Press Release: National Dance Award-winning Some Like it Hip Hop returns to the Peacock Theatre

[Jan McNulty]

ZooNation Dance Company

Some Like It Hip Hop

 

Peacock Theatre WC2

Friday 3 May - Sunday 30 June 2013

       

Performances: evenings at 7.30pm, matinees 2.30pm & 4pm

Tickets: £12 - £38

Under 16s half-price tickets on all performances

 

Ticket Office: 0844 412 4322       www.sadlerswells.com

 

National Dance Award winners Tommy Franzén and Teneisha Bonner reprise their roles in ZooNation’s smash hit show, Some Like It Hip Hop, which returns to the Peacock Theatre this spring from 3 May to 30 June.

 

Tommy Franzén and Teneisha Bonner are winners of the National Dance Awards for Outstanding Male Performance (modern) and Outstanding Female Performance (modern) respectively. The awards were announced on 28 January and represent the first time hip hop dancers have won the accolade in the award’s history.

 

Graham Watts OBE, Chairman of the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards, says: “Although it is overdue, it is fantastic to see two supremely talented dancers who have come from a hip hop background gain this level of recognition.  ZooNation has previously been nominated as Outstanding Company but this is the first time hip hop has claimed an award, and in the time-honoured tradition of such things, you wait a while and two come along at once!”

 

ZooNation’s founder and Artistic Director, and director of Some Like it Hip Hop, Kate Prince says: “Not only is this a huge personal achievement for both Teneisha and Tommy, but it is also the first time that hip hop dance as a genre has won anything at the NDAs. It is a sure sign that there continues to be a shift in dance in the UK, and that hip hop dance theatre has established itself firmly on the map alongside other classical and contemporary genres.”
 

Directed by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Kate Prince and featuring original music, Some Like It Hip Hop is a ZooNation and Sadler’s Wells co-production that has been a runaway success since its world premiere at the Peacock Theatre in 2011, garnering five star reviews and standing ovations. The show unites sensational dancing with a clever and engrossing storyline. With a nod to Billy Wilder’s film and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the comical tale of love, mistaken identity, cross-dressing and revolution is played out in ZooNation’s trademark style of hip hop, comedy and physical theatre.

For Some Like it Hip Hop’s third West End season, Franzén returns to the role of Simeon, alternating with Denny Haywood (who starred in Some Like it Hip Hop’s 2012 UK tour); Bonner reprises her role as Kerri, which she shares with new cast member Sammi Lee-Jayne; and Lizzie Gough completes the leading lineup, returning to the role of Jo-Jo, alternating with Sarah Richards (who previously played Jo-Jo on tour).

 

A video clip can be viewed here.