hip hop

CELEBRATING FOUR WOMEN CHANGING THE FACE OF HIP HOP

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The world’s most prestigious annual hip hop theatre festival is bringing the best hip hop talent from around the world to our audiences for the 17th consecutive year in May. Breakin’ Convention’s 2020 edition promises to be the biggest yet, with a wide range of performers hailing from across the globe – from the UK to Canada, France, the Netherlands, South Korea and, for the first time, Peru.  

Ahead of International Women’s Day, we celebrate some of the exceptional female dance artists featured in this year’s line-up. We showcase their journeys within a traditionally male-dominated field and look at the ways in which they are changing the face of hip-hop dance.

A.I.M Collective (UK)
A.I.M Collective. Image: Dave Barros

This year’s festival features A.I.M Collective, a London-based collective of female poppers. A.I.M, which stands for Artistry In Movement, includes some of the strongest choreography and freestyle-based dancers in the UK. The group was established in 2018 by prominent UK dancer and choreographer Shawn Aimey. At Breakin’ Convention 2020, it will present a new piece entitled My London.

A.I.M Collective member Victoria Shulungu is fluent not only in popping, but in a variety of hip-hop styles, including Krump. She also produces for dance company Spoken Movement, has worked with Sadler’s Wells’ New Wave Associate Hetain Patel and is a member of the hip hop theatre collective Far From The Norm, led by artistic director and Olivier award-winning choreographer Botis Seva.

Why is your dance style unique to you?

Popping has been a style that I have always loved. I love exerting power and force but also being able to control what’s been shown by creating an illusion. Krump has grown on me now more than ever because it allows you to feel the most explosive feeling. The reason why I do these styles is because I love playing with tension and release. There’s no better feeling than that!

What does being a woman in hip hop mean to you?

Within the hip hop community, being a woman can be a blessing or a curse. I get tired of having to always differentiate the experience of being a woman. We have to do this all the time in our everyday lives. I aim to not always project this when dancing, but instead allow the power to speak through my movement and the energy I possess.

Victoria Shulungu (right) in Hetain Patel’s Don’t Look At The Finger. Image: Nick Matthews

What are your expectations for the Breakin’ Convention festival?

I look forward to being inspired by the performances. I’m also looking forward to having conversations with people I may never have crossed paths with. I just want to be a sponge in many different ways so that I can give back the same energy when I’m performing. Each one teach one – I guess that’s fair to say.

Yeah Yellow (France)

Yeah Yellow is an award-winning multidisciplinary hip hop dance crew. It was founded in 2012 by choreographers Camille ‘Kami’ Regneault and Julien ‘Bee D’ Saint Maximin. They  performed as part of Breakin’ Convention’s national tour in 2017 tour and were part of the Sadler’s Wells Sampled festival in 2018. To this year’s Breakin’ Convention festival, they bring their duet Dos au Mur (Back to the Wall). Accompanied by live musicians, the piece explores the concept of human evolution and the constant correlation between us and the society we shape.

Yeah Yellow choreographers Julien ‘Bee D’ Saint Maximin (left) and Camille ‘Kami’ Regneault (right). Image: Dan Aucante

Self-taught in hip hop dance, Kami began her career as a gymnast before setting her sights on the world of breaking. Since then, she has competed at several national and international battles and has gone on to win a number of major championship titles. She won the French B-Girl Champion title three times, in 2013, 2015 and 2016. 

Why is your dance style unique to you?

I like the performance side of breaking coupled with the search for originality. This discipline allows me to always seek ways to surpass myself physically, but also creatively.

What does being a woman in hip hop mean to you?

I do not necessarily seek to have a place as a woman in hip hop, but rather to have a place as a good dancer. I don’t want to be strong ‘for a girl’, but just strong. It’s really important to me. I want to show that nothing is impossible when we remove the psychological barriers that we, or society, have created.

Image: Camille Regneault.

What are your expectations for the Breakin’ Convention festival?

I would like to make people dream and show them the strength of Love. I speak here of Love with a capital L. For my part, the love of dance changed my life and allowed me to flourish. I think it is never easy to do what we love and believe in our dreams. I would like to inspire the courage in others to do just that. It’s an honour to do it at Breakin’ Convention, which is a must-see place for hip hop dance.

