A vibrant dance journey with a few rough edges
Three60 are a Scottish street dance company seeking to promote street dance across Glasgow, encompassing everything from youth dance classes to professional training. World’s Evolution is their hip hop theatrical showcase by Three60, a Scottish street dance company seeking to promote street dance across Glasgow and encompassing everything from youth dance classes to professional training. The production weaves a tale of humanity across time to explore who we are, why we got here and what is next.
Before the main showcase, there is a short performance by their youth team, local young people exploring the future ahead of us. The enthusiasm and joy of the young people was delightful, particularly in sections where each got to take their own turn in showing off their best moves. I am also a big fan of the fact that even in 2032, Missy Elliott’s Work It is still the go-to party song.
The main performance was not as linear a story as expected. It is tied together by a divine woman dressed in white traversing through different spaces, sometimes healing and helping, sometimes crushed by the violence around her, sometimes merely observing. Only on a couple of occasions do we get any sort of tangible location/time to a piece, such as the tribal dance-off or the Caribbean party, which to me are the scenes which felt the most alive and fun. Otherwise, some of the dance tended to feel repetitious, with overuse of screaming, falling to the ground, and intense heavy breathing, which after the first couple of times fails to shock or make any impact.
The dancers are all clearly immensely talented, especially Corey Owens in his solo near the start of the piece, dancing and battling across a path of light down the stage with hat and coat as if fighting a storm. It’s when the dancers come together as a group that you truly get to see the extent of their cohesion as a group, their skill and power eliciting cheers from the audience. It makes you wonder why sections of spoken word are included (asking the audience what we know about God, about life, about dark, about light) when the movement speaks so much more eloquently and powerfully.
There has clearly been a lot of attention paid to the technical elements of the production, with dozens of evocative and interesting costumes. Even the youth team all had matching shiny silver jackets, making the whole thing look and feel expensive. The lighting designs were varied and kept the piece feeling visually exciting, helped by a screen of visual designs and video clips to move us from section to section, showing the blend of talents involved in the company.
Although the show has some rough edges, some moments which dragged and an ending that felt almost anticlimactic after the screaming and shouting of previous dances, World’s Evolution’s heart lies in the company that all have such vibrant talents and such a joy in performing and creating with one another. You can feel the energy from each of them as they move together, and it really lives up to Three60’s goal of being an ambassador for street dancers and their culture, sparking excitement from young to old and expanding the theatrical scene in Glasgow.