Empress Gibbs and her Skate Buddies performance crew are set for a show like no other on Saturday (September 16) at Midlands Arts Centre in Cannon Hill Park.
The team are set to reignite and share the vibrant energy and spirit of their art which began in the park and drew inspiration from the now demolished rink at the Tower Ballroom in Edgbaston.
The team are set to reignite and share the vibrant energy and spirit of their art which began in the park and drew inspiration from the now demolished rink at the Tower Ballroom in Edgbaston.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 We're at Cannon Hill Park at the Mac.
00:05 I'm at the Outdoor Theater
00:06 'cause on the 16th of September, which is Saturday,
00:08 we will be doing a performance,
00:10 which is called Why Are You Smiling?
00:11 It's a very emotive piece.
00:14 I think a lot of time when you see people on skates,
00:15 it's more routine-based, it's very dramatic,
00:18 and actually this is quite slow-paced and emotive,
00:21 so I think they're gonna probably come upon emotions
00:24 that they didn't think they'd feel.
00:26 And the film Rolling Out Brum is about the skate community.
00:28 It's been directed by Yannatan Tahiri.
00:30 He's an amazing director in the community.
00:34 So it's just about us, what we do, who we are,
00:37 how we have fun together, and just skate Brum,
00:40 which is really where it started in Cannon Hill for us.
00:43 And then I guess there's a lot of other groups
00:45 that come out of that
00:46 'cause we've got different ways of expressing ourselves.
00:48 We all have our own voices,
00:50 but we're one collective group, which is beautiful.
00:52 So that's what it's about.
00:53 We got commissioned to engage with the skating community
00:57 and create a documentary about them.
00:59 It's art, it's about community,
01:02 but we're really interested in bringing things together,
01:04 breaking boundaries,
01:05 and then together we make this piece of work.
01:08 - The film I made with the skaters
01:09 is called Rolling Out Brum.
01:11 The initial idea started
01:13 because we were having lots of skaters
01:16 as part of the Taal Ballroom film.
01:17 The Taal Ballroom film was a eulogy film
01:20 about saying goodbye to the Taal Ballroom,
01:23 which was an amazing space at some point, a roller rink.
01:26 But the roller skating film
01:27 was an amazing opportunity for that.
01:29 So just over time, as you could see,
01:31 like stars started aligning
01:33 and then Iris managed to get us some funding
01:36 and that was just ball rolling after that.
01:38 (upbeat music)
01:41 (upbeat music)