Paradox Sal (France)
Paradox Sal, Queen Blood. Image: Willow Evann

This all-female crew from Paris presents a powerful house dance piece entitled Queen Blood. Performed with grace, fluidity and power by eight dancers, it explores the concept of femininity. Queen Blood reflects a variety of moods and emotional states and fuses afro-house and hip-hop dance styles with music varying from pumping house beats to the dulcet tones of Nina Simone. The work is choreographed by Ousmane ‘Babson’ Sy, one of France’s first generation of house dancers and member of iconic hip hop dance crew Wanted Posse.

Choreographer and Paradox Sal member Linda Hayford said:

​My fundamental style is popping. I like it because it allows me to create supernatural universes, using body control. From creating a living robot to slowing time, the effects you can create are endless but nonetheless grounded in sound and music. Popping is where I find the inspiration to develop a body language I have been working on since 2015, which I call ‘Shifting Pop’. It combines the popping technique with my own research on metamorphosis and its particularities. 

Linda Hayford. Image: Thibault Montamat

What does being a woman in hip hop mean to you?

Being a woman in hip-hop culture for me means giving yourself the place and space to build and own your identity – as a human being, as a woman and as an artist. It is about figuring out who you are now and who you want to become, which I think is the same intention for both men and women in hip hop alike. 

What are your expectations for the Breakin’ Convention festival?

I have never been to Breakin’ Convention, so I do not really know what to expect! But I have always heard good things about the good vibes and performances there, so I expect to have a great time and meet amazing people.

Spoken Movement (UK)
Spoken Movement members (l-r) Catrina Nisbett, Kwame Asafo-Adjei and ‘Boogie’.
Image: Dave Barros

Spoken Movement is a UK-based company that blends elements of street dance and contemporary dance to create their own movement vocabulary. We invited its founder and artistic director Kwame Asafo-Adjei to curate an evening in our Lilian Baylis Studio as part of the Wild Card series in 2018. Within the programme was duet Family Honour, which went on to win international choreographic competition Danse Élargie the same year. The company brought the work back to our stage last autumn, when as part of our FranceDance UK season we programmed Dance Élargie: Dance Expanded, an evening showcasing a selection of previous finalists and winners from the competition.

Spoken Movement members (l-r) Catrina Nisbett, Kwame Asafo-Adjei and ‘Boogie’.
Image: Dave Barros

Performed by dance artist Catrina Nisbett and Asafo-Adjei, Family Honour explores religious and cultural taboos in a Ghanaian family through the charged relationship between the two characters. They perform the piece on our stage for the third time at the Breakin’ Convention festival.

From a young age, Catrina trained with a number of London-based street dance groups, including Avant Garde Dance and Definitives. Well versed in a number of hip hop styles, she now studies contemporary dance at Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Why is hop hop dance important to you?

I fell in love with hip hop culture from a very young age, and was influenced a lot by older family members and peers. Growing up in the area that I did, the young people used to dance in the local community centre. I know for a fact that hip hop saved us. Now other styles such as popping, krump and contemporary inform my movement, but hip hop will always be my first love. 

Showreel video. Video: Catrina Nisbett.

On breaking down barriers in the art form:

To me being a woman in hip hop is about challenging the typical stereotypes of both women and men. I have never allowed my gender to define whether I can do something – within the art or otherwise. Even though initially it was subconscious, it is important that gender was, and is, my way of being honest and audacious in my expression.

What are your expectations for the Breakin’ Convention festival?

I am particularly looking forward to seeing how performing Family Honour multiple times a week will affect the piece – what new developments we may discover both within the piece and in ourselves as artists.

Breakin’ Convention is an integral part of Sadler’s Wells’ artistic programme. The festival takes place at Sadler’s Wells on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 May 2020. Tickets are available here.

Main image: Catrina Nisbett. Photo: Dave Barros

“REASSURING. COMFORTABLE. OPEN. NEEDED”: HIP HOP ARTIST JOURNEYS BACK TO THE LAB

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Four hip hop artists went Back To The Lab to develop their practice and create new work under the mentorship of leading choreographers, theatre makers and dramaturgs this month. Nathan Lafayette, Pervez, Shaadow Sefiroth and duo Cat Jiminez & Jaekwon took part in the latest edition of the artist development course, led by Sadler’s Wells Breakin’ Convention’s team.

Back To The Lab invites professional hip hop artists to explore and experiment with different choreographic methods. It supports them as they put their new-found knowledge into practice by devising new work, which is then presented to, and discussed with, a live audience at the end of an intensive, two-week period.

