DL Publications

Be CreativeL’ART

Issue 7

April 2012

Editor’s Letter

3

Hi all and welcome to the seventh issue of L’ART; the East-er fashion issue.

With it being the month of Easter and a time where those who worship Jesus, praise and give thanks for his sacrifice, we take a look at the rise and popularity of Gospel music. Look out for this special on pages four and five.

Paying homeage to fashion as we enter summer 2012, we’ve also got a select few outfits chosen for males and females to try this season. With on current trends, bright colours and afford-able prices from the High Street, you can begin updating your wardrobes or maybe even try a whole new look. The choice is yours.

Enjoy and have a great Easter holiday.

Daniella & Letisha

ContentsMusic

4 We focus on the rise of Gospel music and its successful artists6 OX105FM station is the new buzz on the radio. Who do you love listening to on your day to day?

22 Zahra has a chat with L’ART and gives us the low down on BG Records. Find out what she’s doing for young music artists out there.

11 Try out a new or updated look this summer from our very own lookbook

8 From her love for her Diva’s, training at dance school and

work in the theatre, Jenni Middleton shares her talent.

16 Leeds’ The Dance Company need you! Read on to find out more.18 MPF4

21 Word On The Street 2

Performing Arts

Reviews

L’ART L’ART

Fashion

4 5

As the Easter period is upon us, we take a look

at a genre of music that is highly influential during this religious time and is very up-lifting listening. We’re talk-ing about Gospel music.

You can preach the word of the lord in a joyous, fun and celebratory way. Big names in this genre include The Winans, Kirk Fran-klin, Mary Mary and Yolanda Adams to name a few and we’re here to spread the word on this genre.

Although gospel music stems

from the church, it’s not just about hymns and preaching words from the bible. You just have to listen to the work of these artists to realise this and each style that they bring

to the table repre-sents a new era of gospel music.

Every keen listen-er of gospel mu-sic will mention the Winans. They are often referred to as the family of

gospel and each mem-ber has had their very own successful collection of hits. But the musical talent began with their parents, Delores and David Winans who en-

couraged their ten children to participate in the family’s an-nual Christmas concerts. This gave each family member a chance to develop their musi-cal talent, which has led to a col-lective number of Grammy nomina-tions and awards between them.

Another domi-nant gospel figure is Kirk Franklin. He may not be a singer but he still remains suc-cessful alongside his ever-talented team; his band, choir and back-up singers. Fran-klin’s style is more that of a choir director as he speaks spoken word over the tracks. Before he became a solo mu-sician, he organised a seven-teen-voice choir, which were made up of family members and close friends. Known as

Kirk Franklin & The Family, they dominated the gospel music charts and even ranked high on the R&B charts and gaining platinum status in the

process.

Some of our favour-ite Franklin tracks have got to be the popular ‘Revolu-tion’, ‘Looking For You’ and ‘I Smile’ although he has many joyful and up-lifting tracks in his back-catalogue.

There is a lot that we can share on this subject, so look out for our on-line posts through-

out the Easter period. Also, if you want to hear more, Bob-by Jones Gospel on BET is the perfect way to start. The show has been running since 1980 and it captures the true essence of gospel music in its glory.

Music Of The Spirit

Imag

e So

urce

: blu

esky

wed

ding

.co.

uk, l

ast.f

m, b

insi

detv

.net

, tvl

istin

gs.z

ap2i

t.com

Here’s an uplifting genre of music to add to your collection...

Kirk Franklin

Mary Mary

L’ART L’ART

L’ART

nights started with great ban-ter, tunes and their ‘Par of the Week’.

Also making her mark on the radio, is a woman who is known for bringing out the best in kids and young adults in her community, as well as putting on events all in aid of helping her locals. Youth project leader Marsha Jack-son can be heard on ‘The CDI Project’ along with co-worker Claire Ford every Saturday morning from 10am.

Sounding great in the Satur-day summer sunshine is duo Bobby Dee and Sarah with their Soul-a-coaster session. Giving you classic drive time tunes and kick back bangers, your Saturday listening is pretty much sorted for the day

L’ART

6

L’ART

7

Oxford has a new radio station and to many, it’s

what they’ve been waiting for for a very long time. Offering a regular dose of rnb, hiphop, garage, reggae and more, mu-sic lovers of commercial and mainstream genres of music, as well as the alternatives, can get all they want and more by tuning into OX105FM.

