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ISSUE 13

Hi and welcome to the 13th issue of L’ART; the ‘Anniversary’ is-sue.

It’s going to be a great month for fashion and performing arts, as April will see the US dance Pulse Faculty stop off in London on their international tour! Plus the Vogue Festival will celebrate its second anniversary in the city, with models, stylists and design-ers being celebrated.

Professional dancers, Brian Friedman, Cris Judd, Laurieann Gibson and Carmit Bachar will be at London’s Olympia, as well as Victoria Beckham, Cara Delevingne, Donatella Versace and Alexa Chung at Queen Eliza-beth Hall. If those line ups aren’t

Editor’s Letter

enough to be excited about, we don’t know what is! Read exclu-sive interviews with faculty mem-bers and upcoming faces in fash-ion inside.

90s rnb group Damage are back! Music lovers can catch up with Jade Jones and Rahsaan J Bro-mfield as they reveal their latest plans, along with the future of soul and rnb groups The O’Jays and LeVert, Levert II.

Marking two years of L’ART Magazine, look out for our new website coming soon at our new address lartmagazine.co.uk plus online interviews with Carmit Ba-char and Laurieann Gibson!

Daniella & Letisha

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4 D&L Style

6 Damage

10 The Pulse Tour UK

11 Criss Judd14 Brian Friedman

17 Word On The Street

18 The Vogue Festival 2013

19 Megan Tyce - Photographer

22 Amanda Brown - Fashion Designer

25 Levert II

28 Kimberly Wyatt

D & L Style

River Island, £34.00

Topshop Diamante Neck Playsuit,£55.00

Who remembers R&B boy band Damage? Well it seems that a lot of you have never forgot-ten about these boys because it was you that helped get them back together. Jade Jones, one of the members will tell you how in our feature interview with him and Rahsaan J Bromfield, as we caught up with them after hearing the news of their reunion.

Damage achieved great success

in the 90’s with some of our fa-vourite hits including ‘Ghetto Romance’, ‘After The Love Has Gone’ and ‘Still Be Loving You’. Now returning as a quartet, Jade Jones, Andrez Harriott, Rahsaan J Bromfield and Noel Simpson have got some big plans for mu-sic in 2013.

Following their performances at London’s Jazz Café last month and supporting acts such as

Dru Hill, Blackstreet, SWV and Changing Faces at Wembley, Damage are officially back.

What have you all been up to since the band split up?

Rahsaan: We all went our sep-arate ways. I went into youth work with disadvantaged young people within the borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Then I ended up working in conjunc-tion with the Prince’s Trust. Noel was running a couple of youth centres out in Windsor and Andrez went into the youth criminal justice service.

Jade: I went into cheffing. I did some work on the TV, did some cooking on tele and worked in a restaurant as a Sous chef.

Music has always been within us and Rahsaan has been into production as well whilst he was doing his youth work. And me and Andrez did a little funk rock band and did an album, video and toured. So we kept busy.

Whose idea was it to get back together?

J: Mine!

Had you been thinking about it for a long time?

J: There was a big Facebook campaign asking to bring Dam-age back together. So that was a bit of an incentive for us. Michael Jackson had passed away and Andrez had an epiph-any and thought it’s

been way overdue since we’ve all been together. We all just got together and spoke about old times, chilled together and then it organically started com-ing together as a band.

What was it like getting back together then? Were things the same or was it a different dynamic?

Rahsaan: It was quite cool ac-tually. It was nice to be back with the friends that you grew up with and have that kind of unity. Everything fell back into place once we got back into re-hearsals and remembered the old dance routines, and real-ised that some of them we can’t actually do anymore because we’re too old!

Jade: And we still got it! We got together and it sounded sweet. Once you get it, it never leaves you.

Musically, what are you most looking forward to in 2013?

R: I’m looking forward to hopeful-ly seeing Usher tour and hopefully later on in the year you’ll get a greatest hits album from Damage.

They recorded this at the Jazz Café last month.

R: Once we’ve done that we’ll take it back to the studio, mix it, master it and then that will be available hopefully around the summer time.

With a lot of boy bands out at the moment like JLS, The Wanted and One Direction, to avoid comparisons what do you think separates you from those bands?

Rahsaan: Because there is no comparison.

