off, but like some people start something and then someone else will go let’s do that, and then someone else will go yea yea let’s do that, and then we’ll go how about we just do this

Daryl – give things different twists

Harryson – It’s working as a team, more group ideas that we can say is our formula , a lot of people just depend on one person, it’s not like that with us

Dwaine - It’s installed in who we are, it’s installed inside

nicholas and dubs from peridot street dance group

Is there anything that inspires your dancing?

Daryl- Everything

Harryson – Everything yea, I could be watching a DVD

Daryl – I could be at the cinema, and think ah wait if I could do that, then you go and try it and it works

Simon – you can see the special effects on a movie, and it inspires you to do some kinda illusion on stage, it’s just little things like that make us come together and make ideas.

Eugene - Each other, we feed off each other, somebody comes up with something. We’ve all got creative ideas that we bring to the table, and what we do is we work off each other’s ideas, enhance it and it gets better

Dwaine - If someone makes up a move, there’s always someone next to you, or within the group that’s going to say ah yea that little bit extra might make that move better

frisky simon and simmz from peridot street dance group

Where do you aspire to be with street dance in the future?

Harryson – best in the world

Simon – yea

Daryl – just to make a mark, let people know what we’re doing, and yea best in the world...to be known at what we’re doing

Daniel – I want us all to be celebrities, just how you see a hip hop artist, I want us to be seen as artists, that’s Peridot, like awards shows we don’t want to be backing dancers we want to be artists and at the front, rather than just at dance shows

Eugene - we want to be known, say you get the MOBO’s, when they get people to give out awards; I want us to be called out. Like you see Pussycat Dolls, they weren’t singers at first, they were dancers, were not all going to stay young forever, I’d like us by a certain age to be so established that if we decided to open a dance school, we can open a dance school, Peridot School of Excellence, so we can teach street, and pass on our knowledge to kids, and have a company or firm

Dwaine - to get them off the streets.

Eugene - But obviously we need to get Peridot more established first and do better, and that’s what our goal is.