The Creative Streak - Robert Hylton

interviewed by Jeannette Brooks

Jeannette Brooks (JB)
How did you start dancing?

Robert Hylton (RH)
I started in the living room, dancing at home when I was really little. I remember doing The Robot at around 10 years old! I danced after school at the local youth club and went to a breakdance club some Saturday afternoons in Newcastle called Tiffany's (an occasional treat; single parent 5 kids, no money and all that).

Popping was always my thing - I was never the best breaker, but that period of my life set the foundations for where I am now. I laugh sometimes as realistically 20 years later I am doing the same thing I did when I was 15.

As soon as I got a job that was it - with my own money I would go to jazz clubs. I got my dance fix with 'bamboozle', the crew I was in - super fast footwork and knee spins. We would travel, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, London take like three pairs of shoes, five t-shirts

It was always the whole culture. The clothes, the attitude, the moves, the people, being cool! This was the pre 'Corporate' era of clubbing (hip hop and house). In those days you couldn?t get into a club unless you were spick and span shoes, nice hair cut and all that. Then one day I found myself at Dance City (before it became the National Dance Agency) in Newcastle.

(JB)
When did you start to think you could do this for a living?

(RH)
At no point did I think of dance as my career. It's the same now although it is actually; it's taken a while to accept the fact.

I started my working life as an apprentice printer and in working class tradition stuck at it whilst, and this is very 'Saturday Night Fever', still clubbing and dancing as much as possible. Then naively and enthusiastically I auditioned for the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and got in.

Dance in my school days in the northeast just didn't exist. It was sport only. Plus in my case coming from a 'white' area and being of mixed ethnicity there was always that sense of not belonging. Dance and hip hop navigated me into a clearer understanding of myself, my culture and global cultures.

As regards to doing this as a living, I see myself as a permanent student, their is so much to learn and popping demands constant study, my work is my hobby, plus I still have to maintain my other dance techniques and creative process - lots to do.

(JB)
And your career now?

(RH)
Currently I am responsible for a unit of 11 people - that's eight on the road including me and three in the new office based at The Laban Centre with the current new status as an RFO (Regular Funded Organization). I have to lead. Work out strategies for training and teaching the company, education inniatives as well as make choreography and perform within our national and international touring schedules.

(JB)
Do you remember your first choreography?

(RH)
Yeah, yeah. It was when I was at college in Leeds. A solo to the music poetry of Gil Scot Heron, 'The Revolution Will not be Televised'. I created it on a dancer called Alan Hudson. I liked it and still like it - it worked. That was in '92.

(JB)
How do you think the Revenue Funded Organisation support from Arts Council England will change things?

(RH)
Less work and more work! I am able to have guest teaching company class. That's good for me - provides me with time to focus on choreography and let's me train too and be more physically aware. The office is better resourced too. I feel Urban Classicism is able to act not react. Things get done.

The support also means I can shift my mind onto artistic planning not fundraising - look closer at production values and get it all together properly.

(JB)
So what is Dance of the African Diaspora to you?

(RH)
Its lots of good stuff! We currently have generation of artists who explore, create, experiment and define their work from a personal point of view which is more British than previous generations.

Although guided by other Diaspora dance techniques and cultures, I feel the balance is translated in physical and artistic languages that present a clear new genre from the UK scene.

It's using your own voice and style and less about racial stereotypes of blackness and presenting a new outlook both within the traditional dances and experimental dance.

(JB)
Where do you find your inspiration?

(RH)
By understanding life, both physical and spiritual and knowing I always have more to learn. I am a dance junkie so there is always something new for me to find. I can sound a bit hippie at times but living and experiencing life is an inspiration in itself.

I am constantly inspired by the people I work with. For example Billy Biznizz, the performers in the company and working in the studio is a blessing. I am fortunate to have that continuous source.

Plus there is the ever growing new generation, their enthusiasm.

(JB)
What methods for choreography do you use?

(RH)
The music with DJ Biznizz. I build the dance at the same time as the music is created. I use the music as a metaphor and sequence for abstraction, along with different movement techniques such as contemporary, hip hop and ballet.

There is always a narrative within my work but I tend to stop that process before it becomes too literal.

I also challenge the boundaries of what can be done in the improvisation moments. I want to confront the dancers and look for what they can't do not what they can do. It becomes less ordinary, dealing with the unknown.

(JB)
What challenges do you have for you artistic development?

(RH)
In the past my work might have been confusing - ambiguous, and I didn't mind that. Now I want the work to be clearer. I want to make all the elements of the production bond like they do in film making.

Also the future - I want to put things in place for the next generation. I'm a nerd, I study hip-hop history - scanning the net for archives, meeting the originators, sourcing reading and video documentation. Street dance must be studied as a discipline and come from a true real starting place. It is more than a few well known moves - headpins or moonwalks. Other artists may take the tourist route to hip hop dance - a few shapes a couple of nice moves buy the track suit and they're off.

Hip hop is a real culture with many elements, pioneers and philosophies. People miss the history of the form and I want a space for the youth to learn more about that. Although my work is far from pure hip hop, my heart isn't. Just as my contemporary training gave me an awareness of Cunningham, Graham, Isadora Duncan. Street dance practitioners should have the same inner knowledge of the form.

Lastly, I would like to inform people, provide them with the knowledge to further excel. As for the company I hope to see them grow and achieve artistically the things I can only dream of.