To say that the Flavor Project was blatant proof of technical ineptitude, lack of talent and incompetent organization, is an understatement.
The so-called project was organized to showcase the talents of dancers, singers, choreographers, DJs and even Arabic hip hop bands.
Yashreeka Huk, the artistic manager and principal choreographer, had a vision of presenting different “flavors whether in dance or music. Originally of Southeast Asian descent, Huk was born in the US and earned a degree form Georgetown University. The Flavor Project was her first serious artistic venture, an attempt that was not altogether too successful.
Sponsored by Virgin Megastores, the end product of the vastly publicized workshop was staged at the Sawy Cultural Wheel. The Project had its own web page on both Facebook and YouTube, featuring photos, videos and teasers for the upcoming show.
The first misstep revealed at the start of the show, aside from the apparent disorganization, is the lack of any consistent vision. Huk, who obviously had no unifying theme or concept, lumped several, almost clashing, elements in her dissonant show with no regard to generic relativity or dramatic effect.
There’s nothing wrong with variety shows – performances that explore different dance vehicles and present various ideas. But this was not the project’s mission.
Whether all these “talents and “flavors actually fit together was not Huk’s chief concern. The project’s focus was on what Huk termed “contemporary movement, an amalgam of hip hop/R&B and other forms of African-American dance and music.
Yet, for some strange reason, the project’s presentation, staged last Saturday, featured an English singer crooning to a guitar and singing Brit pop in addition to an amateur chanteuse, trying to copy Lebanese singer Nicole Saba.
How all this fits within the project is a question that remains unanswered.
The project was supposed to be presented in chronological order, presenting the story of how the dancers and musicians got to discover their “flavor and how their dancing styles and choreography evolved. However, due to some bizarre technical catastrophe, the show was halted more than three times, for more than five minutes each time. As for the stage manager, he kept strolling up and down the stage, confusing the performers and annoying the audience.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. The DJ stopped the music and mixed cues more than four times. This major glitch resulted in 20 minutes of complete silence, a bare stage and a very angry audience screaming at some point “Kill the DJ!
With all these interruptions, it was difficult to concentrate on the show and the promised “evolution of flavor. Judging by Huk’s performance, it’s quite clear that she doesn’t possess the qualities of a dancer. That, however, did not stop her from taking center stage and tormenting the audience with a dance routine that can at best be described as average.
Huk kept jumping from one song to the other, without ever concluding a dance or a song with a transition in movement or in music. Her hullabaloo of a performance left the dancers and the audience bemused.
Nor were her protégés close to being professionally trained. The choreography was threadbare, the dancers were clumsy and only the break dancers knew what they were doing.
The only aspect of the show worth praising is the costumes. True to the spirit of hip hop, the costumes were flashy and tatty, with several references to famous music videos from the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
Another rare highlight was the recitative singing of a duo, a boy and a girl, that saw them discussing the last power-cut crises of Gaza and defend the plight of Palestinians in both rhythmic and non-rhythmic forms. The duo succeeded in securing the audience’s respect and sympathy for their political cause although their statements were more informed by their own personal emotions than by the political reality.
Like many other audience members, I left during the intermission. After more than an hour and a half, it was clear that Huk did not have the capability to pull off a better second half.
Whatever it is that drove her to present such a show of incompetence, it was highly disrespectful to the audience and the place that hosted it. I am not sure what terminology she would choose to describe her work, but contemporary movement would be the least accurate.
