Nordic Folksong is a documentary series that explores the lives of Scandinavian creative individuals living in England.
England has the greatest density of Scandinavian emigrants in the world and many of them are creative artists or designers that are not known by the Scandinavian audience. This documentary is trying to lift those that not only dears to move to another country but who believes in themselves and their dream of succeed as a creative artist.
Tommy arrived in the UK in 2001 and is probably mostly recognised as the runner-up of BBC 1’s “So You Think You Can Dance” 2010 but some might have seen him in Mamma Mia – The Movie. After working professionally as a performing artist for 16 years, Tommy has in the recent years also dwelled into choreography. Most recently he choreographed for ZooNation’s “Some Like It Hip Hop”
He was nominated for an award by the Critic’s Circle’s “National Dance Awards” in the “Best Male Performance (Modern)” category for his efforts in the show “Goldberg” at The Royal Opera House and “Blaze” (in which he also choreographed) at Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre
Tommy is working with the Russell Maliphant Company and is touring internationally with the show “The Rodin Project”. Tommy has also been nominated an Olivier Award 2012 for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.
These tickets needs to be ordered by midnight tonight 27th May 2014. Flash Mob is playing at the Peacock Theatre in London from 27th May-8th June 2014.
With his quicksilver fluency and remarkable range – from B-boy dance to balletic grace – the former So You Think You Can Dance runner-up deserves to win this time.
Judith Mackrell
Monumental … National Dance awards nominee Tommy Franzén performs in the Rodin Project at Sadler’s Wells. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian
Last week, the nominations were announced for this year’s National Dance awards, and it’s no surprise that Tommy Franzén is in the running for outstanding male dancer. Whether touring in Zoo Nation’s Some Like it Hip Hop and Russell Maliphant’s The Rodin Project, or starring in Flashmob during its long Edinburgh run, there can hardly have been a night when Franzén wasn’t on stage during the past 12 months. But its not his stamina that makes him outstanding, it’s the quality and range of his dancing.
This glitzy showreel, culled from his appearance in the BBC’s So You Think You Can Dance, offers a quick tour around his signature skills. On a purely athletic level, there may be other B-boy dancers who execute fiercer turns or hold more heartstopping balances than Franzén – but I’ve seen none to match his quicksilver fluency. He glides and twists through a dance phrase like an eel (0.25-30), yet at the same time moves with a buoyancy that brings air and light to his footwork (0.50–59). It’s the hip-hop equivalent of classical ballon, and Franzén – who has worked with ballet dancers like Tamara Rojo in the past – seems to be consciously working classical elements into his repertory. At 1.27 he slips a brief pirouette in among the B-boy spins, while the climactic tumbling spin that concludes his final routine is like a reckless hip-hop version of the classical revoltade, in which the dancer appears to be vaulting over his own leg.
These clips were assembled to show Franzén’s best, point-scoring moves in SYTYCD. But while the shenanigans of the personality contest element robbed him of first place, what made him the honorary winner of that series was the exceptional musicality of his performances. In the first three routines, every move maximises the surface speed and bounce of the rhythm, yet Franzén still has the time to fill out the larger phrases, carving out his own expressive structure. It’s the secret of great popular dancing (Astaire had it too) and it’s very evident in the Beggin’ clip, where Franzén captures the song’s core dynamic of emotional yearning (the suspended spiral at 0.23) even while hurtling forward on its beat. In the final slow routine, set to Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me a River, it’s fascinating to watch him experimenting with the natural choppy pulse of hip-hop – slowing it down, stretching it out across the action of his arms and torso.
Franzén’s willingness to push himself against the grain of his genre is even more impressive in this clip from Classical Break, choreographed by Tony Adigun to a fragment of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
The music develops through challengingly slow increments of harmony and melody – if Adigun’s choreographic response occasionally seems a tad gauche (0.58), Franzén’s body gets deep inside it. Here too he rounds out every phrase (O.24), but there’s a floating suspension to some of his movements (0.28-30) and a miraculous, gliding evenness of footwork (1.19) that create an uncanny dialogue with the long, romantic lines of the score.
