Dancing Out of Their Skins

Alex: To sum the article below up, “the opening of Skins is genuinely brilliant - and confident - piece of contemporary dance”

The second series of Skins - a cultish TV drama that’s been described as This Life for teenagers - starts tonight on E4 (It is repeated Thursday on Channel 4). Like This Life, it’s got friendship and family, sex and soul-searching. Plus, it’s got school. The Guardian’s Charlie Brooker was initially a sceptic, but is now a convert. What’s more, he singled out the opening contemporary dance sequence as a sign that the programme “oozes confidence”.

Contemporary dance as a reason why telly is good? I’m impressed. Dance on screen - especially contemporary dance - doesn’t exactly have a reputation for pulling in the viewers (the single exception being Strictly Come Dancing). And while I’m a contemporary dance lover, I seem to spend much more time than I’d like defending it. The back foot has become my default position. So Brooker’s words made me pretty happy. And he wasn’t the only one that the dance sequence impressed. Here are some comments from young viewers on the E4 website:

“That dance was badd!!”
“totally awesome moves rocked”
“dat is so deadly!!!”
“saaaaaafe man.. dance was sikkkkkkkk”

That’s not hip-hop they’re talking about, it’s contemporary dance. In E4 web lingo: yay!

There are a few good reasons for this particular piece of dance on screen being a hit with viewers. First, there’s the choreographer, Israeli-born Hofesh Shechter, who’s currently on a bit of a roll. His choreography is raw and packs a terrific amount of energy. Second, the dance is not just decoration or filler; it actually does some work for the programme. In time-honoured backstage musical fashion (think Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street, Moira Shearer in The Red Shoes, or Leroy in Fame), young Maxxie from Skins is dreaming of becoming a dancer, so has to put in the work and overcome the obstacles if he wants to make it. The choreography indicates his energy and motivation much more directly than any dialogue.

Finally there’s Maxxie himself, played by actor Mitch Hewer, who looks a pretty fine dancer himself, especially given that he’s not professionally trained. But can you tell the dancer from the dance? Oh yes - just look at the following comments from the website:
“maxxie is god damn sexy love him and wot a fit body ohhhhhhhhhhhh”
“I M FALL IN LOVE IN MAXXIE!!!HE SO SWEETY!”
“how class is he at dancing and his hair is awesome”

Yes, a great number of comments on the dance are variations on Maxxie is hot, or Maxxie is cool - which is presumably why Channel 4 have used a blond and shirtless Maxxie on their Skins poster. Still, look at the clip, I think it’s not just Maxxie but the dancing itself that’s hot and cool.

And what Brooker says of the drama also goes for the dance: it achieves this by oozing confidence, not by pandering to an imaginary youth audience. Or staying on the back foot. Or, worst of all, actually trying to be hot, or hip, or cool.

SOURCE: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2008/02/dancing_out_of_their_skins.html

London Metro Loves Skins

It takes some balls to open your new series with three minutes of contemporary dance but, from its gay-baiting to its trash-talking jailbait teens, Skins has balls aplenty.

When we left the gang last time round, coolest kid on the block Tony (Nicholas Hoult) was on a life-or-death cliffhanger. Anyone’s who’s caught the flesh-teasing trailers will know that Tony is still with us.

Well, sort of: the new Tony is a traumatised shadow of his former self, no longer king of the hill now he’s off on a guilt trip that’s left his mates nonplussed.

This dark twist has lent Skins an angsty undertow but not at the expense of the sweetly sick humour that fleshes out the bones of the plot.

A few moments after the opening dance sequence, Tony’s sister was parking her backside on his disabled toilet, pushing the down button and gasping the kind of sexy ‘ooh la la’ you don’t get from a quick swipe of the old Andrex.

The best thing about Skins is that, though a teen drama at heart, it doesn’t take sides. The parents are just as dazed and confused as the youths, a point adroitly drawn in a touching exchange between wannabe dancer Maxxie (Mitch Hewer) and his dad (Bill Bailey), a builder with a sideline in canine choreography.

Thwarted ambition and unconditional love eddied around an understated scene which caught father and son’s uncertainties spot on. Skins is also wise beyond its years. Trying to teach Tony to write again, Maxxie simply tells him: ‘Just close your eyes and dance it.’ As a life philosophy, that’s hard to beat.

SOURCE: http://www.metro.co.uk/metrolife/article.html?in_article_id=98686&in_page_id=9

Skins S2E01 Summary

Tony lives! He was knocked down by a bus at the end of the first series of Skins (E4) in one of those out-of-the-blue, jump-start plot-twists writers tend to employ when they come to the end of a first series. He looked pretty dead but, also, now I think about it, a bit too pretty to be dead. Played by Nicholas Hoult, the engaging lad who persuaded Hugh Grant in About a Boy that a real man is a family man, Tony was the cocky little heartbreaker who wooed girls on screen and audiences off it. Sid, the bespectacled virgin, was more sympathetic. Cassie, the anorexic, played with brittle winsomeness by Hannah Murray, had the plot you needed to follow. But Tony was the life and soul of Skins. The writer Bryan Elsley and his team of young scribes (their average age, we are always told, is 22; it must be 23 now) were never going to let him go.