Jade: Our style is totally different to any of those bands. One Di-rection have got really good pop songs, JLS have really good pop songs too, but Damage we’ve been around for a long time and we’ve got a lot of wisdom and

knowledge on our side.

Rahsaan: For us, we could go and do a pop song but at the same time we can also go and do an R&B urban song like your Jo-deci feel. Whereas JLS wouldn’t be able to do that and One Direc-tion definitely wouldn’t be able to do that.

Jade: We cross boundaries.

Rahsaan: We’re more versatile.

Are there any future collabora-tions that you would like to do?

J: I’m really loving AlunaGeorge (English electronic music duo) at the moment. I think they’re bril-liant. I love their vocals, they’re bringing it back to the old school and it’s futuristic. Working with those guys would be amazing.

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Cris Judd

“The relationship that we have among the Faculty is truly a family. We have known

and worked with each other for many years and we are all very close friends. I couldn’t have asked to be a part of a better Faculty,” speaks professional dancer Cris Judd.

As you can see, being part of a hugely talented dance unit means a lot to him and the experi-ence is an enjoyable one with his family away from home. Of course it helps knowing that he also plays an important role in helping oth-ers who share his craft, go on to succeed and achieve great things.

“They are in for a once in a lifetime opportu-nity to train and assist, in my opinion, some of the best choreographers in the business,” he says, on the new intake of protege’s. “Pulse is beneficial to lovers and trainers of dance be-cause it is the gateway into becoming a profes-sional dancer.”

Lovers of dance is exactly what Cris and the

AT T E N T I O N DANCERS: Lon-don’s Olympia is to host a dance weekender like no other. This month, international touring group The Pulse will bring their American tour to the UK and not only offer two full days of workshops, but meet and greets, photo opportunities and chances to be scouted and offered scholarships courtesy of the team too!

Making the London dates of April 20th-21st one to remem-ber are artistic directors and choreographers Brian Fried-man and Laurieann Gibson, as well as professional danc-ers Cris Judd and Carmit Ba-char, formerly of the Pussycat Dolls.

For just £150 (170 Euros), passionate dancers 13+ who

seek profession-al careers and/or a want to train with some of the best the dance world has to offer, can simply regis-ter online and the rest is there to be enjoyed.

Read on for L’ART’s exclu-sive interviews with Brian and Cris ahead of their UK appearances.

http://www.thepulseontour.com/london.html

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team will be looking out for during the London weekend-er and with scholarships and possible scout positions up for grabs, anything is possi-ble with the Pulse Tour in the building.

“It will prepare you to follow your dream as a professional dancer and life as an artist.”

Cris became part of the Pulse family after hosting US TV show, Dirty Dancing. Brian (Friedman) approached him in 2005 and the rest is history.

The word ‘inspiration’ crops up a lot when speaking to Cris. Not only to describe Faculty members, but also when he speaks of a music artist and entertainer that he had the pleasure of supporting on his world tour...

“Michael Jackson; I have learned so much from him. Sharing the stage with Michael was an experience I

will never forget; priceless.” An experience he continues to thank Travis Payne and LaV-elle Smith for making possi-ble.

“He was a perfectionist,” he continued. “Not that he de-manded it, he expected it. All we wanted to do was make Michael proud of us, so we busted our asses.”

Following London and US summer stops, The Pulse Tour will come to an end, so what’s next for Cris? With-out revealing too much, Cris teased about future projects in the pipeline. Keep your eyes peeled!

“The Pulse is an amazing experience. The wealth of knowledge that will be shared is like no other. You will not be disappointed, so come dance with us.”

We’ll see you there!

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BRIAN FRIEDMAN

How did you become to be the Crea-tive Director of The Pulse?I started out as one of two master teachers at the first Pulse event in New York City a decade ago. The annual event was such a success that I teamed up with Pam Chancey and Mary An-dreason to take it on tour. I have acted as Creative Director ever since. Can you explain to our readers how the dancers and performers that are in the faculty came together?I wanted to bring a faculty to the public that before then were not accessible. Our first group of teachers were my-self, Mia Michaels, Wade Robson and Cris Judd. Since then we have brought on such legendary names as Tyce Dio-rio, Laurieann Gibson, Dave Scott, Gil Duldulao and Desmond Richardson. Our Emcee is none other than the in-credibly talented award winning Pus-sycat Doll Carmit Bachar. Carmit came from a dance background so this is the perfect event for her to be the face of.Where did the idea to take The Pulse

