"Ma Hood": Winner of Unart 2012

A few months ago, WP members Naomi, Bettina, Florence, Siham and Yvonne attended a casting for a theater / dancing piece . 

Their skills convinced coach Andy, so they began developing a piece for the "Unart" festival / youth competition 2012, called "Ma Hood". 

The participating groups were free in choosing how they'd like to perform, it could be any kind of art acting singing, painting on stage, (break-) dancing...  The only rule was, it has to be 15 minutes long.

Only the 8 best groups were allowed to perform on the 3 final shows last week  (wednesday, thursday and friday.) and Ma Hood was among them!  

Their performance consisted of dancing obviously, but also acting and also singing.  We all were totally amazed by the show, and the performance of the girls.

snapshot taken during the play

There was an unknown jury sitting in the audience, and on friday, they would announce the two best groups from hamburg! 

After "Ma Hood" won the audience award on every single evening (Two times the second, and once the first place), hopes were high on friday that they could eventually be one of the winners.

all performers of the evening, "Ma Hood" in the center

Friday was the big day, and after one final performance on that evening, the jury made their decision: "Ma Hood" was one of the winning groups !

"Ma Hood" on stage, receiving the cup symbolizing their win

So now, they'll go on Tour in germany, and perform in the cities Frankfurt, Berlin, Dresden and Hamburg together with the two winning groups of the other cities. Right now, they're in Frankfurt and getting ready for their first performance !

the group with their coach Andy 

I'll keep you guys updated on this blog about how their tour goes, so don't forget to check back here!

Girls, I enjoyed watching you perform so much, you did an amazing job and you definitely deserved to be the winner. Have fun on tour and hopefully you'll gain a lot of great experiences!

... and all I can say is :

I'm so, I'm so, I'm so, I'm so, I'm so proud of you !

Neverland 2

So.. here is the post I promised you yesterday :)

It all started last year, in fall 2010 when a theatre project called "FACES" was formed in hamburg. It existed of 3 different dance performances. One of them was Neverland, where Tony and Siham also participated in. It was created by Mayke - a total stranger to me at that time!

In spring this year, Mayke joined Winchester Pictures and we all learned to know and love her.

She announced that there was going to be Neverland part 2 staged this year, and WP members Niloo and Tony were a part of it.

Rehearsals began a couple of months ago, and they were really tough ofcourse - but the result was amazing.

Last thursday (november 3) was the premiere, and the show was performed again on the following day (that's when I got to watch it).

So now we've talked about it enough, time to let the pictures tell you the rest of the story!

My last words: the show was icredible, and I'm proud of every single one of the dancers, but especially of our wp members niloo and tony.. because they transformed from hip hop dancers to wonderful contemporary dancers. And ofcourse mayke, who created and organized all this. AMAZING WORK! and now enjoy the photos !



Doing a partner lift



WP member Niloo in the center

Tony Winchester

Tony doing some Tricking

After the show: The dancers with choreographer Mayke



Neverland (Part 2)

Choreography by: Mayke Vittinghoff-Rincón

Dancers: Noemie Naegele, Stella Madsen, Constance Hölzel, Tony Winchester, Sophie Espe, Niloo Bahadori, Jules Matberg, Merve Dincbas.

Photos by: Ariane Gramelspacher, Carsten Thun, Marcus Renner

special thanks to: Hamburger Sprechwerk

- http://winchesterpictures.com/ -

Soulplex Dance Competition 2011

So this is the blogpost which I promised you guys yesterday !

Like I told you, WP attended the soulplex dance competition on sunday.

This is gonna be a report of our experiences, some facts about the event, and some pictures.. enjoy!

First  of all: What is "Soulplex" ?

On Sunday, October 23rd, the 3rd Soulplex Dance Competition took Place in Hannover, Germany.

The Event was founded by Darren Drake Baldric, a dancer who appeared in the german TV show "Popstars" a couple of years ago and now teaches all over europe.

The judges were:
- Jawn Ha (choreographer from los angeles, mos wanted crew)
- Brian Puspos (famous choreographer from los angeles, mos wanted crew, movement lifestyle)
- Kimbo (Choreographer and owner of a danceschool in munich)
*******

Only 2 weeks ago, Winchester Pictures heard about this event and ofcourse, we wanted to participate !

So we quickly created a show, rehearsed it, did some streetshows.. basically, we were just really on a mission ;)

On saturday, the last day of rehearsing we were having a little photo shoot .. i already told you guys about it :

There's actually a little story behind this picture.. it looks like Lena is an outcast from the crew of the 3 black girls ! (no offense to anyone)


So then, on Sunday, we had to get up at 4 am .. yes, that was not enough sleep for that night. But anyway we met at 5 am at the central station and took a train to Hannover (because we had to be there by 8).


After the registration process, the 1 vs 1 battles started. They were great and we had a lot of fun watching them.
But then, seriousness began!

We prepared ourselves to hit the stage ...



Aylin & Siham in their costumes and with make-up, before the show started.
(Don't worry, we were actually supposed to look like dolls)


And rehearsed the whole thing one last time ..

Final rehearsals outside


We were the last crew to hit the stage.. and were pretty satisfied with our Performance. We don't know the actual result, but we ended up being somewhere in the middle.

Ofcourse we would have liked to be a little higher on the ranking, but
- we were the youngest crew of the whole event
- we prepared ourselves in only 2 weeks
- we did everything without an adolescent leader (Tony)


So all that i can add to this is I am PROUD of you girls, although we had some difficulties and problems, some people not participating, some troubles with choreographies.. Despite all these things, we made it. we were there, had an amazing day, saw many crazy performances which inspired us a lot and, most important: we had a whole lot of fun!!

Participating WP girls:

Naomi, Bettina, Siham, Uma, Florence, Aylin, Lena

We're looking foward to Soulplex Dance Competition 2012 !

... and a big THANK YOU to all of you who actually read through all of this :)

- http://winchesterpictures.com -

It's a competition for dance crews from all over europe and also a Freestyle battle (1 vs 1).