Ahead of the final sharing in our Lilian Baylis Studio on 25 January, we speak to Nathan Lafayette about his creative journey, tackling impostor syndrome and more.

Back To The Lab 2020 course participants ‘walk in’ video. Dave Barros.

What does going ‘Back To The Lab’ involve?

It’s very much a learning process in the first week. You’re picking up a lot of information, which at times can be quite overwhelming, but also reassuring. A lot of it is about extending our palette in terms of the tools we work with, and sometimes focusing more on one specific tool. Using an analogy that Mikey J [Asante, composer and co-founder of hip-hop dance company Boy Blue Entertainment] shared on a previous artist development course: “Sometimes you want to work with the hammer.” Back To The Lab helps me understand what my hammer is. It’s been interesting finding out how we work, sparking different conversations and hearing people’s perspectives.

Course participants and mentors during a Back To The Lab workshop.

We’re in the second week of the programme. Could you tell us a bit about what you’re working on and what are you most looking forward to?

The second week is more work focused. It’s about building your piece to show. This being the second week, it feels like we have all these tools we can choose to use, but also, it’s like there’s no right way to do it. Whatever way works for you is the way to work.   

Course participants Youngung Sebastian Kim (l) and Paz ‘Cat’ Katrina Jimenez (r) during a Back To The Lab workshop.

I’m looking forward to moving and trying things out, even if it does mess up, or it doesn’t feel correct. It’s been a while since I’ve had the space to make decisions, so it’s a bit surreal. I always say when I’m teaching a class: if you find something you don’t like, then you’ve learned that and you know what direction you want to go in. It’s about having the space to refine what’s already there.

Course participants Youngung Sebastian Kim (l) and Paz ‘Cat’ Katrina Jimenez (r) during a Back To The Lab workshop.

I’m also really looking forward to seeing how I work in the studio with someone else, whose movement I love and whom I really love working with. But also seeing how we learn from each other.

What’s a valuable piece of advice you’ve received so far? How has it impacted and informed your approach to your work?

A bit of advice that was given to me for my own movement by Ivan [Blackstock, choreographer] is to find out what my 100% is. Also, something [choreographer] Jonathan Burrows said about ‘decorating’ your work made me think a lot more about that. How can I decorate my work? How little or how much can I say through movement? I feel like my movement is very slow and internal, so it’s about learning the opposite of what I usually do and not holding back.

Back To The Lab mentor Jonathan Burrows with course participants.

Can you share a personal highlight of the course?

Working with Saskia, the dancer I’m creating this duet with. She’s such a beautiful mover and thinker, and sometimes when we’re next to people like that, we can go into ourselves a bit. We’re always going to see more in other people than we see in ourselves. Having conversations with Saskia and hearing how she works, but also what she appreciates in my own movement, has given me that reassurance in realising what my ‘superpower’ is.

Course participants Nathan Lafayette (l) and Saskia Horton (r) during a Back To The Lab workshop.

Have there been any challenges?

Working through the self-doubt and self-awareness has been on my mind for the last couple of years. I can look around a room and think ‘Oh, that person is dope because of this or that’, but I don’t often feel dope for anything. I don’t know what my ‘thing’ is. I feel more comfortable knowing now that I have accumulated what I’ve accumulated, and whatever I’ve accumulated is what I am. In a way, we become a cross-stitch of all our influences and teachers. I am a product of everyone I’ve ever interacted with and everyone that has taught me before. It’s been nice to be able to step back and understand that a little bit more on the programme.

How are you feeling about the final sharing?

I’m actually not that anxious about it. I definitely feel like there’s a sense of levelling up but knowing that I’m working with Saskia makes me feel less nervous. Having someone in the room to bounce off [ideas] means a lot; it settles my mind.

Nathan Lafayette (l) and Saskia Horton (r).

I’m kind of excited. Of course, [as it happens] inside every artist you want people to like your work. The purpose of a piece isn’t necessarily to inform, but it would be nice to know that mine puts the audience in a state of thought. The work is called Player2 and is very much based on a world of energy, chemical reactions, magnetism and vibrations. How elements react and come together is a core part of it. It’s turned into something that is quite scientific, but it uses science as an analogy for relationships. It would be interesting to see the piece as a catalyst that gets the audience to think about the people they connect with.

Nathan Lafayette (l) and Saskia Horton (r).

Could you describe the Back To The Lab experience in a few words?

