An Interview with RU; Creator of Excuses Not To Dance.
Ru is the creator of Excuses not to Dance which we introduced to you, see article here;
I took the opportunity to quiz him on why he started the event and to find out more about excuses.
Me: I guess the first question is why you started it and what is “Excuses not to Dance”?
Ru: “Hmmm well I started it for two reasons... I wanted a good night of underground club/dance music to party to and at the same time I wanted more opportunities to see work from students across different courses/ years.”
Me: How is the evening split up?
Ru: For the first hour, we do screenings of student work from animation, film, CMP, fashion and everything else. It's really great getting submissions from people and seeing work that I would otherwise have never heard about
From 10pm onwards, we get the decks out and have a bit of a rave.
"From 10pm onwards, we get the decks out and have a bit of a rave"
Me: Is there anyone/ thing that has helped towards the development of the event?
Ru: “Tom Coleman and Niall Mordecai are the resident DJs, they do an eclectic set ranging from rare underground tunes, to the crowd pleasing bangers. They have been elemental to the development of the night, we are on the same wavelength for the kind of party we want to host. So basically, something to cater for the people with less mainstream taste in music, but we're not snobs, we want it to be accessible to anyone who wants to have a midweek boogie. Viktorija Grey has been integral in helping me curate the visual arts. She is a 2nd Year CMP student involved with the Film Screening Society and has been endless help in "sourcing submissions for videos!
"we're not snobs, we want it to be accessible to anyone who wants to have a midweek boogie."
Me: Do you have a favourite part to the evening?
Ru: Not my favourite but it’s a rather cool aspect of the night is the visual art which we have running during the DJ sets. Hallucinatory projections cut in time with the music. Some of the work has been produced especially for the night, while others are visual experiments that might have been left to gather digital dust.
Me: Any final words?
Ru: Yes of course! To conclude I’d just like to mention that I am always looking for more artists, (from across all media) to be involved with the night.
But for me the main thing is, that I would really want more opportunities to collaborate and communicate with other courses, I think ‘Excuses’ is a perfect example as to how we can to break barriers and view each other's work.
"I am always looking for more artists, (from across all media) to be involved with the night."