Franzén can also do stillness, and in the concluding moments of this solo you can see him daring to use the full force of his physical presence. It’s a quality that made him a natural dancer for Maliphant, even though the latter’s choreography owes far more to the meditative dynamic of t’ai chi than the urban gregariousness of hip-hop.
In this section of the wall duet from the Rodin Project, Franzén and his fellow B-boy dancer Dickson Mbi perform the extraordinary feat of dancing on a vertical plane. It takes strength and balance (Franzén is also a dedicated rock climber), but their graceful, molten manoeuvres combine a fusion of the human and the monumental that’s powerfully affecting – and a true homage to Rodin’s art.
Click here to view original article on The Guardian website.
Flash Mob is opening today at The Peacock Theatre and will be running until 4th November 2012. I was performing in Flash Mob when we originally created it for the Edinburgh Festival 2012. For the London version I was only a tiny bit involved in the choreography but it was great to somehow be a little bit involved again nevertheless. Hope you are coming to watch this dance extravaganza!
Performers: Charlie Bruce (Winner of SYTYCD UK), Alleviate (Got to Dance), Brosena (Got to dance), R.Elle Niane (Streetdance 3D 2) and her dance partner Edwar Ramos and Elektrolytes (Winners of America’s Best Dance Crew).
Artistic Director: Gary Lloyd. Assistant: Rachel Kay
Pre-Review…Dance shows have never really featured as much at the fringe over its million years unlike it does now. With a variety of hugely popular dance shows on TV the public demand for more dance shows has meant they now have the chance to not only get created but to tour and feature at the worlds biggest fringe festival.
This year “Flash Mob” is on a path to becoming the most talked about dance show of the fringe 2012. Filled with performers from all spheres of the dancing work “Flash Mob” has been causing stirs and now there is an opportunity to see why.
Though this was only day 2 of their shows at Assembly Festival main hall the early technical problems could have been more problematic than they where. It did get a little uncomfortable to see the dancers have to restart but it didn’t seem to faze the audience and they quickly managed to get it fixed though throughout the show there would still be a few glitches which I only mention do to the emotional beauty that these dancers showcased last night.
The ability, skill, and wonderment that each of the different dancers brought to the show was remarkable but I only had two issues. The first was a lack of story – the dancers are at the very top of their game and produce such a mesmerising spectacle on stage their different ability and skills could have been woven into a different narrative. The second issue was that the female dancers where not given their own section like the male dancers had been. As performers each of the women dancer showcased, grace, strength, and beauty in such a remarkable way and should have been able to move away from the male dancers and given their moment to shine.
A Contemporary Move
When the Olivier Award nominate Tommy Franzen came on stage to perform a tough and physically brutal and honest contemporary piece the show change. In a stunning display of skill and ability Franzen showed just why he is an Olivier Award nominated performer. It was a heartbreaking piece to watch as Franzen moved in perfect balance with the music, his body wrapping around every note heard creating something truly breathtaking.
Dance review: Flash Mob, Assembly Hall (Venue 35), Edinburgh
Flash Mob includes jaw-dropping moves from a talented ensemble of performers.
By KELLY APTER
Published on Monday 6 August 2012 16:39
FOR every self-indulgent, esoteric, audience-alienating dance show ever performed, Flash Mob is the antidote.
Flash Mob
Assembly Hall (venue 35)
Rating: *****
Don’t be confused by the title – this is no shopping-centre gathering where those around you suddenly burst into synchronised movement. This is a dance mob that’s flash – although for “flash”, read talented, hard-working and completely dedicated to their craft.
For those who think commercial dance means leaving your artistry at the door, then the five acts brought together to create this Fringe highlight are ready to prove you wrong.
Most of them have come to the public eye via television, reaching the finals of one of the recent glut of dance programmes re-igniting the genre.
Tommy Franzén is probably the best known, having been runner-up in the 2010 series of So You Think You Can Dance? and, fittingly, the production opens with him in a spot-lit solo.