With presenters and radio DJ’s including members of the OX4 public, this personal touch gives the station a more homely feel as radio regulars entertain their listeners in their daily time slots, whilst get-ting in your requests, giving community news updates and getting you, the listeners in-

volved in hot topics for the day.

No stranger to Oxford’s music and DJ scene, and definitely a one of a kind character to help you wake up every week-day morning, is the morning crew’s DJ Spex, alongside his partner in crime DJ Row. Tagged as the ‘terrible two’, the pair bounce off each other well as they keep up with their audience on Facebook and Twitter, hold competitions and have you hooked with daily instalments of ‘Riddle Me This’ and ‘Who Am I?’. Plus you can even get your birthday shout outs in.

DJ Spex can also be heard with his co-workers when promotions team 2Xclu-sive get everyone’s Saturday

where Marsha, Bobby Dee, Sarah and 2Xclusive are con-cerned.

You can also catch L’ART favourite Dj Platinum on the airwaves every Tuesday night.

“I was one of the original radio presenters on OX105 when it was OX4FM,” he explained. After temporarily giving ra-dio a back seat to break on to the club scene, Platinum can now be heard 11pm-1am every week as a guest feature alongside the Natural Ele-ments Show.

Here’s hoping this station is here to stay! Head to page 21 to see what regular listeners have to say.

Promising non-stop jamz and community led fun, OX105FM give the public what they want. And after a

long journey, the rewards are tasting that much sweeter.

L’ART

ww

w.o

x105

fm.c

omw

ww

.ox105fm.com

Imag

e So

urce

: OX

105F

M

9

L’ARTL’ART

8

Jenni Middleton’s love for dance, stemmed from sib-

ling love at the age of three. Wanting to follow in the steps of her older sister, she started tagging along to classes as her “annoying younger sib-ling” she recalls. “It wasn’t long before I was going every week, taking dance exams and performing in shows and pantos in Oxford.”

Moving on to her time after school and performing in the area of dance, Jenni describes the four years she spent pro-fessionally training in Cam-bridge. Attending the pres-tigious Bodywork Company Dance Studios, as much as she enjoyed her experience, it wasn’t all fun and games. “We trained from 8.30am - 6.30pm every day and there were optional evening classes too - it’s definitely a career you have to be sure about be-cause the physical demand on your body is incredible.”

With opportunities to learn from some of the best dance professionals in the industry, Jenni has also been inspired by other performers she’s been honoured to meet and observe, as she developed her dancing as a talent and a ca-reer. “It’s been an honour to work with such talented people both in training and profession-ally.”

So following graduation, how does a profes-sionally trained dancer make her mark on the scene to show-case her newly learnt tech-nique and growth? “When I left college and came back to Oxford, I was looking for classes to keep up my fit-ness levels and maintain the level of training I received. I couldn’t find what I was look-ing for, so I created it!”

And this saw the birth of Raw Diva. “I’ve been to a lot of classes where competitive-ness completely takes over and the element of fun and friendship disappears. I want-ed to bring this back. I believe in high standards and hard work, but if it’s not fun and

you don’t make friends then how can you truly en-joy it? Raw Diva is like a fam-ily and I think it fills the gap that was missing in Oxford.”

“They make all of the hard work worth it. If I’ve had a stressful day, I walk into the studio, see the girls and it leaves me completely. The drive the girls have to push themselves constantly challenges me to do more; to initiate more opportunities to perform, to create more com-plex choreography and to be the best teacher I can be.”

The Diva’s are known in Ox-ford for supporting great caus-es. Commending the girls on their big hearts and ambi-tion to help others as much as they can, Jenni explains how one of their aims is to try and combine their passion for performing, particularly with local projects in order to raise money and awareness for worthy causes. Just last year the girls joined the many individual and group acts of singing, dancing and acting who support and help raise funds for the Miss P Founda-tion (see page 18). Joining the second half back in 2011 celebrating Motown, the Di-va’s gave a clean, sharp and eye catching performance to Edwin Starr’s ‘War’, which ran into a powerful perform-ance to Beyonce’s ‘Run The World (Girls)’. Very fitting as the strong group of 15 plus strutted their stuff across the New Theatre’s stage. They were even invited to perform at the Clothes Show/Dance

Facebook- Raw Diva

Twitter @rawdivaoxford

Show Live (Issue 5) at the Birmingham NEC, which Jenni described as being “a real honour”.

