INTERVIEW | ROY OVERDIJK FROM THE RUGGEDS TALKS TO US ABOUT THEIR RETURN TO BREAKIN’ CONVENTION

By Rishma • On Interviews ,

Photo by Yomi Rabiu

From under­ground battles to world titles, from the streets of Eind­hoven to the icon­ic stage at Sadler’s Wells, The Ruggeds have spent the last two dec­ades push­ing bound­ar­ies and show­ing the strength of real crew unity. As they cel­eb­rate 20 years togeth­er, they return to Breakin’ Con­ven­tion with a new show­case that cap­tures their raw energy, sig­na­ture style and the jour­ney that brought them here.

Hav­ing grown with Breakin’ Con­ven­tion since their first theatre per­form­ance in 2015, The Ruggeds now mark this mile­stone by bring­ing their story full circle. We caught up with found­ing mem­ber Roy Over­dijk to talk about the high­lights, the les­sons and how the crew con­tin­ues to move between battles, theatre, and glob­al stages while stay­ing true to the culture.

How does it feel to be cel­eb­rat­ing 20 years as The Ruggeds, and what does this mile­stone mean to you?
It feels sur­real when we tell it but very nat­ur­al to us. We grew up togeth­er and knew that this was for life, there isn’t a moment where it feels weird. But when we do tell our story and end the story with yeah we cel­eb­rate our 20th anniversary this year it does feel crazy. Being able to do what we do with someone you lit­er­ally grew up with and are will­ing to put your hand in the fire for is some­thing you can­’t put a price on.

Your new show­case revis­its two dec­ades of moves and routines — how did you decide which moments to bring back for this performance?
It’s a mix of moments which mean a lot for us cause we used in win­ning cer­tain battles and moments which the people we know con­sider our sig­na­tures or crew highlights.

We’ve been doing this for so long that some people know our moves a good as we do so recre­at­ing those moments not only for ourselves but also shar­ing them with our old and new audi­ences bind us all togeth­er in the celebration.

Audi­ences may recog­nise ele­ments from your world cham­pi­on­ship-win­ning per­form­ances in Japan and from your theatre pro­duc­tions. How do you bal­ance battle-style break­ing with cho­reo­graphed stage work?
We love to keep the energy and pace of the battles but are able to take more time to emphas­ize or build up the high­light or concept. What also helps is that we know that the cho­reo­graphy itself can be the high­light so effects and pat­terns with the crew that lead up to a big move some­times become the dopest part of that sec­tion so we put as much time in the set up as the recog­nis­able elements.

You’ve per­formed at Breakin’ Con­ven­tion before, includ­ing with Adren­aline in 2015. How has your rela­tion­ship with the fest­iv­al evolved over the years?
Breakin’ Con­ven­tion and the espe­cially the team behind it have a spe­cial place in our hearts. After giv­ing us our first theatre oppor­tun­ity in 2015, we did our first tours with them, helped us with extend­ing it to a hour piece and went to all of our premi­eres to sup­port and see if they can pro­gram it some­where. They did and we came back for a few Breakin’ Con­ven­tion presents and had our own even­ing in Sadler­’s which is crazy espe­cially with our back­ground. The BC fam almost set an impossible example for every fest­iv­al and organ­isa­tion and we love to be back, not only to be an that stage again but also just to hang with them.

Your new piece is bring­ing back the energy and essence of The Ruggeds’ ori­gins. What made you want to return to this style for your 20th anniversary?
In our 20 years of being a crew you get to know and respect each oth­ers ambi­tions and see people devel­op new pas­sions. We’ve cre­ated a situ­ation where we can sup­port someone else’s idea even if it’s not Break­ing related but gives value to the crew in a dif­fer­ent way. Some­thing we are very proud of and some­thing that cre­ated sev­er­al theatre pro­duc­tions, our own fest­iv­al called Jams & Gems, events like World Break­ing Clas­sic and Crash­fest, our Dance school and Cre­at­ive house SITU in our home town and much more. With all these spread out focusses we wanted to bring everything back togeth­er and what bet­ter way than a show­case that cap­tures our ori­gin and essence.

Hav­ing toured and per­formed all over the world, how does it feel to bring this cel­eb­rat­ory show­case back to a space like Sadler’s Wells?

Com­ing back to Sadler­’s is always a nice feel­ing. Espe­cially if it’s Breakin’ Con­ven­tion related. We really feel like we can cel­eb­rate with the crowd since they also know us for almost 10 years which is crazy as an audi­ence. So we are more than happy to cel­eb­rate our Anniversary with the BC crowd and organ­isa­tion and throw 20 years of mad­ness at them.

Break­ing is now an Olympic sport, but it also remains deeply rooted in under­ground and the­at­ric­al spaces. How do you see The Ruggeds bridging these dif­fer­ent worlds?
Since we are act­ive in mul­tiple fields and also organ­ise dif­fer­ent kind of events, we try to cross breed audi­ences and not only be rel­ev­ant in the dif­fer­ent scenes but also behind them. Every branch of The Ruggeds con­trib­utes to the tree. The way we approach the dance is dif­fer­ent because we also make theatre work and do Olympic level battles at the same time. We com­pete in and organ­ise under­ground jams but also stand on world stages. We know there’s a lot to learn in those dif­fer­ent worlds and it shows in the way we oper­ate and perform.

What have been some of the biggest les­sons you’ve learned as a crew over the past two decades?
That Crew means Fam­ily and that with­in a fam­ily you need room and sup­port to also do your own thing.

Look­ing bey­ond Breakin’ Con­ven­tion, what’s next for The Ruggeds as you step into your third dec­ade as a crew?
We have mem­bers who are in dif­fer­ent stages of their career so where some of us are deep into battle and prac­tice mode, some of us like to cre­ate theatre work or are more into music now and some of us are more in the back­seat and are organ­ising events or set­ting up pro­jects. So after 20 years every­one is still learn­ing, some are sus­tain­ing and some are doing their part of giv­ing back to the cul­ture. Even if in 20 more years we’re not on the big stages any­more I think The Ruggeds as a fam­ily is still rel­ev­ant and doing things for the cul­ture and are act­ive in many ways. So the next dec­ade is a more grown and bet­ter organ­ised one but the essence of us remains and we just like to do dope stuff togeth­er. Battles, Theatre, Events, hav­ing our own house of Cul­ture and become a com­munity of com­munit­ies in our City and being a good example of a real crew.

What mes­sage do you hope audi­ences take away from this per­form­ance, espe­cially those who have fol­lowed your jour­ney from the start?
Longev­ity is key. Take care of your­self and the people around you. A real crew is for life and is priceless.

What has been your favour­ite Hip-Hop song to dance to recently? 
Spot­tieOt­tieDo­pal­is­cious by Outkast


Breakin’ Con­ven­tion 2025
Inter­na­tion­al Fest­iv­al of Hip Hop Dance Theatre 

Fri­day 2, Sat­urday 3 & Sunday 4 May at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, EC1R 4TN 
Per­form­ances from 7.30pm on Fri­day, and 6pm on Sat­urday & Sunday 

Tick­ets: from £15
Tick­et Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

The fol­low­ing two tabs change con­tent below.
My Facebook profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Instagram profile

Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.