INTRODUCING SAME SAME ... BUT DIFFERENT'S NEWEST DANCER - GEORGE PEREZ

I am the new edition to the team of dancers for the production “Same Same… But Different” created by Sonia Sabri Company. 

As I have recently graduated in May 2021, I was excited to get out into the professional world of dance and put my training into practice. 

Joining this production will be my first experience of national touring and I can’t wait to travel around the UK educating and inspiring the children of today through the love of art. 

I wanted to be a part of this production as I felt the message of “its ok to be different” and even “celebrating our differences” was an area that was not addressed in my early education and that left me with many questions about my myself and my differences. 

The production is cleverly designed to highlight the differences between the three dancers. This includes the dance styles we present, the props that are used, our physical features and even our choice of clothes. 

After observing previous versions of “Same Same… But Different” I felt the demands of my role were going to be challenging as I was required to be an
Urban, Beatboxing Guitarist. However, after attending the first day of rehearsals I quickly realised that Sonia didn’t expect me to produce the same performance as the previous dancer. We spent a large amount of time re-creating the role and facilitating the use of my individual skills around the demands of the production.

Working with Sonia I learnt a lot about communication with the audience and how our intentions will be read and perceived. 

As the work is targeted for children 5+ and is educationally motivated it’s important that our messages are received and understood by our audiences. 

In response to these aims we allocated a lot of our time in rehearsal to the intention of our characters and how we could clearly communicate our thought process with our viewers. 

Traveling up to Birmingham, learning new styles of dance, meeting new artists and getting the chance to finally perform to a live audience again has been exhilarating. 

It’s such a wonderful feeling to take this amazing work and inspire and educate children on these messages through various art forms. 

The work containing live music, several props and three different styles of dance makes it impossible to lose interest. I even questioned if we could hold the attention of large groups of children for an hour. 

Due to the quickly progressing and constant fluctuating nature of the piece there is never a dull moment. Often the children are left wanting more and the reaction they produce and the looks on their faces is enough to fill your heart a thousand times over.

Feedback from a recent show "My son said that he smiled so much his teeth hurt!"

Full tour details are listed on our website under calendar:

Calendar - Sonia Sabri Company (ssco.org.uk)