汤姆·希考克斯(Tom Hickox)

No Human is an Island   

No Human is an Island is a song and short film by Tom Hickox, featuring the Chineke! Orchestra, commissioned by the BBC as part of their Culture in Quarantine programme, and made entirely under lockdown conditions.  

Written 2 weeks into lockdown after Tom Hickox re-read John Donne's iconic poem No Man is an Island, it echoes its resonances of the need for community and physical contact in human life.  

The verses draw on naturalistic imagery, imagining elemental forces without their most rudimentary patterns and comparing them with humans in isolation. The repeated mantra "I'm not alive without love" underlines the point of what existence really is without external contact.  

The film, directed by Grammy nominated Nicolas Jack Davies, shows each musician performing the song in the odd context of their own homes. They are in their concert clothes as if going to work but the settings are unmistakably domestic. The power and technique required to play their instruments are fetishised in close-ups and odd angles. And in the element of portraiture, with each musician holding a card on which they have written the word "Human", this shows what binds us all.  

Everything was recorded, produced and filmed under lockdown conditions.  

Flying Home by Birdgang

South London based Hip Hop theatre company BIRDGANG have been commissioned by BBC Arts and Arts Council England to produce a dance film under covid-19 lock-down conditions.  The piece FLYING HOME is on BBC iPlayer since Wednesday 8th July and brings cutting edge choreography to the nation’s screens.  

Choreographer Simeon Qsyea said "We normally use dozens of dancers on big stages, so the commissioners presented us with a great challenge to perform and shoot a piece constrained by self-isolation". 

MD Kendra Horsburgh said "We're delighted that BIRDGANG has been selected for this commission, we've performed all over the world, our mission is to demonstrate that there is an evolving Hip Hop Culture that influences the creation of contemporary arts and we are excited to push our art form on to a BBC platform". 

BirdGang Ltd Chair, Tom Harvey said “It’s a real achievement for us to get Hip Hop dance theatre onto the BBC as an art form in its own right, we commend BBC Arts and ACE for commissioning bold work from innovative companies.” 

The dance piece features six local dancers working together in video conference screens to break out of isolation and reconnect with each other and the world. 

Jonty Claypole, Director of BBC Arts, said of the finished piece “BIRDGANG have created a timely piece of work that demonstrates how creativity connects us all. Their thrilling style represents the influence street culture has on dance, and I’m delighted it has a home on BBC Arts, as part of Culture in Quarantine”. 

FLYING HOME
Flying Home by Birdgang

About BirdGang

Established in 2015, Croydon based, BirdGang Ltd is a leading UK company that creates, teaches and distributes Avant Garde dance content for stage, theatre, film and online. Leaders in Hip Hop theatre, we are known internationally for high-quality choreography and performance. 

Former associate dance company to the Young Vic, and now resident at Stanley Halls, our work includes Vicycle (World tour co-produced by Breakin’ Convention), The Aviary (Touring production British council, Sri Lanka and San Francisco Hip Hop Festival, The Network (Touring production Luxembourg and San Francisco), A Vice in Harlem (Harare International Festival of the Arts 2015 British Council); A Harlem Dream (The Young Vic), Street Dance 3D 1 and 2 the Movie (UK and India) and we have some our talent in &Juliet the new west end musical. BirdGang Ltd’s work has been performed at venues such as the Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells, Luxembourg Grand Theatre and the Barbican amongst others. In the past we have been funded by ACE, Breakin’ Convention, The British Council, The Young Vic and Croydon Council.  

About Culture In Quarantine 

BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine initiative is an essential arts and culture service across BBC platforms that will keep the arts alive in people’s homes, focused most intensely across BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC Sounds, BBC iPlayer and BBC website. We are doing this in close consultation and collaboration with organisations like Arts Council England and other national funding and producing bodies.  

This arts and culture service includes: 

  • Guides and access to shuttered exhibitions, performances or permanent collections in museums , galleries and performance spaces; 
  • Ways to experience books with privileged access to authors including a collaboration with the Big Book Weekend amongst other initiatives.
  • Jewels from the archive as well as brand new content ensuring that brand new theatre and dance performances will join with modern classics to create a repertory theatre of broadcast. 
  • Participatory offers including masterclasses and ways to enable audiences to create at home through Get Creative
  • Topical arts through Front Row, Front Row Late, Free Thinking and more
  • A fund with Arts Council England to support around 25 artists to create new work
  • A place for arts organisations to share innovations from quarantine and for audiences to discover new things through www.bbc.co.uk/arts