on tour come from?Our original annual NYC event was sold out to nearly 2000 students each year. It was so crowded that we had to do it at two locations simultaneously. We knew there was a massive demand for us to expand. We started with four cities, then the following season ex-panded to eight and the rest is history.How do you feel about bringing the tour to the UK for the first time?I am ecstatic! The UK is my second home and I am such a fan of the talent; not only that comes out of the UK but Europe in general. A dance event of this calibre is unheard of in London. We are thrilled that the dancers overseas will have the chance not only to train for us but in a sense ‘audition’ for us. We are always looking for incredible dancers to work on the projects we produce, direct and choreograph, so this is a perfect way to see the best of the best outside of the US.What can those planning to attend the London date look forward to?

A life changing dance event! When dancers leave The Pulse, they leave not only a different dancer but a changed person as well. We give the knowledge that we give to the artist we work with in our professional careers, to the stu-dents who attend our event. If they’re open to the information we’re giving, their careers will thrive. If a student is there to participate for fun and dancing isn’t necessarily their career, the results are still just as beneficial. When you leave a Pulse event you feel like you’ve been reborn!What do you enjoy most about touring with the faculty?The Pulse faculty is a family! We all share so much together while teaching and have so much in common, being that we all share the same passion. We use our time at The Pulse not only to in-spire the students but ourselves as well. We also are all incredibly passionate when it comes to food and travel, so be-ing able to share the cultures that each city has to offer is the icing on the cake! The students by far take the prize when it comes to what we get back from the events. Watching their careers thrive after they’ve trained at The Pulse is the biggest reward we could ask for.

Having worked on projects in the UK before, what differences do you see in the dance scene here, compared to that in the States?The dance scene in the States is far more organised. In the UK a dancer is allowed to sign with multiple agencies, whereas in the States you can only have one agent. Because the dancers have a much stronger fighting quality in the UK, you tend to see them work harder at auditions. There is more work to go around in the US and I think because of that, the dancers don’t work as hard as they should. In the UK and Europe, there is a fire that exists in dancers that can’t be rivalled anywhere else in the world.Once the tour is complete, what’s next for The Pulse as a group?Everyone is constantly working. Curently, Tyce Diorio is choreograph-ing for Taylor Swift, Laurieann Gibson is directing for Nicki Minaj, Gil Duldu-lao is choreographing for Nicki Minaj, Desmond Richardson’s company Com-plexions is touring the world and I just choreographed a music video for Cher called ‘Woman’s World’ and my cloth-ing line Brian Say’s B Free just launched and is now available worldwide.

Image Source: The Pulse &

Lee Cherry

Word On The Street is that H&M are releasing a new collection - inspired by ‘New Icons’ - some of the industry’s top models!

The clothes will represent the off-duty looks of supermodels including Joan Smalls and Daphne Groeneveld. Plus the modern boho collection will feature a range of leather jack-ets, embellished vests, fringed bags and more!

What’s great about this range is that you don’t have to buy certain pieces together. You can easily buy one popular piece to update a look you already have.

Look out for the official launch on Aprill 11th 2013!

‘New Icons’ CollectionWORD ON THE STREETH

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MEGAN TYCE

As a child, my mom took her Olympus Trip film

camera everywhere.

Always had it in her hand-bag and was constantly tak-ing photos. My brother and I modelled in London from the age of five and six until our late teens, so we had always been in the camera limelight and I really loved the glam-our of it all. Photography enabled me to express art in a more lifelike way. When I

found out that I could study Photography for A-Level, my passion flourished and that’s when I started to take photog-raphy seriously. I’m a big fan of David LaCh-apelle, as his work is very sexual, colourful, modern and intense.

I like Cindy Sherman as well, as her conceptual portraits raise challenging and impor-tant questions about the role

On April 27th and 28th, ‘the most glamorous festival in London

is set to take place. Over these two days, photographers, models, celeb-rities, designers and fashion editors will be attending the extravaganza at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room Southbank Centre.