Reassuring. Comfortable. Open. Needed. I’m in London, performing on Saturday at Sadler’s Wells theatre! To know that I’m one of four choreographers whose work is going to be seen is surreal.  It’s a great opportunity, but again, I don’t feel the pressure to do it ‘right’. Coming from Birmingham and being a part of something that is as high-profile for the hip-hop dance community as Back To The Lab, I feel even more of a push to represent myself.

Nathan Lafayette (centre) during a Back To The Lab workshop.

Breakin’ Convention presents Back To The Lab is at Sadler’s Wells’ Lilian Baylis Studio on Saturday 25 January. Tickets are available here.

Images throughout: Dave Barros.

BREAKIN’ CONVENTION TO STRENGTHEN HIP HOP SECTOR WITH NATIONAL PROGRAMME

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Sadler’s Wells Breakin’ Convention is set to deliver a three-year national programme to strengthen the hip hop sector thanks to a grant from Arts Council England.

Sadler’s Wells has been awarded £630,660 as part of the Arts Council’s National Lottery Project Grants funding programme. Using this funding, our Breakin’ Convention team will continue to build on the learnings and legacy of 16 years of successful hip hop theatre development with an ambitious new programme, Breakin’ Out.

Breakin’ Out will encompass three distinct and connected strands: Grass Routes partnerships, artist development and performance.

Grass Routes partnerships

This will see a new area of engagement for Breakin’ Convention. The programme will reinforce the national hip hop network by fostering relationships between hip hop artists and cultural institutions. Joining forces with six national practitioners – two each year – Breakin’ Out will deliver high-quality training at a local level, including youth projects, masterclasses and teacher training, as well as providing mentorship in organisational development. The first year partners will be with Dance4All in Bournemouth and Bad Taste Cru in Gateshead.

Breakin’ Convention Park Jam. Image: Paul Hampartsoumian

Artist Development

With no formalised training currently existing for hip hop artists in the UK, Breakin’ Out will provide a variety of progression routes at different points in their artistic journeys, giving more people access to hip hop at entry level and forging pathways into the sector. Breakin’ Convention will deliver its successful Open Art Surgery professional development project around the country, offering participants the opportunity to learn under different mentors and perform locally and nationally. Artists will also be offered bespoke ‘Higher Learning’ training days, focused on theatre practice.

Open Art Surgery. Image: Owen Ling

Nurturing the development of artists represents an integral part of the programme in the lead up to the opening of the UK’s first hip hop theatre academy, part of Sadler’s Wells’ additional, mid-scale venue to open in east London in 2022. The new theatre will be part of new cultural and education district East Bank, in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Performances

Breakin’ Out will reach out to wide and diverse audiences through two large-scale Breakin’ Convention national tours, engaging over 1000 UK artists and featuring 34 national performances. The festival will tour to cities including Norwich, Blackpool, Sheffield, Doncaster, Canterbury, Brighton, Plymouth, Poole and Birmingham in spring 2020 and 2022.  

Phase T (France) at Breakin’ Convention 2010. Image: Belinda Lawley

Alistair Spalding, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells, said: “We’re absolutely delighted that, through the Arts Council’s support, over the next three years the programme will engage over a thousand artists and large audiences across the country, strengthening the UK infrastructure for hip hop and widening its reach.”

Jonzi D, Sadler’s Wells’ Associate Artist and artistic director of Breakin’ Convention, commented: “Breakin’ Convention has been a catalyst in the exposure and development of hip hop in the theatre. A hunger from artists and audiences has been created! We have a responsibility to continue supporting hip hop culture and this funding will enable us to strengthen the sector, and to prepare for the opening of Sadler’s Wells’ hip hop theatre academy in 2022.”

Breakin’ Convention Presents

Yaman Okur 1mm Au Dessus Du Sol. Image: Ragbui

After introducing audiences to the work of artist Pierre Rigale by presenting his work Scandale in 2018, Breakin’ Convention Presents returns with 1mm Au Dessus Du Sol (1mm above the floor), a collaboration between French choreographers Yaman Okur and Sébastien Lefrançois.

Curated by Sadler’s Wells’ Associate Artist Jonzi D, the initiative provides a platform for the finest hip hop theatre makers to showcase a full-length work on our stage, as well as welcoming creations by contemporary choreographers working with street dance forms. Breakin’ Convention Presents: Yaman Okur and Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven’s 1mm Au Dessus Du Sol is at Sadler’s Wells’ Lilian Baylis Studio on 27 and 28 September 2019.

