BREAKIN’ CONVENTION 2019 INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF HIP HOP DANCE THEATRE (@Bconvention)

Photo cred­it — Belinda Law­ley

Dis­tin­guished fest­iv­al Breakin’ Con­ven­tion returns to take over Sadler’s Wells and the Lili­an Bayl­is Stu­dio with its annu­al cel­eb­ra­tion of hip hop over the May Bank Hol­i­day. A Sadler’s Wells Pro­ject, the Inter­na­tion­al Fest­iv­al, now in its 16^th year, takes place on Sat­urday 4 and Sunday 5 May, show­cas­ing the finest and most excit­ing hip hop tal­ent.

Hos­ted and cur­ated by Sadler’s Wells Asso­ci­ate Artist Jonzi D, the Fest­iv­al offers the chance to watch high-cal­ibre breakin’ crews, innov­at­ive pop­ping, cre­at­ive krump and soul­ful house dance.

 This year the fresh, diverse and elec­tri­fy­ing line-up includes a num­ber of Breakin’ Con­ven­tion debuts and pieces pro­grammed as a res­ult of Breakin’ Convention’s devel­op­ment ini­ti­at­ives. Olivi­er Award-win­ning Boy Blue Enter­tain­ment return for the fif­teenth time to storm the stage, as B-boy Juni­or, amongst the most watched b‑boy of all time, teams up with Greek pop­per Kal­liopi Tarasidou to bring kal­eido­scop­ic moves to the Fest­iv­al. Lead­ing the way with strong female artists is all-female pop­pers AIM Col­lect­ive and 16 year old b‑girl Logistx who is mak­ing waves in the dance com­munity des­pite her tender age, whilst Joshua Nash and Jordan Douglas delve into the concept of tox­ic mas­culin­ity with their krump duet.

Breakin’ Con­ven­tion Artist­ic Dir­ect­or Jonzi D said, “Breakin’ Con­ven­tion is back in the game for the 16^th year run­ning, and still just as excit­ing as the first. The Fest­iv­al is such a fant­ast­ic oppor­tun­ity to see the best, raw­est hip hop around.”

Attendees exper­i­ence hip hop cul­ture in a unique way, with a vari­ety of taster ses­sions, work­shops and free activ­it­ies through­out the entire Sadler’s Wells build­ing. Foy­ers will be trans­formed to allow audi­ences to enjoy dance work­shops, live graf­fiti, award-win­ning hip hop DJs, MCs and impromptu dance circles all over the build­ing. BSL inter­pret­er Jac­qui Beck­ford returns to co-host all Sadler’s Wells stage per­form­ances. 

WorX, a dis­tinct­ive adult-only hip hop cab­aret even­ing kicks off the fest­iv­it­ies on Fri­day 3 May in the Lili­an Bayl­is Stu­dio. An excit­ing even­ing of live enter­tain­ment with an array of dance, cir­cus and poetry. Acts are embed­ded with a hip hop fla­vour in this adult-only even­ing of works and new com­mis­sions in a bur­lesque set­ting. Full line-up to be announced shortly. Strictly over 18s (ID may be required), WorX con­tains lan­guage or con­tent unsuit­able for young­er audi­ences. The ever-pop­u­lar Park Jam closes the long week­end with a fant­ast­ic free out­door event suit­able for fam­il­ies on Monday 6 May in Spa Fields Park.

Below is the con­firmed line-up of this year’s artists and com­pan­ies. For more inform­a­tion on the line-up, includ­ing news and updates, vis­it the Breakin’ Con­ven­tion web­site: www.breakinconvention.com

UK acts fea­tur­ing on the Sadler’s Wells stage:

AIM Col­lect­ive (UK) – An all-female col­lect­ive of strong female pop­pers hit hard, led by Shawn Aimey of Plague and Fiya­house.

Boy Blue Enter­tain­ment (UK) – East London’s lead­ing dance com­pany, Olivi­er Award-win­ning Boy Blue Enter­tain­ment are argu­ably at the fore­front of UK street dance. Steered by Ken­rich ‘H2O’ Sandy and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, they present an ensemble per­form­ance show­cas­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of street dan­cers.

Fiya­house (UK) – Foun­ded by long-term col­lab­or­at­ors and part­ners Brooke Mil­liner and Dick­son Mbi, this col­lect­ive of London’s lead­ing pop­pers show­cases a world première per­form­ance steeped in funk, dimestops and hard hits.

Gulf Dance Com­pany (UK) – Prob­ing what it means to be human by invest­ig­at­ing the dif­fer­ent tex­tures and move­ment qual­it­ies that this inquiry can inspire in the phys­ic­al body. Cur­rent dance stu­dents at The Liv­er­pool Insti­tute for Per­form­ing Arts, Dea­v­i­on and Thomas have danced togeth­er for many years but have recently formed this com­pany.

