Ivan Michael Blackstock
Ivan Michael Blackstock is a multidisciplinary creative, working as an artist, mentor, and cultural innovator.
The much-varied work of this South London-born artist has been presented at Sadler’s Wells and 180 The Strand in London, as well as Paris’ Villette Theatre. He worked with Beyonce to choreograph both Black Is King and the Grammy award-winning music video 'Brown Skin Girl', and is co-founder of BirdGang Dance Company, and founder of CRXSS PLATFXRM festival.
Alongside all this, for the past seven years Blackstock has been working on TRAPLORD. Conceived in an abandoned East London leisure centre it is a work which touches on masculinity, mental health, race and transcendence via the Black experience, and has recently been nominated for The Olivier Awards as ‘best new dance production’.
Blackstock takes his inspiration from a broad spectrum of artists, explaining ‘I like to sample my inspirations like a music producer’, but identifies Michael Jackson as his biggest influence. ‘His artistry is incredible. He found ways to break ground in many multi-faceted areas of culture and entertainment [in a way] which still has a lasting impact today’.
‘Having support from Southbank Centre and [their] technical team in the early stages of the work will give me a space to catalyse my research into exciting developments.’
He will be using the space and support offered by Southbank Centre Studio to explore a first new work in seven years; the establishment of a new world that will live in an online and offline space. During his residency Blackstock will be developing the offline, ‘live’, space, which will be anchored by the idea of fusing spirituality and technology, using dance, live music, visual art and new technologies. ‘I'm looking forward to the new data and deeper relationships that will unfold during this process’.
Blackstock’s Southbank Centre Studio is the latest milestone in a lifelong connection between the artist and our venues, as he explains. ‘I've had many full circle moments at the Southbank Centre, from performing as a child, and seeing some of my favourite dance works as a young adult, to hosting CRXSS PLATFXRM on the terrace, and practising my dance moves outside the cloakroom on a weekday evening. I'm looking to build more memories and a stronger relationship here at the Southbank Centre’.