But this is no one-man show. Flash Mob is a celebration of dance and the many wonderful forms it comes in. Known mainly as a hip hop performer, Franzén also does a nice line in contemporary dance, with some reflective work peppered with breakdance moves. When it comes to contemporary, however, Alleviate are the stars of the show.
Nicolette Whitley and Renako McDonald were runners-up in 2011’s Got To Dance, and their two heart-felt duets, one of which uses the Eminem/Rihanna song Love The Way You Lie to great effect, are joy to watch.
Having only recently made the final in this year’s Got To Dance, A Team has yet to make a name for itself in the way Diversity and Flawless have, but this slick hip hop crew deserves to. Four men and one woman switch from one soundtrack to the next in the blink of an eye, throwing in some impressive back-flips to warm up the crowd.
A superb and utterly spellbinding Irish dance duo, Brosena (also from this year’s Got To Dance), and sensual Latin couple Mike Viry and Yunaisy Farray, complete the bill, widening out the dance genre further, with Viry in particular providing some jaw-dropping moves.
It’s this pick-and-mix quality that makes Flash Mob such a great ambassador for dance as a whole. The only problem with the show is it lasts just an hour. With such joyous talent and variety on offer, that could easily have been doubled without fear of boredom.
When the dancers of Flash Mob ask the audience to join in with a dancealong routine, they get a giggly, enthusiastic response. It’s a happy ending for a friendly show that brings together dancers from various reality TV dance series, in styles from hip hop to Irish dance.
The dancers create their own numbers, which makes for variable choreography but warm, committed performance. Some routines have the cheesy openness of a 1980s dance movie: there’s big emoting and swoopy moves from contemporary duo Alleviate. Irish dance duo Brosena have a very Eurovision soundtrack, but match it with sparkling footwork. Mike Viry and Yunaisy Farray, who appeared in the movie Streetdance 2 3D, ripple and undulate through Latin numbers, hips and shoulders boggling.
The stellar performance comes from Tommy Franzén, recently nominated for an Olivier award. He shows both his street and contemporary dance sides, from weighted, curling moves to a sugar rush of a routine to the Jackson 5. He leads a cheerful rehearsal number with the other men, trying out styles and pretending to pinch each other’s showiest moves.
Bouncy and aspirational … Flash Mob’s performers have been culled from TV reality shows. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian
Britain has apparently become a nation of dancers, or at least a nation addicted to TV dance shows. The finale of this short, entertaining production sees the entire audience getting to their feet in response to instructions from the stage, uniting in a mass hand-jiving, hips-sashaying dance.
The selling point of Flash Mob is that its performers have been culled from TV shows, with headliner Tommy Franzen, a finalist from BBC1’s So You Think You Can Dance. What makes Franzen a star, however, has little to do with his screen celebrity: it’s the skill and musicality of his dancing.
His style is a mix of choppy footwork, one-arm balances and slippery dives, all delivered with a manner that’s part hip-hop homeboy, part music hall comic. On top of this, Franzen can layer elements of contemporary dance, jive and ballet, and phrase it all with such rhythmic acuteness that every move has a three-dimensional expressiveness.
Franzen alone is worth the price of a ticket – but unfortunately everyone else on stage ranks in very sharply descending order of appeal. My favourites are Irish dance duo Brosena, particularly their belter of an opener, which features a hip-hop version of Beethoven’s Fifth driving their feet to an intensity of swivelling, criss-crossing speeds.
A-Team deliver some tight and tough street routines, fronted by tiny schoolgirl Suki, whose speciality is balancing on one leg and jabbing the other high in the air, an angelic kung fu master in trainers.
Mike Viry and Yunaisy Farray look out of place, however, their strenuous sultriness imported from late-night Cuban cabaret; while contemporary dance couple Alleviate need to find better choreography than their literal-minded duets of sex and heartbreak.
Still, the bouncy, aspirational style of the show is hard to resist. The evening I saw it, one small child refused to leave her spot as the theatre emptied, still rapturously going through the closing flashmob dance.
