Stomp (dance troupe)
Encyclopedia
Stomp is a percussion group (originating in Brighton, UK) that uses the body and ordinary objects to create a physical theatre
Physical theatre
Physical theatre is used to describe any mode of performance that pursues storytelling or drama through primarily and secondarily physical and mental means. There are several quite distinct but indistinct traditions of performance which all describe themselves using the term "physical theatre",...

 performance.

History and performances

Stomp was created in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

, U.K.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, in the summer of 1991. It was the result of a 10 year collaboration between its creators, Steve McNicholas
Steve McNicholas
Steve McNicholas is an English director, composer, actor and co-founder of dance percussion act Stomp.McNicholas has worked with Cliff Hanger Theatre Co., 7:84, Covent Garden Community Theatre, Pookiesnackenburger Buskers and the Flying Pickets. His work in television includes Rowan Atkinson's Mr...

 and Luke Cresswell
Luke Cresswell
Luke Cresswell is a co-creator of the dance percussion act Stomp. He is a self-taught percussionist and one-time member of British busking/cabaret musical group Pookiesnackenburger...

. Stomp uses a variety of everyday percussion instruments in their shows

They first worked together in 1981, as members of the street band Pookiesnackenburger and the theatre group Cliff Hanger. Together, these groups presented a series of street comedy musicals at the Edinburgh Festival throughout the early ‘80s. After two albums, a UK TV series and extensive touring throughout Europe, Pookiesnackenburger also produced the highly acclaimed “Bins” commercial for Heineken lager. The piece was originally written and choreographed by Cresswell as part of the band’s stage show. It proved to be the starting point for Stomp’s climactic dustbin dance.

McNicholas created an eight-minute percussive movie for Bette Midler’s HBO special, "Mondo Beyondo".

Between 1987 and 1990, Cresswell directed staged four large-scale outdoor events, including "Beat the Clyde". which involved floating a drum orchestra on a pontoon in the center of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

; the largest of these events, the "Heineken Hove Lagoon Show", involved a 120 piece drum orchestra featuring the Brighton Festival Chorus and a full orchestral string section.

In the summer of 1991, Cresswell and McNicholas produced, financed and directed the original Stomp show, previewing at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre and premiering at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, where it became the Guardian’s "Critic's Choice" and won the Daily Express's "Best of the Fringe" award. Originally a seven-piece (with Luke Cresswell , Theseus Gerard, Fraser Morrison, Carl Smith, Nick Dwyer, David Olrod and Sarah Eddy) Stomp grew to be an eight person outfit with the addition of Fiona Wilkes in the fall of ‘91.

Between 1991 and 1994, the original cast of Stomp played to capacity audiences around the world from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, from Dublin to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. The touring culminated in a sell-out season at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London in January 1994, where Stomp received an Olivier nomination for the "Best Entertainment Award" and won "Best Choreography Award in a West End show".

An expanded version of Stomp, involving up to 30 cast members, was originally created for the Brighton Festival UK and was subsequently presented in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It was most recently seen in September 1995 in an open air production at the Acropolis
Acropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...

 in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. This production broke all box office records, which had been established by Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

 in 1972.

Stomp began its run at the Orpheum Theatre
Orpheum Theatre (Manhattan)
The Orpheum Theatre, located on Second Avenue near the corner of St. Marks Place in the East Village neighborhood of lower Manhattan, New York City, is a 299-seat Off-Broadway theatre...

 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in February 1994 winning an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award for Most Unique Theatre Experience. By the summer of 1994, the first American cast was in place at the Orpheum, freeing the original cast for a sell-out tour of North America and Japan.

In the summer of 1995, two more American productions were created for the sole purpose of US touring which continues to this day. US casts have also debuted Stomp in Chile, Brazil and Korea. Meanwhile, a fifth Stomp company, also touring from the UK, was formed in 1997 and has consistently toured the world ever since. This company presented Stomp for the first time in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

 and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 and has been a regular visitor to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, The Netherlands and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Another Stomp production opened in San Francisco in May 2000 running for two and a half years.

The original cast of Stomp have recorded music for the Tank Girl movie soundtrack and appeared on the Quincy Jones album Q's Jook Joint. A soundtrack recorded by Cresswell and McNicholas for the Showtime Movie Riot was released in the Spring of 1997.