“Aside from Raw Diva, I am a co-founder of Troika Theatre Company - a young company full of ambition to produce quality, thought-provoking theatre.” As well as having the title of co-founder and be-ing able to use and enjoy the craft she was trained in, Jenni particularly likes that Troika is also a chance for her to keep performing, as well as bringing travel opportunities for her to do something she loves. “Every year we go to differ-ent countries to perform and

L’ART

Image Source: R

aw D

iva/ Jenni Middleton, w

orld dance managem

ent

11

conduct workshops for stu-dents who might not normally get to watch live theatre.

Looking back on her achieve-ments to date, Jenni highly commends her experience at Bodywork Company for opening several doors to her these past years. “Dance school has given me oppor-tunities that I would never have had without training; I’ve worked in plays and mu-sicals, danced in videos and even had a part in a Harry Potter film!

“The Divas mean everything to me. They are always learn-ing and striving for bigger and better things!”

10L’ART

L’ART LookBookNeon Colours Everyone has the urge to

buy at least one item from a retail store that they wouldn’t necessarily go for, but it’s still you. That’s why we want to focus on five styles/trends that anyone can look to for inspi-ration. If you want to think out of your fashion ‘box’ to-day, take a look...

1.2.

3.4.

5. 6.

8.

9.

7.Im

age

Sour

ce: 1

. C

o-or

d St

ripe

Flui

d B

laze

r - T

opsh

op 2

. Ti

e D

ye B

ra T

op -

Mis

s Sel

frid

ge 3

. W

et L

ook

Legg

ings

- To

psho

p 4

. W

areh

ouse

Dia

mon

d O

vers

ized

Bag

- A

sos

5. B

eige

Lea

ther

Loo

k B

rogu

es -

Boo

hoo

6.

Red

Pos

ter G

irl P

rint S

wea

tshi

rt - R

iver

Is

land

7.

Bla

ck S

kinn

y Je

ans -

Riv

er Is

land

8.

Bur

gund

y B

reto

n St

ripe

Polo

- To

pman

9.

Nik

e Sw

eet C

lass

ic H

i Tra

iner

s - S

chuh

Women

Men

£60

£28

£18

£38

£18

£26

£25

£20 £55

L’ART

L’ART

12

L’ART

13

Prints

A Day At The Office

1.2.

3.

4.

1. 2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Imag

e So

urce

: 1.

Gre

en P

enci

l Ski

rt w

ith P

U W

aist

band

- D

orot

hy P

erki

ns 2

. W

orkw

ear P

intu

ck S

hirt

- Oas

is 3

. O

vers

ized

Bow

ler -

Aso

s 4.

B

lack

Hee

l Hik

er A

nkle

Boo

t - D

orot

hy P

erki

ns 5

. W

edge

woo

d B

lue

Long

Sle

eved

Oxf

ord

Shirt

- N

ew L

ook

6.

Purp

le S

mar

t Tro

user

s - R

iver

Is

land

7.

Bro

wn

Elbo

w P

atch

Car

diga

n - T

opm

an 8

. Fl

at P

erfo

rate

d B

row

n Sh

oes -

Top

man

Imag

e So

urce

: 1.

Har

lequ

in P

rinte

d Sh

irt -

Oas

is 2

. D

ark

Red

Wid

e Le

g Tr

ouse

rs -

Riv

er Is

land

3.

City

Bag

With

Met

allic

Cla

sp

- Zar

a 4

. Sa

tin C

olou

r Blo

ck W

edge

s - N

ew L

ook

For The Ladies

Women

Men

£35

£25

£29.99£27.99

£13.70£30

£40

£40

£14.99

£30

£23

£38

14 15

L’ART

Festival Time

Ladies Beachwear

Imag

e So

urce

: 1.

Lem

on D

aisy

Ban

deau

- D

orot

hy P

erki

ns 2

. Le

mon

Dai

sy P

ant -

Dor

othy

Per

kins

3.

Anc

hor B

ikin

i Top

- O

asis

4.

Anc

hor

Bik

ini B

otto

m -

Oas

is 5

. G

old

Leop

ard

Cut

-Out

Sw

imsu

it - D

orot

hy P

erki

ns 6

. R

ed T

umm

y C

ontro

l Sw

imsu

it - D

orot

hy P

erki

ns 7

. W

hite

Mul

ti C

olou

r Fro

nt S

titch

Dre

ss -

Riv

er Is

land

8.