“We break down the fourth wall. It’s the true hip hop experience.” Breakin’ Convention: The story so far

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Breakin’ Convention is the UK’s biggest festival of hip hop dance theatre. World-renowned for representing the origins and evolution of hip hop culture from around the world, it is one of the most prestigious platforms for dance theatre globally. True to form, this year’s festival at Sadler’s Wells promises a lineup of exceptional dance talent from the UK and beyond, with international companies hailing from around the globe.

We speak to Michelle, Head of Breakin’ Convention, about the festival’s genesis, its evolution and what audiences can expect from its 16th year.

What is the meaning behind Breakin’ Convention?

The name is something a lot of people get confused with, because hearing it they think of a breaking competition or that you’ll just see breaking performances. The name Breakin’ Convention actually comes from the aim to break convention – of what people think hip hop culture is and of what you’re used to seeing in the theatre. It’s breaking conceptions about the conventional way you see hip hop – at a convention (laughs).

Michelle Norton, Head of Breakin’ Convention. Image: Dave Barros

How would you describe the Breakin’ Convention experience?

The festival encompasses all of the elements of hip hop. We commission artists to create graffiti on the walls of Sadler’s Wells. You have DJs, and not only that but the original DMC champions like Cutmaster Swift, DJ Billy Bizznizz, DJ 279 – some of the biggest names when we think of London hip hop culture. We have cyphers in the foyer, rap and freestylers in our front-of-house spaces, we even have a special menu for the occasion – lots of jerk chicken, soul food and West Indian cuisine.

You get to see the best of the UK and the international hip hop scene, so it’s everyone coming together. We break down the fourth wall; the artists come into the foyer and mingle with everyone. It’s the true hip hop experience.


Breakin’ Convention 2018 – 15th Anniversary Highlights

It’s also open for all. As much as the idea behind the festival was to bring in hip hop audiences and let them know that theatre is for them, it makes people that wouldn’t usually be into hip hop see that hip hop is for them too. There are no barriers. It makes everyone feel welcome and comfortable.

You’ve worked your way up from festival volunteer to projects coordinator, to finally heading the Breakin’ Convention team. What are some of the personal highlights of your career?

When we started touring internationally in 2013 and brought the festival to the Harlem Apollo – that was a major highlight! There have been quite a few. I’d say the global effect of our work, but also the development of the UK hip hop scene and of our artists, especially in theatre.

The festival is one thing, without it we probably wouldn’t have been able to create the platforms for professional development that we now have, and to develop the kind of work we’re now developing within hip hop in the UK and internationally. I think over the years it’s been seeing the development of the scene in the UK and how it’s grown, and how a lot of these artists are now on the same level as the international ones, which wasn’t the case when we first started.

What is it like to run the festival?

I’ve been here since the very beginning. I volunteered for the first festival back in 2004 and knew Jonzi [Breakin Convention’s Artistic Director] from way before, since we were in our teens. I grew up in the 80s when hip hop first got big in the UK, and it’s the same feeling now as it was then – the feeling of wanting to be part of it all. I remember walking in the building on the Tuesday after the festival, and almost feeling like I’ve come off a high!

Jonzi D, founder & Artistic Director of Breakin’ Convention

As Mufasa [French hip hop dancer] said last year after her debut performance at the festival, ‘you just feel love’. You’re in the building and that’s what you feel, from the Wednesday when you see the graffiti being put up on the walls, to the next day when the companies start coming in for their tech runs. It feels like a family within our team, but also within the wider context of hip hop.

Michelle (right) pictured with Breakin’ Convention’s Education Coordinator Shay Rafati. Image: Dave Barros

How do you keep Breakin’ Convention feeling fresh and exciting from year to year?

It’s different every single year. There’s a blueprint of course, but with every single year we’re constantly thinking: ‘How can we top that?’ For our 10th anniversary in 2013, we commissioned 10 UK artists: the whole night was dedicated to just UK artists on the main stage. Last year, we had a 15-piece orchestra as part of a new piece marking our 15th anniversary. We are already looking at how to top that for our 20th.

Breakin’ Convention 2019 promotional poster

We try and make sure there’s something for everyone. We look at the programme every year and ask ‘Have we got something for the older generation? What’s something that’s a little more innovative? Are we representing enough females? Are we representing rawness? Are we representing more of the theatrical, the artistic?’ We try and do things organically, so that we’re not dictating what the scene has to have – it’s more a case of what is needed and what is wanted.