Full line up for Edinburgh is Olivier award nominee and So You Think You Can Dance runner up Tommy Franzén, Got To Dance runners up Alleviate, The A-Team also from Got To Dance, Mark Swarf Calape winner of Move Like Michael Jackson, Brosena from Got To Dance and Mike Viry and Yunaisy Farray, Latin dancers from StreetDance 2 3D the movie. Where dance worlds collide, this will be an explosive show directed by the award winning Gary Lloyd (Thriller Live, Hair etc). Get tickets now http://www.assemblyfestival.com/event.php?id=182
I’ve been nominated a Laurence Olivier Award 2012 for Outstanding Achievement in Dance for my efforts in Some Like It Hip Hop. It’s an immense honour for me and also for the fact that I’m in the same category as Sylvie Guillem. That means it will be very hard to win it but just being nominated is amazing enough for me.
Some Like It Hip Hop is also nominated for Best New Dance Show whereof I’m one of the choreographers alongside Kate Prince and Carrie-Anne Ingrouille. Additional choreography by Duwane Taylor and Ryan Chappell.
“Since SYTYCD Tommy Franzen has been busy. He’s just about to start 4 weeks of the ZooNation’s new show ‘Some Like it Hip Hop’ as co-lead, dance captain and choreographer and we caught up with him at Cloud Dance Festival in Summer (cloud-dance-festival.org.uk). Here he is talking about his work with Royal Ballet soloist Kristen McNally, performing her piece ‘Don’t hate the player, hate the game’ and showing us how to do some moves. Get your crash mat and knee pads out. You’ll need them.”
ZooNation’s Some Like It Hip Hop will preview at the Birmingham Hippodrome 13th – 15th October and will then run at the Sadler’s Wells Peacock Theatre 20th October – 19th November.
The UDO World Street Dance Championships 2011 will be held in Blackpool from 26-28th August. I’ll be judging the competition, perform a solo and selling my merchandise.
This is the highlights from when I performed a solo choreographed by Kristen McNally called “Don’t hate the Player, Hate the Game” at Cloud Dance Festival 23rd July 2011.
“Tommy Franzen, as expected, gave a blasting performance to close the show – the best saved for the last.
Tommy Franzen turns the stage into a serious sizzler
The versatile hip-hop sensation Tommy Franzen, the first ever hip-hop dancer who was nominated for a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award earlier this year gave a heated performance effortlessly accelerating into top gear with his breaks, as always, in tact.
As we know, Tommy Franzen was an aerialist in the opening ceremony for the Asian Games, and in the closing ceremony Tommy played a lead character as an actor. Tommy Franzen also has a strong background in musical theatre and has previously taken dance classes in a variety of styles. Defining Tommy as a hip-hop dancer would therefore be a bit of an understatement. Much of what we saw during the So You Think You Can Dance series last year and even on Saturday night at Cloud Dance Festival where Tommy Franzen stepped into the role created by the Royal Ballet’s soloist Thomas Whitehead in Kristen McNally’s famous choreographed piece “Don’t Hate The Player, Hate The Game”, which he very much made it his own, not only shows Tommy’s passion for different forms of dance but continues to exhibit skill and talent. No wonder Urdang Academy offered Tommy a scholarship back in 2000.”
Thepublicreviews.com – Tony Stotts-Rates
“Festival headliner Kristen McNally’s enjoyable Don’t hate the player, Hate the game, was a worthy close to the night and hip hop dancer Tommy Franzen a very engaging performer. McNally is known for her use of pop culture music and references mixed with some exciting choreography to create fresh cutting edge pieces. In this she successfully merges various dance styles from breaking to contemporary ballet movement which is effectively explored and performed by b-boy Franzen. What makes this piece stand out for me was how palpably the dancer enjoyed dancing it, it was sexy and dangerous, humorous and fun, dancer and movement interacting with the music and lighting, bringing to mind James Bond, Cowboys, and suave and dapper gentleman partners at formal dances.” Londondance.com – Libbo Costello
“Bringing Firefly to a close on Saturday was perhaps the most anticipated artist of the evening. Tommy Franzen, of So You Think You Can Dance fame, performed Royal Ballet soloist, Kristen McNally’s Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game. It was originally choreographed to Kanye West’s latest album, in the Apple Store, Covent Garden earlier this year. With the audience helping to create the work, this was probably one of the first dance pieces to be made interactively in a shop.
