Illstyle delivers talent, lacks adrenaline
By Meghan Louttit, Adviser
April 8, 2007 | 10:51 a.m.
Illstyle founder Brandon "Peace" Albright describes the company as blending all types of dance, including ballet, modern, house, popping, locking and break dancing, but giving it all a hip-hop flavor. Each of these styles were woven expertly into nearly every act of the show, which even featured a tap dancer and ballet.
Failling to live up to the hype
As audience members entered Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium Friday night they were greeted with flashy video and a man spinning turntables on stage. Although the anticipation created by the beat slowly withered throughout the evening, as each performance seemed less exciting and more repetitive than the last.
Most of the show was concentrated on individual performances based in freestyle instead of tightly choreographed routines. They used a limited amount of group work that was more of a background to whoever was dancing out front. And while much of the music had a high-energy, heart pounding feel, the dancing didn't seem to match.
"I was unimpressed," said sophomore Matt Campbell, an audio production major. "It kind of looked like they just threw it together. I had high hopes."
The personalities of the dancers and the short bouts of break dancing were enough to elicit enthusiastic cheers from the audience more than once, however.
"I think it's pretty decent. It wasn't what I was expecting though," said Rian Laparzey, a sophomore music performance major. Laparzey said his expectations came from the advertising for the show, which he felt made it out to be a well choreographed break dancing performance.
Campbell agreed, "I was expecting good choreography. You know, like You Got Served."
There were some who didn't come with many expectations and weren't bothered by the lack of battling break-dancers.
German professor Annette Steigerwald, who came to OU from Bavaria, said, "I'm enjoying it. I will practice my moves all weekend and blow my students away in class on Monday!"
What Illstyle calls the art of "turntablism" was also given two feature performances. While the skills of the two artists were impressive, especially as one pulled his hands behind his back and pressed his nose to the record, most of the enjoyment came from listening.
The finale gives the audience what they wanted
As the members stood in a circle dancing, individuals would jump to the middle to perform a wide variety of break dance moves, including the worm and a man spinning on his head.
Overall, it wasn't difficult to recognize that the nine individuals in Illstyle each possess an incredible talent. Their movements were so fluid it seemed as if they had no limbs or joints at all, and they glided across the stage like friction between their shoes and the floor was nonexistent. They even recreated slow motion, robots and puppets on a string effortlessly.
What was just as impressive was the message that they attempted to carry throughout the entire performance. They spoke passionately of their belief in the spirit of their movement, and their performance was a celebration of that spirit.
Peace, love and respect
It was the belief in that spirit that led founders Albright and Forrest Webb to begin Illstyle & Peace Productions, which includes members from the Philadelphia and the Cleveland-Akron area. Albright and Webb had been performing shows with a group called Cool Heat Urban Beat; but when that group disbanded, they decided it couldn't be their last.
"We decided we wanted to keep going. And God inspired me. It's a spiritual movement first and foremost," said Albright.
It's also about peace, which Albright affirms with the tattoo down his forearm. He said it stands for "˜people everywhere are created equal.' We show that it's all about the movement and that it all comes from the same spirit."
And as they had audience members hold up the peace sign and repeat, "peace, love respect, for everyone," you couldn't help but believe it.
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Find more information about Illstyle & Peace Productions at http://www.illstylerockers.net