When meeting someone new for an interview you always hope you will recognise them. No such problem with Brighton-based director and choreographer Andrea Walker. His shock of curly green hair and bare arms sporting some of his many tattoos tell you “here I am.“
He exudes a visceral sexuality that matches his dance work – queer street dance he calls it. It’s packed with energy, dramatic, challenging and with that powerful sexuality for which his work has become well-known.
Fiercely proud of the queer art which he creates Andrea tells me he was born in Italy and started dancing at the age of 14.
Part of his cultural genes seem to have come from his father who was highly musical and artistic. Walker loved to watch MTV dance videos, including Britney. “It was the golden age of music videos and I always needed to be one of those dancers.”
Aged 18 he came to England and studied film at Westminster University. “I had always wanted to get out of Italy – it was homophobic and racist – I think it’s better now.“
His first work came with a European tour with underground singer Ebony Bones, where he danced, choreographed and sang – and all this while still doing his film course. “We were on Eurostar nearly every weekend. I saw a lot of hotel rooms.”
Graduating in 2011, he danced in a Coldplay music video. “But I was getting really burnt out. I didn’t quite know where I belonged in terms of dance styles.”
In 2014 he dropped it all and went to New York to the Broadway Dance Centre.
“You were given your own platform and with 50 other dancers I could create work.“ His first piece called Still was really well received and the dance centre added it to their professional showcase. “It made my voice feel very valued,” he told me.
It was at this point that he formed the 201 Dance Company, named after the number on his room door.
“I didn’t feel street dance enough, or contemporary enough. New York gave me the permission to do what I wanted. I thought what the hell am I doing? Sometimes I still do today.”
In a 10-month window, which he described as full of crazy energy and crazy drive, he went from creating pieces for six dancers to works for 40.
He admits there were not many queer street dance pieces around and he was skilful enough and prescient enough to realise that it could become a queer art form avoiding its toxic macho masculinity.
And so he created a piece called Smother which dealt with his recent break up with a boyfriend. The Guardian and The Times both gave it four stars. “And then I had a career.” Smother toured the UK and Norway.
“That just put us on the map and then there was a new work called Skin – I seem to like using one word titles that begin with S.“
Skin was about a trans boy and his relationship with his mother, and again he was keen to get away from the hetero normative style of street dance.
“It was clearly defiant, upsetting the straights, And sometimes there was a phobic reaction in the audience and opposition to the themes we were putting across – it was even said we were tainting dance.”
Andrea’s massive work ethic and inner energy means he works on the next show while still creating the current one. But as he openly acknowledges this has led to burn out more than once.
One day he went to a Quentin Blake exhibition where there were 10 pages of his illustrations for a book called Sad Book, by poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen.
“I said to myself what is this? It’s a children’s book but the way he described sadness was so pure and so simple in its language, but it hit me so deeply as I have always had mental health issues.”
There is no moral in the book – if you feel sad it’s fine says Rosen, who wrote the book after the death of his 18-year-old son.
“I remember leaving the exhibition thinking I have to do this. I was terrified of approaching Mr Rosen, but I thought if he says no I will just move on.”
Rosen said yes and gave Walker a completely free hand about how he would interpret the book as a dance piece.
And so the work is now on tour, arriving in Brighton for two nights next month.
Andrea lost his mother to cancer 18 months ago and he is now making a show about that relationship. “I’ve been crying every day. I have never created a show from such a personal experience.”
I was interested in how he works on a new piece. “I am very methodical, and movement is the last thing that gets created. I see shows as a film so I’ll begin with a storyboard. I have found a lot of confidence in the last year.
“I have been covering myself with tattoos. When my mother got diagnosed she had plans and none of it could happen. It was so unfair and such a waste.
“When she died, something clicked in my head – nothing really matters; there is power in that – don’t take life seriously.
“I always wanted to be that punk queer guy covered in tattoos and with green hair. I want to be that person I looked up to but who didn’t exist. I want to be cool and hot as a gay man at the same time.”
In a real sense his life is his art and his art is his life – and Andrea needn’t worry – he’s definitely both cool and hot.
Sad Book is at the Old Market, Hove on 11 and 12 March – tickets HERE
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