No, it’s not THAT Banksy…

This Banxy is a Swindon boy who grew up immersed in hip hop culture – not the most obvious of geographical locations for a man now considered to be one of the leading dancers in his field.

So what’s his story?

Says Banxy: Even as a little boy I was dancing. To begin with it was Grease and Cliff Richard – this was the 70s after all. When Ska happened I was about 10 and it was brilliant; we had the music of Selector and Madness filling up the youth centres, and I would spend my weekends being chased by Mods. But by the time I was 12 or 13 the mood changed and skinheads seemed to be diluting the Ska movement – I had been to a Catholic school populated by Irish, Polish and Italian kids, and I found the racism of the skinheads really confusing. Against a new soundtrack of Adam Ant and the New Romantic era I started rapping (sort of) and I also tried to join a girl’s dance club – I was rejected.

I had to practice my stuff on my own so began doing robotics at school and moonwalking in my socks in the kitchen. I hadn’t really heard of breakdancing though until I saw pictures of kids in New York doing their windmills, and that was it, I was hooked.

Some boys in the year above me used to go into town at the weekend and practice their moves – I would go and watch them, trying to mimic their steps. Eventually, after weeks of being ignored, they started to teach me what to do and I would be in town every Sunday with a stereo practicing my stuff. Wednesday nights at the Brunel were legendary – although, aged 15, back spins were pretty much the only thing I could do.

I left school at 16, got rejected from art college, and found myself at Swindon Dance. It was a two year course and I was totally out of place – the ballet students would turn up in tights and there was me in my trainers! During the second year I never made it to ballet class once. We did get some interesting jazz dancers from Coventry though and with them I felt more at home – I started to get into their fashions of leg warmers, trench coats and trilby hats.

At the end of the two years, true to form, I hadn’t looked into what to do next and picked up the last leaflet left in our careers racks. It was extraordinary. Black kids were right there at the front, dressed up like the Dance Theatre of Harlem. There was no question of where I was going – and so I found myself at the newly opened Northern School of Contemporary Dance in a particularly rough part of Leeds. By now it was the early 90s and the streets of Chapeltown were alive with energy – it was all BMX and barbers, with kids customising their own clothes to make ends meet.

The Northern School was full of black kids – it wasn’t just dance, it was an education into a whole new culture. My mates would laugh at me because I just couldn’t hear the beat of the music as suddenly I was being immersed into jazz sounds. I also met some of the major players from legendary breakdance crews of the time, learning moves from Benji Reid.                 

Next came London Studio College in the West End – it was all shiny teeth and jazz hands and once again, I didn’t have the right outfits so never make it to ballet class. It was then that I made my way onto TV, including the opening titles for Dance Energy which was the first youth programme to really deal with the music we were all listening to.

Since then things have taken off and I’ve had opportunities to perform in places including America, Netherlands, Prague, Helsinki, Germany and France.  

Banxy is a veteran in UK hip hop dance. Having trained at Swindon Dance, the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and the London Studio Centre, he has spent the last fifteen years teaching and performing across the UK and abroad.

High-profile projects Banxy has been involved with include dancing and choreographing Jonzi D’s Me Vs the City and Aeroplane Man tours, choreographing breakdance sequences for the BBC TV series Travels with my Tutu with Deborah Bull, Principle Dancer at the Royal Ballet; and teaching and rehearsing  the ground performance dancers at the Millennium Dome celebrations. He has appeared as a dancer in many TV shows, live events and music videos, including George Michael’s Spinning the Wheel.

Banxy has been heavily involved with Swindon Dance throughout his professional career and was commissioned to perform at their 25th Anniversary Gala. Most recently he appeared in the BBC Blast programme as part of the Big Dance event in Trafalgar Square, and gained second place in the Battle of the Desert competition in Almeria, Spain.

Banxy toured his production Busk: Kings of the Sidewalk extensively throughout the UK in the Autumn of 2007 to great acclaim and when not touring delivers extensive education and outreach to a wide variety of ages and abilities.