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date: 07 July 2022

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter explores competitive street dance crew choreography in relation to interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks regarding virtuosity and excess. Through a close analysis of five performances featured on the British television talent shows of Britain’s Got Talent and Got to Dance, this chapter examines the concept of virtuosity as transcendence in relation to the continued emphasis on technology and the street dance body. Through the choreographic application of animation techniques, synchronicity, the construction of “meta-bodies,” and the narrative of ordinary versus extraordinary, this chapter reveals that crews create the illusion of transgression through their affinity with technology, while also competing with their cinematic counterparts. Through this analysis, this chapter further reveals the negotiation between the individualistic nature of the virtuoso and the crew collective within the neoliberal capitalist framework of the competition.

Keywords: animation, choreography, competition, meta-bodies, neoliberal, street dance, technology, television talent show, virtuosity

Laura Robinson

Laura Robinson (PhD) is a popular dance scholar and Lecturer in Dance: Urban Practices at the University of East London. Her doctoral research focused on the construction and performance of spectacle in male street dance crew performances on British television talent shows. Publications include chapters in Bodies of Sound (2013) and The Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen (2014).

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