Lock­smiths (UK) – Premier­ing a new piece for this year’s Fest­iv­al, this Lon­don-based lock­ing dance com­pany present har­mo­ni­ous lay­ers of grooves, built up with a loop­sta­tion in a funky inter­pret­a­tion of music­al chairs, backed with a band.

Perry Louis (UK) – An under­ground dan­cer as part of the JazzCotech Dan­cers, Perry hits the stage to rep­res­ent the old skool street fusion of jazz dance.

 The Arche­type (UK) – Mak­ing their debut per­form­ance at Breakin’ Con­ven­tion, Lon­don crew The Arche­type explore the earthly ele­ment of Air – part of their con­cep­tu­al dance series focus­ing on the ele­ments, fol­low­ing on from water, earth and fire.

 Theo “God­son” Oloy­ade (UK) – Emin­ent UK krump­er and mem­ber of Boy Blue ven­tures deep­er into theatre work, where stage pres­ence meets intense chest pops and arm jabs.

 Inter­na­tion­al acts fea­tur­ing on the Sadler’s Wells stage (all UK Premi­eres):

Angy­il McNeal (USA) – Rep­res­ent­ing Kan­sas, Mis­souri, Bessie Award-nom­in­ated Angyil’s met­eor­ic rise as a pop­per on the bat­tling scene has seen her win­ning pres­ti­gi­ous com­pet­i­tions inter­na­tion­ally and being headhunted by Red Bull Dance.

Geo­met­rie Vari­able (France) – A style resem­bling the inner mech­an­ics of a timepiece with the pop­ping tech­nique of tut­ting defines this com­pany, who util­ise infin­ite angles to cre­ate a visu­al spec­tacle.

Jinjo Crew (South Korea) – Reign­ing Battle of the Year World Cham­pi­ons, Jinjo Crew bring an astound­ing show­case of élite break­ing and acro­bat­ics, mixed with Korean cul­ture and led by crew lead­er B‑Boy Wing.

Juni­or & Kalli (France/Greece) – B‑boy Juni­or is amongst the world’s most watched b‑boys, known for his incred­ible upper body strength and grav­ity-defy­ing aer­i­al moves. For Breakin’ Con­ven­tion, he couples with Greek pop­per Kal­liopi Tarasidou to com­bine impossible freezes, inter­twin­ing bod­ies and col­lid­ing pop­ping.

Logistx (USA) – 16 year old b‑girl Logistx, a rising star of the Los Angeles dance scene and of San Diego’s Under­ground Flow, is a dan­cer with a refined move set bey­ond her years. Her com­mand of hip hop dance styles saw her win­ning NBC’s pro­gramme ‘World of Dance’ in Amer­ica as part of dance com­pany The Lab in 2018. For her Breakin’ Con­ven­tion debut and first UK pro­fes­sion­al appear­ance, Logistx brings a world première solo to the stage.

SalesPlaza Soci­etas (Spain) – First seen dan­cing with the Catalan crew Iron Skulls, duo Agnes and Hec­tor use power­ful breakin’ and ges­tur­al detail to explore con­flicts between two people.*

WeWolf (Germany/USA) – A kal­eido­scop­ic duet that stretches the limbs and the pos­sib­il­it­ies of the human body through thread­ing with icon­ic con­tor­tion­ist B‑Boy Rub­ber­legz, who was recently seen in Sadler’s Wells pro­duc­tion A Quiet Even­ing of Dance by Wil­li­am For­sythe, and James Gregg.
Lili­an Bayl­is Stu­dio acts: 

Kloe Dean (UK) – Solo work Man Up blends move­ment, poetry and song to present a deeply per­son­al piece on deal­ing with loss and sui­cide.

Joshua Nash & Jordan Douglas (UK) – Heads clash and limbs swing in a tense krump duet between two males con­front­ing their mas­culin­ity.

Real­it­ie (UK) – Spoken word and poet­ic vet­er­an Real­it­ie holds a mir­ror up to harsh soci­et­al issues in her hard-hit­ting piece.

Under 5s admit­ted to the Fest­iv­al

All main stage per­form­ances BSL inter­preted

Sadler’s Wells & Lili­an Bayl­is Stu­dio, EC1R 4TN

Fri­day 3 — Sunday 5 May

Per­form­ances: Fest­iv­al 6pm (doors 4pm) / WorX 8pm

Tick­ets: Fest­iv­al £15 — £30
WorX £25 per seat at table; £15 back row

Tick­et Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

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Rishma Dhaliwal

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. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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