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| Les Twins |
Saturday night Line-up:
6.00-7.15 MAIN STAGE:
The Company (UK)
Gianni Gi (Australia)
GOP (UK)
UNITY (UK)
Flockey (Germany)
Antionette Gomis (France)
The Ruggeds (Holland)
Interval 7.15-8.15
FOYERS:
Resident DJ’s Tha En4cers
and open circles
The Training Ground
Graff Zone
Studio 7.30-8.00
Cindy Claes (UK)
The Rebirth Network (UK)
Myself (UK)
8.15-9.30 MAIN STAGE
Gator MouvMatik (MMTK)
(France)
Iron Skulls (Spain)
The Legendary Twins (USA)
Twin Peak (UK)
Les Twins (France)
In the words of Erykah Badu- 'What a day, what a
day!' Hip-hop theatre fans from across the country (actually that's
modest...from across the world) gathered at London's main dance house and holy
grail Sadler's Wells over the early May Bank Holiday weekend, to experience the
excitement that is…the Breakin' Convention. I've been excited about this for
weeks, as I discovered many others were after talking to them as they flocked
into the building. Saturday hosted an incredible line-up, and it seemed that
most people were holding out for a characterful performance from Les Twins (see
below, they gave us the freshest versions of themselves, and the crowd were
loving it).
For those of you who haven’t been to this event
before, the hype begins much earlier in the day, as there are bookable workshops
going on with many of the top artists that the festival has signed up for that
year. The workshops on Saturday included Waacking, Breaking and Breaking
conditioning, Locking, and a masterclass with Les Twins, which sold out pretty
quickly! I was curious to see why people had come along to the festival; was it
to help out as a volunteer or to be a dance groupie? There were lots of fans
for sure, but the variety of dance acts that the festival displays, means it
brings in a variety of people. This is what I love about mixing up genres. Of
course, the dance styles all come under the hip-hop umbrella, but some people
were there to see one particular act for their own personal joy, and some were
there because they knew someone who knew someone who knew someone, or because
hip-hop was simply a way of life. One lady I spoke to had come from a b-boy
crew in Scotland called the ‘Flying Jalapenos’ and her highlight of the whole
night was the simple appearance of The Legendary Twins and their ‘on-stage
chat’ with host and creator of the festival Jonzi-D. Another pair I chatted to
were street dance teachers from their school in Bradford waiting to be inspired
by Les Twins performance. Much to my happiness I spoke to a few Mum’s who had
ushered their kids along to continue their motivation and nurture their love of
hip-hop dance (it all started with Soulja boy for two little brothers I spoke
to!) I’ll be posting my video up soon which will give more of a flavor of the event
later on so watch out for this!
Every year, standing tickets are sold, and
Sadler’s Wells remove the front stalls seats for a rootsy experience. I think
it is important, and I’m sure the organiser wants to stay true to the culture
that you would have in MC or hip- hop dance events when they were more on the
street than the stage. Even Jonzi-D himself, who was also the MC for the
evening said the standing people were ‘his people’ and secretly, everyone wants
to be in the standing section, even if they get a realllly good seat.
So first up were, ‘The Company’ a group of
strong men with powerful movement. What grabbed me most about their performance
were the formations and patterns in which they moved across the stage. The
lighting was soft throughout, giving a contemporary feel and their choreography
flowed through different styles.
Gianni Gi impressed us next with her bone
breaking arms, and her angular, jagged choreography. Her on stage character
reminiscent of a troubled ‘patient’ from somewhere who was expressing her
unsettlement was my take on it. Her flexibility was outstanding and the story
she was telling with her body was gripping from start to finish.
GOP had me laughing away, mainly because of
their crazy energy! It was a real uplifter when they came on stage in their
kooky little skirts. I love Afrobeats because it always feels like you’ve
rocked up at a carnival party. See the video below of their piece ‘What’s in
the bag?’
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| GOP |
I was so excited for UNITY, and boy did they
bring a powerful piece. I loved Unity Youth’s dance, which was performed at
Future Elements in March so I was expecting to be blown away with their power
and East London-ness. It was vigorous and mannish, and each dancer displayed
the unbelievable skill and discipline and unique qualities in this dark piece.
There were fewer performers than when I remembered watching them before which
was the only thing I missed a little as it is unity and unison they do so well.
Nevertheless, they still packed a punch in their delivery, and the shift in
their style and message still rings true of where they come from which I really
like. I’ll be following them a little more to stay in touch with the message of
their work.
