Life throws some major league curve balls at you sometimes, and during those moments there's really only one thing you should do - smack the ball right out the arena! And let's just say, being asked to spontaneously host a live dance show at The Vault club (Winchester Uni campus) was one of these 'curve ball' highlights of my professional life...
I was unashamedly bricking it, mostly because this was a completely unrehearsed, unscripted segment of our Ctrl.Alt.Shift gig; coming to Winchester for the first time to spread the good word of our anti-HIV stigma campaign (watch above), whilst getting all the snake bite, WKD, pound a pint-chugging students down for a bit of a boogie on the dance floor. It was a pop-locking success, until some bloody mad-moving Usher/Beyonce wannabes started battling it out - provoking my crew to initiate a dance contest (with the winner getting one of our EXCLUSIVE t-shirts and a spot in our dance show pencilled in for the new year). And who got pushed onto the mic? - Yours truly! Though I won't complain (now...), it was a riot, and for the first time in my life I got the power and the kind of rush only DJ's spinning for manic crowds get (alright, it was no Ibiza rave by far, but still, I don't plan for this to be my last spot on the frontline). Here's my review of the night for Ctrl.Alt.Shift:
Ctrl.Alt.Shift @ The Vault
Ctrl.Alt.Shift left its mark on Winchester University last night in the form of a good old raise-awareness club night, dance-off, and all round rave-up.
The Vault, in the basement of the Student Union, rumbled from the old-school hip-hop and R&B, but as the flashing lights bounced from the walls, our message for the night was illustrated: HIV stigma will not be tolerated.
This event came one day after World Aids Day, and three weeks after the Nothing to Declare campaign - which saw Ctrl.Alt.Shift take a stand outside various embassies in London, protesting against the HIV travel restriction of countries like South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Russia. The students of Winchester got a full taste of the cause as the demos were projected on the stage throughout the night.
Michelle, 21, said: "I didn’t know about the HIV travel ban, but I know now because of Ctrl.Alt.Shift. The ban is a joke, and Nothing to Declare is the best campaign I’ve ever heard about."
Twenty year old Natasha Jayatilaka was appalled and added: "I don’t think HIV status should have any relevance on where you can travel, but I think this campaign is working to change the way some people think."
Olivia Berry, 22, said: "I think the HIV travel ban shows ignorance and it seems strange that they only think about one disease. Ctrl.Alt.Shift is great - anything that raises awareness is good, especially getting young people involved."
The night was not a complete rip-roaring success, as scheduled dance act Fuzzy Logic cancelled at the eleventh hour – a major disappointment after their stunning routine at last month’s Ctrl.Alt.Shift Sadler’s Wells dance event.
Nonetheless, Winchester poppa-lockers improvised to display an array of movers and shakers in an unscripted Ctrl.Alt.Shift dance-off. With 60 seconds to impress, rude boy Biva came up trumps and won himself an exclusive Ctrl.Alt.Shift t-shirt...
Read the full article here
Note: The Winchester night of debauchery would've flopped on it's fat face had it not been for the assistance of my fellow organisers Kyla Samuel and Vishna Shah (from the uni), and Ctrl.Alt.Shift foot-soldiers Kevin Perry, Ben Anderson, Stephanie Hubbard, Jenny Archibald and Chris Mead. Big shout out the hustlers!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment