Interview: Q&A with Khronos from The BRIT School

Khronos, an all male youth dance company from The BRIT School in Croydon is busy rehearsing for their forthcoming performance in ReFresh at The Place on 18 Feb. The company is creating a new work to music chosen by choreographer Mark Baldwin.

Khronos was formed three years ago and aimed to provide additional opportunities where the boys could share skills and movement vocabulary as well as develop their creative and athletic skills. The company has been a crucial platform to encourage, promote and inspire boys in dance within the school and local community. The boys lead workshops and classes for the younger male dance students and also within the local community as part of Croydon Schools Dance Association. The company has performed at Greenwich Theatre, Trinity Laban and at their own school.

Khronos was selected to take part in the Sadler’s Wells & The Place project, ReFresh. The project presents a new challenge to youth dance companies by presenting them with two pieces of music chosen by leading UK choreographers.

We wanted to find out more about Khronos before their new piece is premiered at The Place on 18 Feb so we interviewed company members Jack Smart, Connor Williams, Jason Jordaan and Jordan Ajadi.

Three words to describe your company..
Jack: Colourful, dynamic, athletic
Connor: Energetic, fun, out going
Jordan: Exciting, enrolling, overwhelmingly powerful

What’s the best thing about being in Khronos?
Jordan: Helping each other to grow and become stronger more confident dancers. Joining together to make something that hasn’t happened before, making history!
Jack: There’s fun banter, it’s good because we get to experience different movement styles. I would never be able to do this anywhere else and I really like it.
Jason: We are all really different and we learn different things from each other, which makes the work more dynamic.
Connor: That it’s an all-boys group and that we spur each other on.

If you could invite any dancer to join your company who would you ask?
Connor: Carlos Acosta because he is amazing!
Jordan: Jonathon Goddard because he would add and extra spice to the company, I’m insired by him.
Jack: Michael Nunn and William Trevitt – The BalletBoyz – all of them!

We wanted to find out more about their involvement in the ReFresh project…..

You have been given music by Mark Baldwin… what were your initial thoughts when you heard the music?
Jack: That it was something that wouldn’t work on us because majority of the boys are urban and I just think it was a bit of a shock that we would be doing something to a classical piece.
Connor: That it was different. I think Khronos is something different so I reckon we’ll be able to turn it out and interpret it the way we want to.
Jason: When I first heard the music I didn’t think the chorography would work with the company’s movement style and I was really apprehensive about rehearsals. I wasn’t sure how it would all marry together.
Jordan: When I heard the music I thought it was epic and I thought it would be too cheesy for us. At first I didn’t like it but it’s grown on me.

What have you enjoyed most so far in the rehearsal process? What has been the biggest challenge?
Connor: Getting to know everyone in more in depth and how they move and interpret the music. Everyone has such different skills to bring to the company and we all really like learning from each other. We all come from different backgrounds have different skills and is what makes us all so different.
Jordan: Hanging out with the fellow Khronos crew and Julia teaching us these amazing routines. The biggest challenge is finding the energy to keep going through the whole rehearsal.
Jason: Finding the time to rehearse as well as everything else the Brit School throws at us. The most enjoyable thing is when we are given choreography tasks to work as a group allowing us to be creative and add our own work into the piece.

The performance at The Place is less than 5 weeks away….how are you feeling?
Connor: Apprehensive!
Jason: Excited because I feel like we haven’t been working with the music for that long. We’re almost half way so I’m really excited to see what we have towards the end. We are working with a narrative and I want to find out what’s going to happen.
Jordan: I’m excited to take the piece and show it to a wider audience and also see what the other choreographers have created.
Connor: I’m quite excited to show the world Khronos because it is our debut performance outside of Brit.

What can we expect from your performance on 18th Feb?
Jack: Something really different… I certainly would not have expected it. A lot of surprises!
Connor: It’s a narrative piece showing strength and the emotional turmoil of a soldier.
Jack: Yeah soldiers and how life back home can change the way you feel about certain situations.
Jordan: A fusion of urban and contemporary. A bit of Avant Garde style and very athletic.
Connor: I’d say its Khronos style!
Jack: It’s boys, I can’t imagine any girls doing it.

What do you think your company will gain from being part of ReFresh?
Jordan: A lot of experience, recognition, hopefully we will get to work with different people.
Jason: We get to see what other choreographers have created and learn from them.
Jordan: We get to perform on a proper stage outside of Brit – The Robin Howard Theatre.
Connor: We are doing our thing for boys in dance and will hopefully inspire younger boys to keep dancing.
Jack: It would be great if we could get more opportunities to perform and create outside of Brit.

Buy tickets to see Khronos in ReFresh, 18 Feb at the Robin Howard Theatre, The Place.

Find out more:
About ReFresh
About The BRIT School, Croydon