What in your opinion is needed in the scene? How has Breakin’ Convention facilitated that?  

Hip hop artists don’t have the same kind of opportunities as ballet and contemporary dancers – there are no hip hop conservatoires. You can’t go to a school where you can learn and study hip hop in that sense. So doing things like our artist development programmes Open Art Surgery and Back to the Lab means that artists are not only able to develop their craft, but they’re also learning how to direct their pieces, they’re looking at lighting -all of those things they don’t usually have the privilege of doing.

Back To The Lab: A hip hop choreographer’s course

We need to develop our artists to be on the same level playing field, and so the professional development side of Breakin’ Convention has really started to grow. It’s nice that within Sadler’s Wells on the whole, we’re working with a lot more hip hop artists. It’s a real pleasure to work with the artists we work with. Professional development and education are the things we’re really pushing now. Looking towards the hip hop theatre academy that Sadler’s Wells will establish as part of our new venue in east London in 2022, it’s definitely about incorporating those things.

Something that Jonzi always says is that we’re at an advantage, in that even though hip hop has been going for 40 odd years now, we still have living legends. In 2008, we started doing training with the legends of hip hop under what we called the Pioneers project. The fact that we can invite people down to a workshop with Popin’ Pete [one of the originators of the “popping” dance style and member of the Electric Boogaloos], for instance, is something that you can’t always do in other, more classical dance styles.

Popin’ Pete: Harlem Funk Renaissance

What does Breakin’ Convention have in store for our audiences this year? What can we expect?

The best from around the world and around the corner – just like our slogan says! On the international front, everyone we have apart from B-Boy Junior [world-renowned Congolese break dancer] is quite new to the Breakin’ Convention stage. We’ve got Jinjo, a crew from South Korea who are B-boy champions, and France’s Geometrie Variable. We’ve got someone like Logistx, a B-Girl from California who is 16, so very much the new generation.

B-Boy Junior Bosila and Kalli Tarasidou will appear as duo Company Même Pas Mal at Breakin’ Convention 2019. Image: Christian Schneider

And then even on the UK front, we’ve got an influx of new companies on the stage like The Archetype and Cocojam. Boy Blue is one of the regulars, having performed at the festival almost every year. We have some familiar faces performing in a new capacity at Breakin’ Convention such as Fiya House, a collective consisting of founders Brooke Milliner and Dickson Mbi. It’s all very fresh and really exciting.

If you could choose a word that captures the essence of the festival, what would it be?

Sensory. There’s just something about the senses – all of them are aroused. There’s music, there’s the smell of different foods, there’s the energy of the people coming in. The building just comes alive. I always tell people that no matter how much you can describe it or watch a Breakin’ Convention video, you have to be there to experience it yourself. When you come to the festival, how you then experience it, and sit in it… it’s different, you know? It’s a sensory experience.

Breakin’ Convention will take place at Sadler’s Wells on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th May 2019. Tickets are available here.

Image by John Moore Theatre

Breakin’ Convention takes over Denver for a weekend of hip hop dance theatre

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Breakin’ Convention returned to Denver this month with a festival that celebrated hip-hop culture and showcased both world-class, international acts and local street dance companies.

The festival took over the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) for the second consecutive year on 2-4 November, in conjunction with #DenverArtsWeek. Around 5,000 people enjoyed performances and free activities over the weekend. The lineup featured Dutch b-boy crew The Ruggeds, UK’s BirdGang Dance Company with Vice, a piece on addiction, French dancer Antoinette Gomis, whose solo honoured the beauty of black culture, a comic duet by Sample Culture (also from The Netherlands), and Los Angeles-based popping trio Femme Fatale. All received standing ovations from the crowd.

Image by John Moore

The Ruggeds in Adrenaline The Show. Image: John Moore

Image by John Moore

Femme Fatale performing at DCPA. Image: John Moore

Image by John Moore

The Bboy Factory at DCPA. Image: John Moore

Image by John Moore

Antoinette Gomis in IMAGES. Image: John Moore

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadler’s Wells’ Associate Artist and Breakin’ Convention’s Artistic Director Jonzi D curated and hosted the show, stressing the importance of creating an organic environment for hip-hop culture to flourish, a space where both local and international acts come together. Sharing his vision, General Manager of the DCPA’s Broadway division Alicia Bruce recognised that the festival “is not just about dance from around the world. It’s also about dance from around the corner”.