If you think I am spoiling the story for those who are waiting to get their skinful of self-obsessed rich kids in Bristol on Thursday night on Channel 4, I am not doing nearly as good a job of it as Channel 4 has itself. Spoilers have been running for days on its official Skins website in the form of video diaries. One has Tony, lying in a coma in intensive care, his eyes closed, listening to a tape his friends have made of their favourite sexual fantasies. Aroused, Tony opens his eyes, prompting a blogger on the site named “slightly_rebellious” to comment: “Wow. Gorgeous eyes! I think I may actually think Tony’s fit now. I’m a sucker for eyes.”

There was a shock in store for slightly rebellious last night, however. Tony is back but he is brain damaged and limps around like a zombie, his sarcasm replaced by amnesia. When he turns up at a party, the ghost at the feast, the ghastly Abigail raves: “You look so OK! Well, they said you were like a total mong and I would have been so pissed if you had been a vegetable and had to be turned off.” Tony does not remember her, even though he once called her, like, his total dream shag. Improbability springs eternal, however, and by the end of the episode his gay mate Maxxie has taught him how to hold a pen. “Do I have to gay you now?” asks Tony, his rapier wit loosed once more from its scabbard. Yet his writing is slow and childish.

I’d say the same for Elsley’s in last night’s episode. There were some sparks. Maxxie was pursued by a gang of homophobic thugs one of whom, predictably, was a closet homosexual himself. He finally pounced on Maxxie and looked as if he was about to rape him when Maxxie went “what-the-hell?” and shagged him anyway. Cassie, exiled in Scotland, has surreally taken up the highland reel - she’s crackers that one - a development that left the lovesick Sid more concerned than ever.

But elsewhere the plotting was humdrum. Maxxie had developed a builder dad (nice cameo from Bill Bailey) who wanted him to be a builder not a dancer. This was the oldest father-son plot in the world with dialogue to match, including: “I love you too Dad.” We spent too long in a noisy dance hall, endured a fellatio joke as a mum helped to do up fumble-fingered Tony’s flies, and listened to Michelle moon on about what might have been with Tony. But who cares what I think? I refer you to E4.com, where the nation’s youth will by now have had its say, allowing the rest of us to marvel at the dizzying level of literacy it has achieved.

SOURCE: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3351153.ece

S2E01: Music Guide

Straight from www.skinslife.com. Many thanks to Toby.

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J.S. Bach – Trocatta and Fogue in D Minor

We thought we’d try to trick you and begin the new series with some organ music so you’d think Tony had died. Most of you probably already knew this wasn’t the case, but the track works as a nice introduction to the next track…

Segal – Maxxie Dance

Skins composer Fat Segal gave us this exclusive track to begin series two. Showing a clear influence by the 2006/7 era of Dubstep wobble bass mixed with the ‘double time’ rhythms of classic Darkside Jungle acts like Goldie’s Rufige Cru Fat Segal is surely going to be very big very soon.

Grizzly Bear - Knife

Arguably the standout track from their Warp Warp debut Yellow House I feel that Knife is the only track that could perfectly illustrate the emerging friendship between Maxxie and Tony. Moving on from the lo-fi influence of The Microphones, Grizzly Bear take in Neil Young and Mercury Rev influences for this incredible track.

These Animal Men – Flawed is Beautiful

These Animal Men are a band people should check out if they like the early Manic Street Preacher stuff. Since the end of the last series it’s not just Tony whose had bad experiences, Sid’s lost his best friend and his girlfriend. This track’s used to show the anger that both Tony and Sid have pent up.

Julian Ronnie – Dog Dance

Bill Bailey and his dog dancing to country and western? Never would I have thought that this would be a part of Skins’ music but it strangely works.

Johnny Cash Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues

Maxxie and his Dad have just had an argument, they may appear different on the surface but when you think about it they’re remarkably similar. Maxxie’s clearly nicked one of his Dad’s records and is playing it to make himself feel better.

Day One – Bad Before Good

Skins like to emphasise its Bristol roots and Day One were one of the bands to come out of its Trip-Hop scene, following in the footsteps of Portishead and Massive Attack to a wider following. They’re now signed to One Little Indian and released their last album in the autumn. Taking in newer jazz influences Maxxie dances to this track to let out all of his frustrations after a hard day as well as to prepare for the excitement of the Warehouse Party.