Pink

Max

i Cov

er U

p - T

opsh

op 9

. W

hite

Brim

Hat

With

Rib

bon

- Zar

a 1

0. T

wo-

Tone

San

dal -

Zar

a 11

. B

lue

Bird

Cut

Out

Cov

er U

p - T

opsh

op 1

2. T

wo-

Tone

Gra

duat

ed G

lass

es -

Zara

1.2.

3.4.

5.

6.

7.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.9.

10.11.

12.

Imag

e So

urce

: 1.

Lace

Stra

ppy

Sund

ress

- To

psho

p 2

. Sw

irl P

rint C

over

Up

- Mis

s Se

lfrid

ge 3

. Pi

nk &

Ora

nge

Ban

gles

- N

ew

Look

4.

Fusi

on T

an A

nkle

Cha

in S

anda

l - M

iss S

elfr

idge

5.

Whi

te H

arle

m S

how

case

Prin

t T-S

hirt

- Riv

er Is

land

6.

Blu

e Tw

iste

d Se

am S

horts

- To

pman

7.

Gre

y C

lass

ic V

ans -

Sch

uh

For The Ladies

Women

Men

£36

£30

£7.99£39

£16

£30

£45

£10.80

£8.10

£18

£14

£21.60

£25.20

£28

£38

£25.99

£19.99£28

£17.99

L’ART

L’ART

L’ART L’ART

16 17

Imag

e So

urce

: The

Dan

ce C

ompa

ny

L’ART

If you think back to Decem-ber, I guess a lot of you

were counting down the days until Christmas and the party season. As well as all that, a group of dancers were busy making big plans for an explo-sion of creativity, fundraising and awareness for 2012; all in the name of dance.

Following their penned phrase ‘inhale music, exhale dance’, The Dance Company pride themselves on teach-ing and giving back to their community and with weekly classes taught by members of the team, the group is off to a

good start.

And that’s not all. Every month the dancers give back to their student body and showcase and host their own student event, catering for nearly 3,000 people. Having recently signed a deal with Leeds Metropolitan Universi-ty to teach hip-hop and house styles at residential accom-modations and with plans in the pipeline to begin teaching Zumba to continue to promote fitness, what better time to sign up and get fit through the enjoyment of dance?... espe-cially seeing as they’ve even

achieved international recog-nition from some of the top choreographers and movie producers out there.

With funding from the O2, the result meant the ball has been set rolling for the company’s own charitable dance event taking place on Sunday April 29th.

Leading the team is dancer and Leeds University stu-dent Raymond. Keeping his head in his studies but finding plenty of time for The Dance Company, he created the com-pany to share his passion for the art and allow himself and others to create a movement. The big event will support charities that raise funds for children in need around the world. All dance styles and acts are welcome to join The Dance Company on the big night.

“We will be looking to have

The Dance Company

the best dancers in the world and the top celebrities of our time supporting this event. One night, one cause”, they explain.

Six-D members Levon and Pierre who have worked with dance royalty such as Lau-rieAnn Gibson and had you singing ‘The Best Night’ will also be attending The Dance Company’s fundraiser, along with the cast of BBC drama Waterloo Road. It’s going to be a memorable one that’s for sure.

Raymond also had more news.“I have created my own film company called Motion Par-allax. It will focus on short films, adverts and dance con-cept videos.”

We look forward to seeing more!

Twitter @TheDanceCoUK

Facebook- The Dance Company

1918

L’ARTL’ART

A Word From The MPF Founder/Director: Ms Beverley Harry

MISS P FAMILYEach year we have a

number of new dancers and performers that join the Miss P Family and 2011 was no ex-ception. We welcomed Raw Diva, Dance Connections, Jake Dean, DL Phunk, Bizzy and the Mess, Ollie Cousins, Ellie and Chloe, Jacob Yol-land, Helen Wadge, Manu Ahmed and a special Pegasus theatre reunion of ‘Spin Off’

dance group revisiting a firm favourite to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Redemption Song’. Thank you so much for joining the Miss P family.

FUNDING We started this venture be-cause Portia needed financial support in order to attend the Urdang Academy in Septem-ber 2009. It seems surreal that she is now in the throes

of planning her graduation in June. After gaining the full scholarship, the Miss P foun-dation was less financially responsible to Portia and this meant that we could continue to raise funds for the ben-efit of young people in and around the Oxford area. As a result, our funding window will be open very soon and we are currently accepting ap-plications so visit our website www.misspfoundation.com.

