Celebrating Diversity

One of John Zorn's leftfield music projects - Naked City - made its name from neck-jarring changes of direction that showed off both the skills of the musicians and a witty approach to the idea of genre. Given that much of Naked City's music is borderline unlistenable, you wouldn't expect to see them on a talent contest: certainly not one that might see in its final three a rather plain woman able to turn out a decent showtune, or a saxophonist with aspirations to become the next Kenny G. Remarkably, however, it turns out that Britain does have talent after all. Whether through the dark art of vote-rigging or a genuine outpouring of taste in the Great British Public, the winner of that ignoble television event was the dance counterpart of Naked City.

Sordel is something of a sucker for dance, being one of the last remaining people who would rather watch Riverdance than Stavros Flatley. Perhaps it comes of being part of the original Torville and Dean generation, but anything genuinely exciting in the dance line always reduces me to slack-jawed admiration, and three of the dance acts in the final of BGT were worthy of celebration. Diversity was the best of a rather fine trio: best not merely because they were incredibly polished and disciplined, but because of how carefully their act had been tailored for the stage on which they were performing.

As always with these stories, there is a deeper backstory that emerges once you look into it, for the Diversity that performed last night was drawing on the experience of a Diversity that is visible on that patient chronicler of entertainment evolution, YouTube. Viewing the video of their stunning performance at Streetdance '08 it is easy to see that the lean, crowd-pleasing routine that won BGT was the brilliantly-choreographed offspring of the muscular routine that wowed the street dance audience. The younger dancers - a clever seasoning to the street dance - were pushed into greater prominence for a mass audience, the gymnastic tumbling reined in, the cultural references gathered together for our collectively low attention-span.

This is the true vindication of the story, because while several of their competitors were examples of pure unvarnished talent (such as the genuinely staggering vocals of Shaheen), the success of Diversity was that of talent, intelligence, wit, experience, grace, determination and hour upon aching hour of rehearsal. While a victory for Susan Boyle would have gratified those for whom fame is a second national lottery, victory for Diversity reminded the rest of us that there are some fairly important steps between our sofas and the front pages of the tabloids.

It is highly unlikely that the cognoscenti will spend as many hours delving into the genius of Diversity as they have into the genius of John Zorn, but their virtues are consonant and worthy of comparison. The success of Diversity is a cheering reminder that great art finds a way to flourish in the most unpromising of soils.