Artist Spotlight with Chad Taylor

Dancing with a recording artist and being on TV dancing was great, but after a while, something felt unfulfilled inside of me. A lot of dancer’s early outputs start off with either a love for freestyling/Improv or wanting to learn dance routines. From as young as 11 years old, I would find myself creating shows with props in my bedroom, which forced my mother to send me to dance classes. It only made sense that I was eventually going to go back to my creative inner child.

Taking guidance from my earliest mentor, Darren Pritchard, in 2013, I began to work on my first creative piece, Persistence, which was performed at the ‘Let’s Dance International Festival’ as a part of signatures in 2014 and Autograph at the Curve Theatre in Leicester. Through Arts Council funding, the piece went on to be performed on the Breakin Convention tour in 2016 at the Blackpool Grand Theatre and as a full-length show at the Contact Theatre in Manchester.

In 2018, I was offered a place in the Back to the Lab programme led by Jonzi D at Sadlers Wells, where I created ‘The Awakening’. Mid-2018 ‘The Awakening’ piece was commissioned by Dance Manchester and developed into an outdoor piece at Sale Waterside in Manchester.

Since 2018, I have been on a journey of exploring and creating work in non-traditional spaces. What I love about making work in non-traditional spaces is that the space for creativity feels limitless. The work I choose to do is usually based on the life experiences I have had and how I see the world through my eyes. When an audience comes to see my art, I want them to put my glasses on for 30 minutes or an hour. Feel, see & hear my experiences or question what I feel, see & hear. I see my art as therapy and a chance to be vulnerable.

‘Hip-hop culture has been and is still a big part of my life and identity’ 

With Closer To My Dreams, I wanted to be as unconventional as possible. I’ve always choreographed for hip hop artists and have also taken an interest in rapping/MCing. With me and my brother both writers and dancers, it only made sense to bring these 2 art forms together. Closer To My Dreams tells the stories of five dancers moving around spaces with the audience wearing headphones. The show weaves poetry/rap with hip-hop choreography. Closer To My Dreams is the journey of two young black brothers and their friends from inner-city Hulme pursuing their artistic dreams. Will they succeed with the odds stacked against them?

Living very parallel lives, the story shows the journey of two brothers forging relationships with their peers, family and romantic relationships. In a playful, heartfelt and unique take on family and friendship, it explores universal questions of how we respond to the trials and tribulations that life throws at us, what path to take, when to hustle and when to let go.

Closer To My Dreams is a binaural walkabout dance piece that explores how dance can be seen and experienced. The dancers are enthralling to watch as they take the audience on a journey to explore themes of friendship, gang violence, success, and acceptance against a soundtrack of music and spoken word. Find out more here.