Flockey….ahhhh Flockey. Flockey the locker, ooh
was he cool. His piece was about a man and his relationship with alcohol, which
was nicely shown in his choreography and music choices, starting with James
Brown’s ‘It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s world’. He started leading us into more
up-tempo beats as he used his locking techniques and funky footwork to take us
into those strange dimensions that someone would experience in a whirlwind
relationship with alcohol. Smoke and lights added to this effect and had me
pondering this story and who this man might have been. A nice little happy
birthday shout out from Flockey to his Mum in the audience melted a few hearts
too!
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| Flockey |
Antoinette Gomis just gave us sheer beauty. She
merged so many styles and as a solo piece, well she made me proud to be a woman
that’s for sure. Her opening movements accompanied Nina Simone and took us into
an exhibition of expression that reminded us how important our rights are as
women and as people. She was such a storyteller, and her musicality was
mesmerising.
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| Antoinette Gomis |
The finale to the first half EXPLODED! By far
one of the highlights of the evening and for many people were ‘The Ruggeds’
from the Netherlands. A huge B-Boy crew who are the current world B-Boy
champions delivered on every level. I was expecting classic B-Boying at it’s
best, but there were so many styles displayed, and they were on point in every
unified sequence. We got a chance to see their individual styles too, and they
made us all laugh when they bought out their Swiss Balls (whoop whoo!) and
demonstrated ‘Swiss ball Bants’ B-boy style. It’s easy to see why they are the
champions. If they are ever performing again anywhere, GO AND SEE THEM!
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| The Ruggeds |
During the interval, we dashed over to the
Lillian Baylis Studio to see Cindy Claes perform her solo piece. I sat down and
said ‘ Oooh I wonder what that trophy is for on stage?’ upon which the girl
next to nipped in, ‘It’s for Cindy’s piece.’ What a great girl she was, I found
out she was in fact Cindy’s intern. You can see her story on the video, which
will be posted up very soon. Cindy’s stage story was all about having to choose
between giving to your relationship or giving to your career. I really
identified with Cindy’s piece a lot and loved how she bought humour to her
dancing with her experessions every time her ‘boyfriend’ called her on her
phone. More than anything the narrative was clear and reachable and this is
what I think is so endearing about her as an artist. Oh, and her dancing was
fierce, I’m going to start going to her classes if it means I can move like
that!
Check her class schedule here:
I must give a mention to ‘Myself’, an all female
hip-hop dance group who aim to promote ‘empowerment, ambition, individuality
and self-worth’ to females and the wider society. Their act (which closed the
Lillian Baylis event) showed them transferring clothing from one to another, no
music, just movement, expression and reactions. They took us down a path of
reflecting on image, and what is expected of us as women, how we are
objectified and what we should look like. The mixture of movement, spoken word
and then clean powerful choreography was executed with the right attitude and
energy for what they wanted to promote, and I walked out of the studio feeling
proud to be a woman! (Who said ‘this is a Man’s world hmmm?)
The second half continued to get stronger and
stronger, and Iron Skulls from Spain ripped into the theatre with only torchlight
and gas masks making me wonder if I was in a post apocalyptic video game for a
moment or two. A single dancer came from the back of the theatre and performed
an incredible solo with the torch perfectly positioned to cast his whole shadow
neatly onto the clean backdrop. Even the middle class man who calmly watched
the show as I whooped and squealed away next to him whispered to his lady ‘Ooh
that’s clever isn’t it Julie?’ see…something for everyone! This solo was
followed by other dancers scrawling up to the stage like animals through the
audience to perform a fierce set, which was gloomy yet adventurous, and
reminded me just how varied and wonderful hip-hop theatre is now.
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| Iron Skulls |
A trio of twins led us to the end of the show,
with The Legendary Twins, the original B-Boys making an appearance on stage for
a chat about how it all began. Twin Peak from east London followed with a cool
performance, finishing with Beyonce’s boys Les Twins. Not only did they give us
dance, they gave us their music! Yes…an exclusive preview of their new track…be
warned it’s catchy and they were WONDERFUL.
What I loved most about this event was the
variety of dance acts. Hip-hop dance stretches far and wide now, and with it,
it encompasses a large cross section of people. So many people were there
because they understand the roots, and energy and discipline that comes with
this kind of culture and we all felt privileged to be there, I could just tell.
I was sad that I missed Sunday as I would have liked to have seen Buckness
Personified (see my video interview with one of the dancers backstage at the Great
Big Dance Off). Thanks to BCTV you can watch them perform here:
This was a happy day for me, experiencing people
who love dance and hip-hop culture in one of my favourite places in London and
seeing some of the world’s finest dancers. This is to me what Glastonbury is to
Kate Moss-Essential.
Photos by Paul Hampartsoumian
Special Thanks to Dave Barros from Breakin' Convention and Anna Goodman from Abstrakt publicity
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