How did it feel being crowned UK Street Dance Champions 2009?
Ryan -It was fun, it was exciting, we were shocked at first we didn’t quite understand, but we won so we’re gangsters
Tuks – We were just beyond excited, we were just so shocked we just didn’t know what to do at first, even though they already said who was third and second we were like the only group left…obviously we went in the competition to win it, but we didn’t think we would. We’re the type of group who just go to have fun really, and we won so
Sabrina – When we won it though, it gave us an extra boost to do better things and to get better as a group
What’s the best competition you’ve performed in?
Tuks -For me I think there’s two…Got To Dance which I think was our best experience. Even though we personally felt that we we’re technically better than some of the groups in the competition, we still had to do stuff to please the audience that were watching us. To be honest it was probably harder than any competition that we have ever done, because look at the outcome we didn’t get through to the finals. The second was I-Dance, I think it was the most intense competition we competed in, because there were so many expectations and we thought that we could meet it. Even though we got on the stage and did what we had to do, it still wasn’t close to enough. I personally feel that was one of our best experiences, and if we were to go to do it again we know exactly what to do and what we should and shouldn’t do
Where does the name Status come from? Who chose it and why?
Vanessa – It’s very stupid how we came up with it…but the first name we came up with is kicked out, because we used to go to this dance school and we all got kicked out (all laugh)
Sabrina- no no no we didn’t get kicked out we all left, Bahar got kicked out!
Vanessa- We were outside my Nan’s house, we were looking through our phones thinking what can we be called. I went on to my memory card and it said memory status left. I said what about Status, and that was it!
How do you find the right music to go with your routines?
Tunde- I think at first it’s all about finding your style, and when you find your style, you match the music with your style
What did it feel like being part of StreetDance 3D and would you like to be involved in another movie?
Oliver – Of course it was a good experience, because it was something Status had never done before a feature film. It would be good to have been given a bigger part and a bigger role. But you know, obviously bigger groups take the limelight, ‘Flawless,’ ‘Diversity.’ We would like to be involved in another feature film, you know maybe our own film, look out for that one (all laugh)
So you were nominated for a UMA too, this must of been a big year for you. How did you react?
Vanessa- We didn’t even know to be honest, someone just randomly wrote on the website Status is nominated, then we call them up to ask them is it us, and they were like we’ve been trying to get hold of you, and that’s how we found out. We were up against Diversity, Flawless, Plague and Boy Blue
How often do you train? Is there any other training you do?
Ryan–We train once a week, we rehearse on Saturdays for two hours. Some of us go away and do our own stuff. Me personally I like popping, so I do my own stuff in my room
Gymastics?
Ryan- That’s just a natural talent (all laugh) I don’t really practice for that
Sabrina – I’ve known Ryan and his family for a long time. Since he was little when he was doing shows, he’s been flipping and generally throwing himself about and he’s just got better
Ryan- I realised I could teach myself
Vanessa – My mum always used to tell him off because he used to bang his head on the side of the bed and stuff. My mum used to come upstairs and Ryan was trying to flip off the bed.
Tuks- We’ve all done gymnastics and had our good and bad experiences. Tunde’s first time learning how to back flip ended up in casualty. Sabrina was meant to do a round off somersault in a set, and on the day of the show she landed on her neck, not in the show though, on the rehearsal so obviously we had to take that out and replace it
Sabrina – With me doing a head stand
Tunde- I’ve been in hospital three times
Is Ryan a strict choreographer?
ummm yeeeaaahhh
Oliver- If we’re just like general rehearsal, general training it’s pretty lenient. If we’re getting down to a competition or a big show, then obviously work needs to get done and we need to knuckle down, and if your not paying attention, then he’s gonna get on your back
Oliver and Mark also choreograph, how does this work?
Ryan – We work as a group. Maybe Oliver would go home and come back with an idea, and he’ll say it to us, and we’ll be like ahhh that’s good and then we’ll put our input into it and develop his idea and make it bigger. It would work the same whether I had an idea or Mark, we kinda all put it together as a group and try to expand it to make it better than it was in the first place. It’s kind of a group effort really, none of us say ahh I’m doing this and your doing that
Who in Status is classically trained?
(all shout) Ryan (all laugh)
Vanessa – Royal Ballet, Nutcracker, he’s been in a few performances.
Tuks – He’s the star of the show boy
Sabrina – Be proud of it Ryan man
Ryan – They don’t need to know (all laugh)
How does the UK compete against other countries in the street dance world?
Vanessa – Since going to Las Vegas and seeing the World Hip Hop Championships twice, I realised that the UK is just ten steps ahead of us. When we think, ‘yeah we’ve got this thing,’ they’ve already done it and added more
Tuks- They are proper advanced
Vanessa -Their dancers are really intense, like they will break their backs, they’ll break their arms and legs for this show
Tuks- I think with other countries, because there’s a lot more culture, the way they’ve been brought up. The UK’s got the less culture
Ryan- Its like The UK’s trying to fight each other
Tuks – If you look at groups like the Philippines. When they dance you can see they’re not just dancing, they look like they’re doing martial arts, they look like there doing everything
Tuks- We just dance, they do yoga and other stuff they put it all into one and it just comes out good. When your from the UK no one is supporting you, no ones really supporting other Uk groups
Oliver – its like if I’m in Status I don’t like anyone else, and if I’m in this group I don’t like anyone else. It shouldn’t be like that!
Vanessa -When your at the hip hop championships everyone’s there supporting there countries like When you call out the Philippines the fan are shouting and cheering them on. When you call out the UK, there’s no one there
Why did you get selected for Amish:World’s Squarest Teenagers? Was it fun taking part in the documentary, and what did you learn from it?
Ryan-We just got caught (all laugh)
Ryan-They were looking for a dance group on Youtube, and they saw us
Sabrina-Apparently someone told them about us and then they came to see what we were like, and they liked what they saw, and it went from there basically
Tuks- They got what they wanted, because our lifestyle and Status as a group, I personally feel that we are completely different from a lot of other groups in the sense that we have a less care for dance, whereas other groups have more care
Vanessa-They are really passionate
Sabrina- We’re friends and we dance
Vanessa – We didn’t think it was going to be fun, we thought it was going to be hard communicating with them, the way they talked about it was like, ‘there not going to understand you when you speak.’ When you meet them, their like, ‘yeah we know what facebook is.’
Sabrina -I missed them when they went because two of the girls stayed at my house, and the boy stayed with the boys at a friends house, they were a lot of fun
Vanessa – They enjoyed being with us. They even said it was the first time they had seen black people
Tunde – When they first saw us dance they were thinking what’s this? Then towards the end they started dancing themselves and actually liked it. They sent us a video updating us on their dancing
Tuks- We learnt to appreciate what you’ve got
Sabrina-As soon as they go, you go back to normal anyway. The only way we would learn, is if we went over there and had to live their life for a bit, all we had is what they told us and pictures. That really wasn’t going to do much for us
How did you hear about Avit Clothing?
Tuks -I first saw it with Peridot
Sabrina -Same
Ryan -So did I
Sabrina – My brother came home with it
What do you like about the brand?
Sabrina-That it caters for boys and girls
Ryan-They make clothes that I want to wear
Oliver -It’s practical, they got clothes that are casual and you can wear everyday like dance clothes
Tuks -but at the same time they got the nice stuff that you can wear out
Ryan – The colours
What can we expect from Status this year?
Tuks- We don’t normally have a plan, we just take it as it comes. If we plan, it probably wouldn’t go the way we planned
Sabrina -That’s definitely the way Status works
Tuks- It works better that way to be honest