Posh Kenneth aka MC Toby Welch (prod by CDK) – In Her Face

Posh Kenneth takes the rave by storm as he takes on his MC Toby Welch alias to spit his favourite bars whilst girls hang off his arms.

DJ Shadow’s – Organ Donor/Artifact

DJ Shadow’s revolutionary take on instrumental hip-hop in the late 90s still sounds important ten years later. Since then he has immersed himself in the north Californian ‘Hyphy’ scene for his album The Outsider to produce tracks such as Artifact.

Tunng – Engine Room

I’m a big fan of stuff like Tunng, The Books and stuff that comes out on labels like Leaf. We use this track to take a bit of a breath from the rave as we see Tony getting ready to leave the house.

Segal – Maxxie dance (reprise)

Once again we use Segal’s track as Maxxie runs away from the council estate bullies.

Feist – Limit To Your Love

After taking a key role in the Broken Social Scene and Peaches albums from a few years back, Feist has moved on from her indie and electroclash background to write traditional great pop songs.

Asobi Seksu – Thursday

Asobi Seksu give legendary shoegaze acts like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive a sugar-y pop update showing a clear influence by Shibuya-kei acts such as Cibo Matto and The Pizzicato Five. This ends the episode on an upbeat note as Tony has taken yet another step to recovery.

Episode One Review, By Me

Wow. I guess I’ve no longer got a reason to spend Monday nights glued to Live messenger now.

I thought it started strongly, however personally I didn’t think much of the dance at the beginning, it was a bit too stretched out I felt - not in length but the moves didn’t seem that complex and it was a touch repetitive. But hey, I’ve got two left feet so I’ll leave the dance critic outside.

I think Nicholas Hoult’s (Tony) acting is brilliant. You just feel so many emotions as a result of seeing him in this “broken” frame of mind compared to his cocky attitude we experienced in series one.  Around the dinner table at his house and learning to write his name were simply fantastic scenes, it just summed up his situation perfectly. He also looks good with his hair shorter.

Maxxie. I’m not sure here; he’s my favourite character and Mitch’s acting is on par with Nich’s, however I’m not too sure about the relationship between Maxxie and Tony now. Obviously Maxxie as the gay character is the sensitive member of the group, but it seems wrong if he “pulls” Tony out of the closet over the series. I enjoyed his second dance on the roof however. We learn about the mysterious stalker in the next episode for those wondering. Also is it me or does anyone else think he had a touch too much fake tan on (or so it seemed).

The girls on the car, and the chavs teasing Maxxie were hilarious. Dale, hmm, I wouldn’t but then Maxxie is a tart.

Jackie and Walter (Maxxie’s parents) played by Fiona Allen and Bill Bailey are strong parts. We learn that Jackie used to clean at the Stonem’s (Tony’s family) house hence the friendship between the two families. The relationship between Maxxie and his father is brilliant, the argument scene and the “make up” scenes were really powerful. I really hope we see more of his parents throughout the series.

Chris looks even more like a stoner that before with his fringe swept to the side exposing his pale, emotionless face.

Jal. I know something you don’t know, though I’m not sure how it’ll work yet.

Anwar. Just laughing my arse off at him.

Sid and Michelle are both emotionally unstable and I thought the acting by April and Mike was strong. Sid’s breakdown in the nightclub was brilliantly filmed and my god doesn’t he look even more geeky and baby faced than ever - I thought he’d have grown up a bit more now that he’s lost his cherry. The forest scene was another powerful scene which I believe is the final piece needed to set up the tone for this series.

I’m not sure what the situation is with Posh Kenneth, is he a sub character or a main character? He didn’t get his own episode in series one, however we did see him on a few occasions. He also got his own ‘Lost Weeks’ video. He’s also doing the Skinscast adverts.

I’m so glad that Effy has finally got some decent lines. I wasn’t too sure of her character last series, but now she seems to have matured. A lot.

Abigail was another welcome return. I just laughed the whole way through her scene. Kudos to the actress (can’t remember her name off the top of my head).

Other notes:

Having just passed my driving test I quite like these new BSM adverts.

Staying with adverts, I know this is prime telly and the ratings are going to be ridiculously (but deservingly) high, but 5 minute advert breaks are something I’m used to on Channel Five, not Four. Please cut down on them C4!!!

Overall I genuinely think this is one of the best Skins episode we’ve seen to date (yeah I know it’s only the first episode) but everything has just been turned up a notch and this can only get stronger as the new series progresses.

Rating: 8/10

It’s Here!

Skins S2E01 - Tonight, E4, 10pm

skinslife.com - Today, about 3pm

Skinscast - After the episode broadcasts tonight

Have a good day.

Skins Online Premiere

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Thanks to Skinsonline for spotting this

Reminder - S2E01 in full on myspace from 10pm