This may only be the second of its kind but there have already been huge plans to make this even better than last year. The Vogue Festival will be bringing together some huge leading figures and creative talents, with celebs such as Victoria Beckham, Alexa Chung, Donatella Versace and Christopher Kane taking part.

It’s a great platform for those who as-pire to succeed in their fashion based career. Take advantage of the big

names as there will be chances for interviews, panel discussions and talks with those present. Participants include Cara Delevingne, Anna Dello Russo, David Gandy, Michael Kors, Yasmin Le Bon, Tamara Mellon, Livia Firth and a lot more.

You’ll be spoilt with cover shoot op-portunities, mentoring, workshops, demonstrations and makeovers. Make your speciality known and you can get first hand advice from those who have lived it.

“Our first Vogue Festival was such a success that for 2013 we are planning to do it again on a larger scale,” said Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue. Tickets are still on sale at southbank-centre.co.uk. Have you got yours?

FESTIVAL

Vogue Festival Queries - Nicky Eaton or Melody Rayner 020 7152 3377/ 3807

and representation of women in society, which I find very interesting.

I always use Canon cameras as they’re good quality, reliable, sufficient and ensure excep-tional results.

I have learnt more about skills needed for editing properly, digital photography, film cameras and the difference between them.

I want to achieve more knowledge about pho-tographers who aren’t as well known in society; discover an underground talent.

After uni I want to travel the world and take photos of dif-ferent cultures through peo-ple. I want a degree to enable me to teach in schools or even at a higher level and become a university lecturer.

I love taking photos of peo-ple.

The way facial expressions show so many different emo-tions and some can be deceiv-ing. I used myself throughout A-Levels as the main model and achieved A grade. I had a real passion for expressing my emotions and feelings through self portraits.

I would like to work with Angelina Jolie because she has natural beauty, which is ideal to photograph.

I would also like to photo-graph Paolo Gallardo, as he has a distinctive face, which is very photogenic and has the perfect figure for a runway model.

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AMANDA BROWN My style has really devel-oped on completion of my degree.

I was exposed to many new ideas in University and my graduate collection was a re-flection on everything.

I feel confident in sophisti-cated, tailored, simple pieces. I’m drawn to clever construc-tion techniques. My print and use of colour can be de-termined by my mood and what I’m obsessed with at that time. It could be something as simple as the colours inside an exotic fruit.

Inspiration is everywhere.

I’m a people watcher. I’m al-ways inspired by how people put their outfits together, their use of colours, mix of design-ers. There are many designers who inspire me and for differ-ent reasons.

I’m inspired by everyday life;

there’s so much to see and embrace.

Working with Thread is great. Our clientele is so varied, which keeps the job interesting.

I work with different brands high street and designer, all on a one to one basis. It’s taught me a lot. My previous experience in luxury retail has tremendously helped me fulfil the requirements of this job.

I was approached by a styl-ist [Pride] who had seen my work online.

She let me know the look she was going for and I was im-mediately interested. I was so happy to see it published in such a reputable magazine; definitely a platform for me to promote and expand aware-ness for my work and brand. I’m really proud.

When I cast models, I gen-

erate what I’m looking for, based on the theme and style of the collection.

What matters is the model is a reflection of my collection & brand, is experienced and professional. I think it’s re-ally important that you get that person right.

I am currently working on a new collection.

This will be the official in-troduction to who Aman-da Brown is, so watch this space!

The line-up of speakers this year is amazing; so excited about hearing Lanvin de-signer, Alber Elbaz.

I’m also looking forward to Christopher Kane and Al-exander McQueen CEO on ‘The Secrets of Creating A British Brand’; that will be beneficial to me, hearing di-rectly from success of the British fashion industry.

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It’s great when today’s music artist’s can be proud

of the generations that came before them and continue the legacy through their own mu-sic releases. That is exactly the case with Blaq Rose and Marc Gordon, who together make independent duo, Lev-ert II.

The O’Jays came in the 1950’s, with a quintet in-cluding Eddie Levert, who released hits such as ‘Love Train’ and ‘Use ta Be My Girl’. Gerald and Sean Lev-ert later followed with Marc in the eighties, as the rnb, new jack swinging Levert, musically influenced by their father. Singles ‘Just Coolin’’ and ‘(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind’ soon became chart favourites and their second album release The Big Throwdown was hugely suc-cessful and included the funk hit ‘Casanova’.