Franzen took the place of Royal Ballet soloist Thomas Whitehead in this reworked solo and used his unique hip hop based style to ease through the movements. At least part of the joy of watching Franzen is down to the sheer happiness he radiates when on stage. McNally’s choreography saw him, with the help of the music, transform from gentry to city slicker in a few brief movements.”
Dance Ink
“Highlights of the evening included Kristen McNally’s work, Don’t hate the player, Hate the game, danced exquisitely by Tommy Franzen. The music, moves and charisma had the audience laughing for the mere joy of it.”
The Londonist – Lindsey Clarke
“Star billing goes to all round ace and SYTYCD star, Tommy Franzen dancing a solo by Royal Ballet soloist and groovy mix it up with hip hop choreography cat, Kristen McNally. Tommy is – as always – awesome”
Laura Dodge
“Known for her small-scale ‘indie ballets’ with modern cultural references, Kristen McNally’s choreography fuses numerous dance styles to varied sound accompaniment – from music to the spoken word. Don’t hate the player, Hate the game was an utterly engaging piece and a comment on people’s need to conform rather than dare to be original. Hip-hop dancer Tommy Franzén was exquisite, especially in robotic body isolations where he moved minute body parts with the utmost precision. He seemed to be testing out different identities in order to find one that fitted, always moving with a tangible pleasure and allure. At times bouncy, at others poignant and everything in between, Don’t hate the player rounded off the evening with a punch.”
” Sunday evening concluded with a second showing of Kristen McNally’s Don’t hate the player, Hate the game. Again performed exceptionally by Tommy Franzén, this rounded off Cloud Dance Festival’s weekend of choreographic treats wonderfully.”
Celia Moran
“Kristen McNally’s Don’t hate the player, Hate the game performed by Tommy Franzen left no dance genre unturned. Franzén sauntered from popping, to breaking , mime and contemporary seamlessly. However, writing this made me question: why is this noteworthy? If a breaking move fits in the music alongside contemporary, why should it be out of context? It’s all dance, isn’t it? Although McNally will admit: ‘it was based on my interest in the Stanford prison experiment and our nature to conform to a perceived ideal. As always it ended up a million miles from this!’ I’ll forgive a tangent when it’s this enjoyable to watch!”
Kim Lofthouse (Cultiv8 Arts)
“The night culminated with Kristen McNally’s “Don’t hate the player, Hate the game”, an edgy indie ballet performed by hip-hop dancer Tommy Franzén. The exquisite choreography is peppered with pop culture references from Reservoir Dogs to Michael Jackson and this is reflected in the modern score and the urban edge that Franzén brings to the classical ballet movements within the piece. The themes of conformity & control that inspired McNally quickly become evident as the dancer shifts seamlessly between conforming to and resisting the demands of the music. Franzén personifies this character wonderfully, engaging the audience throughout and leading us on the same adrenaline-filled journey that he is going through on stage. The blending of the classical and the modern is the true genius of this piece, making it endlessly engaging to a modern audience of dance lovers and dance first timers.”
“The climax of the night was Kristen McNally’s “Don’t hate the player, Hate the game”, an edgy indie ballet performed by hip-hop dancer, Tommy Franzén. Normally, I struggle to watch dance pieces more than once and still feel the same sense of excitement as I do the first time, but this was definitely not the case for this one. The pop culture references and blend of humanity & urban edginess that Franzén brings to this piece resonated as loudly the second time as it had the first, enthralling the audience. It was truly a joy to be able to watch this piece a second time and pick up on the subtler nuances of McNally’s choreography that underpin the tangible energy of this piece and its dynamic blend of old and new, urban and classical. It is this mixture that sets the piece apart from its rivals as something truly original. A wonderfully high-octane end to a fantastic weekend of dance.”