Jonzi D in conversation with DCPA Senior Arts Journalist John Moore

Local acts included Block 1750, Chase Evered, Whole Milk, Breaking Barriers, The Freak Show, Love Es Love, Side by Side and B-Boy Factory, who also performed at the student matinee on Friday, which attracted an audience of 2,500 pupils.

A highlight was the 303 Free Jam, which kick-started the festival with a rich programme of dance workshops, graffiti, MCs, DJs and impromptu dance sessions delivered by Breakin’ Convention in collaboration with the headline artists.

“Considering that we don’t always have the opportunity to move the way we want, we really wanted to take advantage of this,” said Abner Genece, who took his son Jaden to the 303 Free Jam. “It fills me with joy to see him out there expressing himself. It’s amazing really to have the exposure to artists from all over the world, not only visually but movement-wise, music, vocally. To be able to expose him to all these different kinds of influences is great, and show him there’s a whole world out there right here in Denver.”

Image by John Moore

Mastering the steps with Ivan the Urban Action Figure. Image: John Moore

Image by Emma Ponsford

Young attendees wearing Breakin’ Convention’s merch. Image: Emma Ponsford

Image by John Moore

Graffiti workshop. Image: John Moore

Image by John Moore

Antoinette Gomis’ free Sample Session workshop. Image: John Moore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information on upcoming events and activities, visit www.breakinconvention.com/

Header image: John Moore

Pierre Rigal: “It’s my job to catch all the surprises”

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This September, Breakin’ Convention brings the work of French choreographer Pierre Rigal to the stage, fusing contemporary and hip hop styles in Scandale. We spoke to Pierre to find out more.

You studied mathematical economics and cinema as well as being a top athlete specialising in 400m hurdles!! How did you end up becoming a choreographer?
Not a coincidence but almost! It’s a question of instinct. One day I took an African contemporary dance class with a friend and I really loved it. I looked at a lot of videos of pieces and it quickly became something very important in my life. After a few years I had an audition as a choreographer in London. At the beginning I thought it would only last for 3 or 6 months because I thought I was too old because (I was already almost 30 at this point and already working in the movie industry). Now, more than 10 years later, I’m still in dance and creating my own work. I suppose dance is the best way for me to express myself. It was more natural for me to express myself through the body.

Your work is often described as being on the border between hip hop, theatre and contemporary dance. Where do your different influences come from?
I like to mix different styles. Of course, I learnt a bit of African dance but also a bit of contemporary and hip hop, and I like to mix the aesthetics of these types of movement. I also like to work with actors, singers, contemporary and classical dancers. I did a piece for the Paris Opera Ballet, which is certainly one of the most classical dance companies. I like to understand how different people move, how they are interested in dance and then I compose my own choreography, my own universe, with the collaboration and participation of all these talented dancers. In Scandale, I work with some very talented dancers and I encourage them to play with the borders of movement aesthetics, mixing contemporary choreography and also perhaps primitive and African traditional dance.

Your piece Scandale explores the origins of choreography and questions whether music is the mother of dance. As a choreographer, is music always the starting point for your work?
In my own work the music is a partner, rather than a mother. Usually we compose the music at the same time or sometimes after the choreography. The music of my pieces is usually original, with the musician/composer present during rehearsals and the creation of the movement. He is looking at the movement we are creating and then he starts to compose in parallel with us. I like to work in this way because it allows the music to be very ‘in-dialogue’ with the movement.

In Scandale, the composer is waiting for the dancers first; waiting for their sounds, the noises they are making. The breaths, the cries, the love. The musician captured these sounds live and then composed his own trance music.

For me, it’s important that the audience experience what the music does to the body. Sometimes when we hear music, especially trance or ritual forms of music, the body is obliged to move. It cannot stay still. Perhaps the audience will experience this a little bit!

Your work is often very theatrical and tongue in cheek, creating visual spectacles on the stage! Can we expect any surprises in Scandale?
Scandale is a very choreographic piece, with some light surprises and scenography surprises! The main purpose of the piece is the energy and movement of the dancers, and also the link between the energy of the musician and the music. I think that the scenography is very simple, but with something very simple we can create some very beautiful images.