MISS P 2012This year we are taking on the task of producing the Wiz in the first half (see below) and I hope that you will all join us in making that happen. Since the death of singer Whitney Houston, we thought it fitting to mark her passing by dedi-cating the second half of the show to her music. The plan is to have a list of her songs attached to your invitation to perform as soon as we secure a date from the New Thea-tre. In particular, it would be

special if a number of singers would perform some of her well known songs, so if you know of anyone please let me know by sending an email to themisspfoundation@gmail.com. Also, have you seen seen the 2011 images on the website? They are a real reminder of the great evening.

This has been a wonder-ful journey and I continue to thank you for your support and suggestions over the past three years. My team and I are planning a number of events (see below) for your benefit and our dream is to continue growing and to raise more funds to help young people nurture their visions in the arts.

“I Believe I Can”

Catch up on the latest Miss P news

L’ART L’ART

2120

WORD ON THE STREETFuture Events..The Wiz auditions: spread the wordThis year, the first half of the fundraiser is a production of The Wiz– the African American adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Open auditions will be held for the four main characters and everyone is welcome to audition in front of the Miss P panel for their preferred role.

If you enjoy singing, acting and dancing, then this is the per-fect time for you to help us find our main characters, which include Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, Lion, Glinda The Good (Witch) and more.

A venue for the auditions is yet to be confirmed but they will take place on April 29th 2012. For more information on this, the workshop and prize-win-ning dance-a-thon, check out the Miss P newsletter issue 2 on our website.

Music eventWith live music from several acts, a great atmosphere and a chance for talented musicians to share their craft, the team will provide a local experience this summer, celebrating music ahead of the fourth annual Miss P Fundraiser.

Keep an eye out for dates and venue confirmation!

Image Source: M

iss P FoundationL’ART

After the launch of OX105FM, here is what you think of your

new radio station.

“A new community radio station in East

Oxford. Pretty cool I think.”

“The fact I can now tune into OX105 Radio at work has just made my mornings

much better.”

“Finally decent music through-

out the day.”

“I have promoted this radio station a lot

today. I love it!”

“It’s good to hear the CDI family back on air and to

hear local talent Fio. Keep up the good work peeps.”

“Chilling to OX105 Radio.

Always needed a station like this.”

Imag

e So

urce

: com

mon

s.wik

imed

ia.o

rg, O

X10

5

L’ART

L’ART

2322

Image Source: Zahra/ B

G R

ecords L’ART

How did BG Records start?

I used to be in a band called BabyGravy. We had a few negative experiences with record labels so we decided to release our own music on our own label. That year I decided to put out mixtapes and EP’s by local artists that I liked. I used the labels name to put on gigs and workshops around the city.

You recently had an event at Baby Simple bar. What was the aim of the night?We decided to launch Astar,

Blue-p r i n t & N-

Local label BG Records has been cropping up a lot as of late when L’ART talk to local musicians, but what’s its background? We talk with head woman Zahra & here’s what she had to say...

zyme’s new mixtape and create a pop up 14+ event to showcase local talent. There is a severe lack of venues that allow under 18’s. I think it is important to be able to give young people their first gig experiences in a supportive environment, so we held a freestyle at the end that any-one could sign up for. The event was a great success!

What’s your working relation-ship like with previous L’ART features N-zyme & Jael?N-zyme is an old school friend that I have been mak-ing music with for about five years. He has collaborated and toured with my band and supported the work I do with young people around Oxford for many years. We are fi-nally getting his debut EP to-gether. We produced ‘Crow’

in a moment of madness; we both just make music because we love it!

I met Jael last year through the Ark T Music Project. She has completely come into her own with song writing. Her knowledge of music, past and present, is way beyond her years. We are beginning the process of writing her EP, which should be a breath of fresh air to the music scene.

What can we expect from BG Records in the future?We are currently working to-wards Death of Hifi’s album launch party at the O2 Acad-emy in June, with some big names attached to the bill, who will be revealed very shortly. We have a roster of 10 artists at the moment, who are working on various records.

More music videos are being filmed as we speak; becoming weirder and more wonder-ful. We also aim to continue our regular cypher sessions, which mix up artists from all over the county.

Where do you want to take BG Records?I want to keep consistent at the moment and build up a collective of like minded art-ists who support each other and the community around them. It seems to be more about competition, not about moving forward as a unit. The local ‘urban’ music scene lacks that.

BG Records

By Iona Roisin

By Kal Ahmed

L’ART