Michelle Harris
“Closing the show with a work that in contrast brought some light relief to the evenings more serious offerings was Firefly’s festival headliner Kristen McNally. A soloist for the Royal Ballet, McNally presented Don’t Hate The Player, Hate The Game, a quirky animated solo, reworked for the BBC’s ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ finalist and ZooNation’s star Tommy Franzén. Although originally based on McNally’s interest in the Stanford prison experiment, it’s not this narrative that ultimately shines through during the dance, but Franzen himself, with an absorbing and charismatic performance.
Whether a debonair hero, cowboy or enthusiastic Elvis impersonator, Franzén struts, body pops, leaps and windmills his way through the material, gloriously imitating the melo-dramatic intro to Michael Bubles’ ‘Cry Me A River’ and then a beaty, up-tempo electronic track. A fusion of Street Dance, Contemporary and Balletic styles, McNally’s witty, cutting edge choreography sits well on Franzen, effectively showcasing his talent for versatility and musicality. If there’s one criticism for McNally it’s that this enjoyable escapade seems to end too soon.”
Susanne Allen
“The evening drew to a close with an outstanding performance by Swedish-born dancer Tommy Franzén, with choreography by Royal Ballet soloist Kristen McNally. Don’t hate the player, Hate the game was truly worth the wait as Franzén plays out numerous styles from classical ballet to body popping and hip-hop, a style Franzén is renowned for, which was utterly superb. There has been a buzz of excitement surrounding Cloud Dance Festival this year like no other Festival before it, and for me, this performance was the reason. McNally’s unique choreography and Franzén’s mesmerising performance was breathtaking.”
I filmed an ident for Tuborg beer a few weeks ago and it’s now showing on TV. For you who don’t know Tuborg is a Danish beer owned by Carlsberg. Tubrog is also a city, which I used to take the ferry to from Sweden when I was younger. One of the 3 ferries going on that route was called Dana and my dad made the blueprints for it. So Tuborg feels a bit special to me and it’s very popular in Scandinavia.
The ident is for a competition to win a chance to direct LMFAO’s next music video. The new competition could see you fly to the US to direct the band’s next £50,000 music promo. For more details visit http://www.facebook.com/TuborgUK
“Highlights of the evening included Kristen McNally’s work, Don’t hate the player, Hate the game, danced exquisitely by Tommy Franzen. The music, moves and charisma had the audience laughing for the mere joy of it.”
M. Andre from Retox Magazine came to watch Cloud Dance Festival – Firefly on Saturday the 23rd of July and this is her review of it. She has written such nice things about me and I’m still buzzing from reading it. I’m very happy…
“Tommy Franzen, as expected, gave a blasting performance to close the show – the best saved for the last.
Tommy Franzen turns the stage into a serious sizzler
The versatile hip-hop sensation Tommy Franzen, the first ever hip-hop dancer who was nominated for a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award earlier this year gave a heated performance effortlessly accelerating into top gear with his breaks, as always, in tact.
As we know, Tommy Franzen was an aerialist in the opening ceremony for the Asian Games, and in the closing ceremony Tommy played a lead character as an actor. Tommy Franzen also has a strong background in musical theatre and has previously taken dance classes in a variety of styles. Defining Tommy as a hip-hop dancer would therefore be a bit of an understatement. Much of what we saw during the So You Think You Can Dance series last year and even on Saturday night at Cloud Dance Festival where Tommy Franzen stepped into the role created by the Royal Ballet’s soloist Thomas Whitehead in Kristen McNally’s famous choreographed piece “Don’t Hate The Player, Hate The Game”, which he very much made it his own, not only shows Tommy’s passion for different forms of dance but continues to exhibit skill and talent. No wonder Urdang Academy offered Tommy a scholarship back in 2000.”
Here is the record label Syco’s 25 minute Behind The Scenes of Cher Lloyd’s Swagger Jagger Music Video. It includes an interview with myself but also with the Director, Make up artist, Hair stylist, Dancers and Stylists.
tommyfranzen 