What has it been like working with dancers from the b-boy crew Yeah Yellow on this piece?
We had worked together for a while before establishing their own crew, Yeah Yellow. We ended up doing a show that was more for the theatre; a narrative fictional piece. Yeah Yellow is a very spectacular battle crew and I like these two different ways of seeing hip hop. Hip hop can be very efficient for battles and very inspiring for longer, narrative-based shows.

Why did you choose to name the work ‘Scandale’?
The etymology of this word ‘scandale’ comes from the word ‘scandere’ in Latin, which means ‘stumble’ in English. Change the normality of the walk. That’s why later it became ‘Scandale’ – something that changes the normality. I was interested in the stem of this word and also the same word in French, ‘scancion’, which is kind of repetitive singing. I like the link between these two etymologic interpretations.

What was your biggest challenge in creating Scandale?
I like surprises, and I have to create the right conditions to allow the birth of surprises and to be aware of them and catch all the little ideas that could be developed. It’s like a game with some stress, some love, some joy and when it’s finished and the audience like the piece, we are very happy. That’s why I’m excited to come back to London, to Sadler’s Wells, and for Breakin’ Convention to present this piece!

Scandale is performed at Sadler’s Wells on 5 & 6 Sep. Tickets are available now priced at £20 by calling the Ticket Office on 020 7863 8000 or book online at sadlerswells.com

Young artists bring hip-hop lyrics to life

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This weekend was the culmination of Graffical, a project run by our Breakin’ Convention team and funded by Islington Council’s Summerversity programme. For four days, participants aged between 13 and 21 had explored different aspects of hip-hop lyricism aided by three mentors: the poet and art educator Poetcurious, the rapper Reveal and the graffiti artist Mr. Dane. At a local youth facility, Soapbox Islington, they wrote their own lyrics and brought them to life via the medium of visual art; using paint, markers and POSCA pens. (Since they first entered the market in 1983, POSCA paint pens have had a formative role in the cultural history of urban art and are still revered in the graffiti community and wider visual arts today). 

On Sunday, their creations were exhibited at Sadler’s Wells. The art they produced represents their lived experiences and candidly reflects how these young people navigate their social environments. The participants had never met or worked together previously, and the result was outstanding. The Graffical project struck a chord both with members of the public and the participants themselves. Zion, 13, said of his mentors Poetcurious, Reveal and Mr. Dane, “I wish my art teachers were like you”. Brian, 17, said he would definitely use the opportunity to do take part in a similar project in the future.

Sadler’s Wells recognises that the most effective way to produce great art is to allow artists to create work on their own terms – a particular forte of the youth outreach programme run by Breakin’ Convention. When artists are given the freedom and the opportunity, their creativity can shine.

For more Breakin’ Convention youth projects, follow their Instagram @BreakinConventionYP.

Photo credit: Shay Rafati. 

Breakin’ Convention break records in America

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After breaking box office records on their first Canadian dates in June, Breakin’ Convention, our international festival of hip-hop dance theatre, concluded its triumphant 2017 tour with a return to the USA, presenting 11 shows over four weeks across Charlotte, Denver, Harlem and Miami.

The festival returned to Charlotte’s Knight Theater at Levine Center for the Arts and Harlem’s Apollo Theater, and was also held for the first time at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and the Denver Center for Performing Arts. As ever, it featured performances by a mixture of international and local dance artists and offered a rich programme featuring dance workshops, graffiti, DJs and freestyle dance circles.

International headliners included France’s dynamic b-boy crew Yeah Yellow and iconic hip-hop dancer Salah, while South Africa’s Soweto Skeleton Movers performed the high-energy, quick-stepping dance style Pantsula. In three of the touring cities, they were joined by dancer and choreographer Popin’ Pete, a pioneer of the ‘popping’ dance style and founding member of street dance crew Electric Boogaloos. All-female US popping crew Femme Fatale joined Breakin’ Convention for the first time in Charlotte.

Representing the UK was Protocol Dance Company, who presented a powerful duet called I Can’t Breathe. The piece, exploring the theme of power and racial tensions present in communities today, visibly moved audiences. Protocol developed the piece as part of Back to The Lab, one of Breakin’ Convention’s professional development programmes for hip hop artists.

These were incredibly successful dates for Breakin’ Convention, with over 13,000 people attending the whole American tour and the performances receiving over 40 standing ovations. In Denver, 2234 people attended the schools matinee, breaking a new record for the festival.

Next year, Breakin’ Convention will celebrate its 15th anniversary at Sadler’s Wells on 5-7 May 2018. You can book tickets here.