“‘Just Coolin’’ was an ac-

complishment being the first rnb group to feature a rapper, Heavy D,” Marc explains. “It was a number 1 record for us and forever fused rnb and hip hop. The Rope A Dope CD was my overall favourite.”

Sadly, faced with the loss of Gerald and later Sean who made up a third of Levert II, Marc and Blaq were faced with completing their new album Dedication, without the inclusion of their brother.

“It was important to get this project out because it was a dedication to our fallen brothers. I’m the type that likes to finish what I start,” Blaq explains. “After los-ing Sean it became even more of a mission for us, had even more meaning. It was even closer to my heart.”

“It was therapeutic and nec-

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essary to get it out, so people can hear the dedication to both Gerald and Sean,” Marc adds.

Although facing some critics questioning motives behind the Dedication release, Blaq and Marc have had a great reception and don’t allow the scepticism to bother them. What was an emotional and personal process led to a pos-itive outcome, with the hope Sean will be remembered as the man with ‘a very good heart’ and a ‘fun loving father that really loved his family’.

“I wanna keep the memories of my guys alive with the old and new music; representing the brand I helped create and built,” Marc continued.

“I want people to remember and recognise that he [Sean] was a big part of LeVert and Levert II.”

Dedication fittingly includes

the heartfelt intro of realisa-tion, as well as the personal single ‘My Brotha’ featuring Sean’s son, Sean Jr.

“I’ve learned to stay the course and don’t get discour-aged. Believe in myself and take everything in, use it ac-cordingly,” says Blaq.

“I wanna thank everyone that helped get this project out; my 9311 Ent. Group fam and everyone who supports LeV-ert & Levert II. If you don’t have Dedication and you love rnb, order it here www.levert2.com.

We look forward to hearing new music and viewing a TV reality show from the duo, plus a new member? Watch this space.

Sean’s Law was created in Sean’s memory to make sure he did not die in vain. Find more information on the cause at levert2.com.

Kimberly Wyatt

Got To Dance series 4 may be over but by no means

does this mean the end of Kimberly Wyatt’s presence in the entertainment world.

Gracing the stage at Move It 2013 and one of GTD’s semi finals to premiere her new track ‘Derriere’, Kimberly continues to spread her mu-sic and also filled us in about other projects she has up her sleeve.

“I’ve been in the studio mak-ing music, working with song-writer Ali Kennett and The White Nerd who produced ‘Derriere’. ‘Derriere’ will be followed by many other awe-some tracks,” she revealed.

“I’m a dancer first and fore-most and I will never forget that. When I’m on stage my biggest attraction is throwing down to the music. While I’m in the studio, I’m really trying to find that balance in finding

vocals I’m able to sing while dancing. That’s how ‘Derri-ere’ was born.”

Kimberly has also been busy in the dance studio, leading to the birth of her appropriately titled management and pro-duction company, Beautiful Movements.

“Anytime I feel inspired by a story or by music, I put the project together and make it happen with Max Rogers; my partner in it all.”

Wanting to tell a story through dance and performance led Kimberly to team up with tap dancer and good friend Adam Garcia, to produce the Beauti-ful Movements short film, Tea For Two.

“I really hope people like it. The next one is called The Red Pillow, which I’m very

excited about.

“Contemporary was my first love. As a competition kid I performed a lot of contem-porary solos. Commercial dancing, that’s where I found myself working for the past 14 years of my professional career. I think for a contem-porary dancer, that’s the next step; getting into the commer-cial world.”

Kimberly continues to be in-spired by others and their want to learn, but as one of today’s idols, who does she person-ally place up on a pedastool?

“Choreographers Taylor and Queen, Gwen Fall, Dominic Chipper, Matthew Vaughn; I really do love his company and fantastic shows.” She even name dropped a few GTD contestants as the ‘cra-zily, amazingly talented’ in-

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dividuals that continue to in-spire...

“Rhys, Poison, G-Nome, Al-leviate; all of them have been so incredible.” We have to say we’re with Kimberly on this one.

Look out for:

The launch of Beautiful Movements Cosmetics Range at Holland and Barrett & pos-sibly Next.

Her perfume release, Kay-dance in June.

Dancewear merchandise at kimberlywyatt/online.