1. Rise UK!
Thursday the 8th of May 2014 at Number 90, Hackney Wick, was the scene of Rise UK!, a
collaborative fundraising event for the Prince’s Trust. This write up will go through the different
phases from concept to realisation to document this unique collaboration.
The concept for the event had theoretical underpinnings that will help understand the final
product. The core principle was to move away from a traditional theatre produced show. While
such shows offer a lot, they have limitations as the participation from artists to audience and
vice versa is two dimensional. Frequently artists state that seeing people perform on stage is
not a clear reflection of another artist’s qualities because the separation between audience and
artists means qualities such as passion, effort, and feel can be missed qualitatively. By bringing
the artists into the same space as the audience, the viewers are encouraged to see and feel at
the most vibrant level. Delivering in this way also challenges the notion of stage because it asks
the question of what is a stage and what are the boundaries of performance.
The development and rise of flash-mob performances was another principle that the event
wanted to draw from. The idea was to deliver performances that popped up around the space
almost without notice. The desired effect was that people would be socialising, when a
performance would start, be delivered and end without context and that this would lift people’s
consciousness away from socialising for a moment and then allow them to return to socialising
and give them something to consider. This was realised during the first Act (a robot piece
delivered on an elevated platform 12 feet up) when an audience member had to divert his
friend’s attention to the performance because initially his friend had her back turned to the
performance. An unintended outcome was fed back by one audience member who stated they
enjoyed watching the performers supporting one another during and after the performances.
She stated that she felt that she was able to see backstage because there was no backstage
and seeing helped her to emotionally bond with the performances. An interpretation of this
statement is that often performances are delivered with an air of distance and perfection which
can be cold and this event managed to transcend this.
The performances delivered were short, no more than 4 minutes. In conjunction with the
previous principles - challenging the idea of stage and flash-mob - the delivery of short pieces
allowed the event to offer a wide range of talents and skills without overloading the audience
with information. This format meant that in the aggregate the event’s offer was wide ranging,
using the concept of cabaret to bring different skills together. While the concept was steeped in
artistic consideration, commercially this structure gave people a chance to consume in between
performances thereby supporting the venue’s goal of generating money.
The artists were selected based on their incredible talents, depth of knowledge about their art
and performance background and on their personalities. As such, the concept was developed in
a non-hierarchical manner. That is to say that while there was one person driving the event,
input came from multiple sources leading to the event name itself, the structure of short pieces
and the end collaborations themselves. This was made possible through the development of

2. core concepts but no one person holding on to a concept so strongly that it meant the potential
detriment of the final product. The artists were given their due artistic credit.
Developmentally, basing the performances on freestyle and play increased the spontaneity on
the night and reduced the need for rehearsal to nil. Artists were directed by the time of their
performance, the soundscape - music or acapella - and who they were working on. In three of
the six performances, the artists met each other on the night of the event and collaborated on
the spot to direct themselves in terms of level of interaction, starting points and potential
movement. Artists were stretched as the individuals gathered came from multiple disciplines:
dance, beat boxing, spoken word, djing and mcing. The range of disciplines meant that the
event moved quickly from the point of view of the audience allowing for the maximum impact
over the course of an hour and a half.
The event developed from a single person - Chris Stein - having the objective of delivering this
type of collaboration to support a Charity. The Charity selected was the Prince’s Trust because
this is a Charity that Chris has worked with directly in his professional occupation - youth
offending - and which he holds in high regard.
In considering the artists sought, skill level was of high importance however, personality was
equally important because people were going to be asked to come out of their habits and be
willing to try new structures. The core group were Billy Biznizz, Jonathan Reid, Samantha
Haynes, Alex Peters, Julia Cheng and Dickson Mbi. This group were able to shape the event by
bringing their contacts into the collective and the group took on Richard Essien, Michael
Oladele, Cheidu Anyia, Joel McIlven, Thomas Fletcher and Melinda Nyoko. With such a large
number of performers, it was a challenge to meet up at the space as one group and have one
meeting to have everyone input at once. The result was three separate meetings where the
majority of the group was able to place themselves in the space and think about the concept.
The remainder of communication was delivered via Facebook messages.
There was an ideal for the venue due to the theoretical principles that wanted to be put in place.
The ideal was a space that was open, with different levels and space. Bar 90 in Hackney Wick
fit the bill well having all of those qualities. Additionally, the venue offered an opportunity for
positive public relations as there has been a long standing discussion in Hackney about how
“New” Hackney meets with “Old” Hackney in the process of regeneration. The founders of Bar
90 have recently been the recipients of business awards and this gave the potential for those
developing new spaces and opportunities could give back to a long-standing charity and support
young people back into education, training and employment.
On the evening of the event, there were 6 acts, one every 15 minutes from 8:30 pm to 10pm.
Throughout the evening Billy kept the crowd going by playing a blend of awesome music from
acid jazz to g-funk. While the aim was for the artists to be discrete, dancers would often just
break out and get down, such was the standard of music.