Stomp has also been featured in a number of commercials, including Coca-Cola's "Ice Pick", numerous spots for Target stores in the US, Toyota in Japan, and Seat in Europe.

Stomp also created the "Mr. Frears' Ears" series of short films created for Nickelodeon. "Brooms", a 15-minute short film based on the opening routine, was nominated for an Academy Award. This Stomp-oriented film was also selected for screening at the Sundance Festival and for competition at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...

.

Stomp made a special appearance on the Academy Awards in March 1996, with an acclaimed original piece involving the live synchronization of classic film clips and on-stage action, featuring 20 performers from all five productions.

In the summer of 1997, Cresswell and McNicholas created and directed Stomp Out Loud, a 45 minute television special for HBO, which combined stage material with new pieces created for TV. It was in the USA in December 1997 and subsequently received four Emmy Award nominations, for direction, sound mixing, multi-camera editing and art direction. 1998 saw the release of the Stomp Out Loud video and DVD around the world. Another unique blend of live action and film footage was created for the Emmy awards, in which Stomp effectively performed with Spike Jones.

Stomp performed after midnight on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at President Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

's Millennium celebrations. During 2000, a Sesame Street special "Let's Make Music", a collaboration between Stomp and the Muppets, was released on TV and video in North America.

Cresswell and McNicholas began production of their IMAX movie, Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey, in Brazil during Carnival 2000 and completed it in the summer of 2002. Pulse features an international cast, with performances from Kodo
Kodo (taiko group)
is a professional taiko drumming troupe. Based on Sado Island, Japan, they have had a role in popularizing taiko drumming, both in Japan and abroad...

, Timbalada
Timbalada
Timbalada is an Afro-Brazilian musician group from Candeal, Salvador, Brazil. It was founded by drummer Carlinhos Brown. The musical style is between samba reggae and axé, with strong influences from African music...

 and Eva Yerbabuena
Eva Yerbabuena
Eva Yerbabuena was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1970, but fifteen days after her birth went back to live in her parents hometown in Granada, Spain.-Biography:...

. It was released to critical acclaim in the fall of 2002 and won two awards at La Geode's film festival in Paris the following year. In 2004 it received the ultimate Imax Award for Best Film at the GSTA in Montreal. Pulse is still playing in IMAX theatres worldwide.

In September 2002, Stomp finally entered London’s West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 at the Vaudeville Theatre, and later that year performed as part of the Royal Variety Show for the second time. Stomp is now in its fifth year in London.

In 2003, a Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...

trailer featuring Stomp performances debuted in cinemas across the globe, and the following year an Emmy nominated sequence was created for ABC Sports coverage of the World Figure Skating Championships.

In 2006, Stomp’s New York production passed its 5000th performance mark. In the same year, Cresswell and McNicholas directed a public service announcement for television called "Stomp Out Litter", which featured the cast "sweeping up" at iconic locations in the five boroughs. They also began filming an IMAX 3D movie about South Africa’s Sardine Run, to be released in early 2008.

In addition, they were commissioned to create and produce Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra
Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra
Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra is a music based physical theatre piece created by the founders of the percussive theatre show Stomp, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas....

, which takes the ideas behind Stomp to a symphonic level, in celebration of 40 years of the Brighton Festival
Brighton Festival
The Brighton Festival is an annual arts festival which takes place in the city of Brighton and Hove in England each May. It was founded in 1966, and is the largest multi-art form festival in England...

q. The LFO subsequently performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Sydney Festival early in 2007 and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The show was reworked and renamed for a US tour in 2010: Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra
Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra
Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra is a music based physical theatre piece created by the founders of the percussive theatre show Stomp, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas....

.

In 2007, Stomp Out Loud opened in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

 at Planet Hollywood
Planet Hollywood
Planet Hollywood, a restaurant inspired by the popular portrayal of Hollywood, was launched in New York on October 22, 1991, with the backing of Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.-History:...

 Resort & Casino with an expanded cast and performed inside a new $28 million theater specifically created for the production.

Original UK cast

  • Luke Cresswell
  • Nick Dwyer
  • Sarah Eddy
  • Theseus Gerard
  • Fraser Morrison
  • David Olrod
  • Carl Smith
  • Fiona Wilkes

See also

  • List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
  • Cookin'
    Nanta (musical)
    Nanta is a popular South Korean musical. In English the show is also known as "Cookin". It premiered in October 1997 in Hoam Art Hall in Seoul.- Features :...


External links

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