Urbanatix

Instead of an encore, there is a "battle" between the street artists

At the end the artists form the typical "X" as an UrbanatiX greeting

Urbanatix is a project in which young street art talents from North Rhine-Westphalia have been training every year since 2010 and then appear in a show together with international artists . The primary venue is Bochum's Jahrhunderthalle . The producer is the Bochum agency Dacapo.

prehistory

At the beginning of 2007, the event agency Dacapo-Kultur Offensiv developed the idea of a large show production that finds and promotes young movement artists and lets them appear in a multimedia stage set together with modern, international artists and well-known beatboxers , musicians and DJs. The application as a Bochum project at RUHR.2010 - European Capital of Culture was rejected, but the first casting took place in spring 2009 . We were looking for around fifty young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who have already mastered parkour , freerunning , tricking , breakdance , skateboarding or biking . Professional trainers looked after the selected young men on several workshop dates as well as a two-week training camp in order to improve their skills and to rehearse showel elements. The first smaller appearances were at the Ruhr tent festival in August 2009.

From January 2010 training was possible in the desecrated and cleared Marienkirche in Bochum . In the 700 square meter hall, trampolines , obstacles , trick lanes, a Chinese mast, dance mirrors, ramps and everything else were set up. The support team included the directors Christian Eggert and Karl-Heinz Helmschrot, the choreographer Takao Baba and specialist trainers such as Hugo Noël from the Canadian Cirque du Soleil for the Catwall trampoline. At times, international artists such as Eike von Stuckenbrok were added, with whom they would later appear on the show.

First shows

At Whitsun 2010 the first show with 45 young talents and 8 international artists took place in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum . The backdrops on the 600 square meter stage were rebuilt several times during the show in order to offer appropriate jumping elements for bikers and freerunners with ramps or boxes.

The five late evening and midnight performances, each with 1200 spectators, were completely sold out and generated a positive response.

Urbanatix performed at several events in the European Capital of Culture year, such as the Ruhr tent festival or Bochum Total . In addition, they gave a 40-minute, specially choreographed show in front of around 10,000 spectators for the extra shift in Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund.

In September 2010 there was a new casting, this time also young women applied and were selected.

Further development

For December 2010, a new series of shows with thirteen events was realized in cooperation between Dacapo-Kultur Offensiv and the Jahrhunderthalle. These were all sold out.

In November 2011 there was the 3rd season under the title Spinning Around , again in the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum. There were also performances during the extra shift in July, this time on the Gelsenkirchen floating stage in the Nordsternpark . In addition, new auditions took place in May.

Since then there has been a new show production every autumn in Bochum's Jahrhunderthalle. Since 2011 all shows got one title: CloseUp! (2012), sub: City (2013), Outside the Box (2014), Now! (2015), Drop the Beat (2016), Grooftop (2017), Road Trip (2018).