3. Act one was a piece by Mechanikool and Justu in which they performed different styles of body
popping to “Don’t Worry Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin. Their performance was delivered on a
platform 12 feet from the ground. The piece had the desired effect of preparing the crowd for the
rest of the evening by raising their consciousness away from their socialising and consumption
for a few minutes before retuning.
Act two saw beat boxer, Alex “Reissus” Reis, meet dancer, Richard “Bones” Essien. Reissus
freestyled a beat while Bones added the physical representation to it. The performance was
delivered in the middle of the dining area, thereby bringing the performance to the immediacy of
the social experience.
Act three was a collaboration between Locker, Sam Haynes, and Bboy, Chiedu Aniya, to James
Brown “Get Up Offa That Thing”. By this point the crowd were getting a feel for performances to
be dropped in different settings around the space. Sam and Chiedu engaged in a series of call
and responses where one would perform a short freestyle, look over to their opposite number
who would take up the pace, a battle separated by 50 feet of space. Sam spontaneously
decided to move across the space to meet Chiedu where they finished the song dancing in
tandem in their individual styles.
Act four had Joel, MC “Apple Juic”, McIvern rhyming over J Dilla “Life” with Dickson Mbi
popping. The beat is a laid back track and Apple Juic’s lyrics hit the theme of the night
perfectly, reflecting on inclusion, exclusion, “new” Hackney and “old” Hackney. Dickson provided
the perfect compliment by starting slow to give Apple Juic prominence before seizing the
moment and charging forth with his powerful body popping.
Act five upped the tempo as Jamiroquai’s “Little L” pumped around the space triggering Michael
“Baggsy” Oladele to enter from the men’s toilets (!) to start whacking down the stairs. On the
opposite end of the space, Julia Cheng, subtly started her performance, removing her coat and
whacking in response to Michael. The two brought vibrant chemistry with high skill level to amp
the crowd.
Act six was an acapella performance seeing Dickson Mbi utilising his contemporary dance skills
to compliment Melinda Nyoko’s spoken word delivery to create a unique blend of tension and
skill. The crowd response defies words.
Touch Sensitive’s “Pizza Guy” was used for its anthemic overtures to bring the collective
together as a conclusion to the performance element of the night. Each artist was called forth
and performed a short solo giving the audience a chance to show their appreciation for all of the
skills on demonstration. The applause rippled across the bar acknowledging the level of
performance that had been delivered by highly creative and skilled artists.
After the performances, the collective carried on by freestyling with Billy Biznizz continually
dropping quality tracks. At times, the artists moved around the space in a line akin to a conga
line, freestyling and engaging the crowd while at others, the audience broke away from their

4. chairs to electric slide to “Candy” by Cameo. The night continued as the artists freestyled and
played into the night.
The event brought together theoretical underpinnings, excellence in skill and personality, with a
desire for benevolence, to deliver something unique and creative. It is hoped this can be
repeated and brought to other audiences.