INTERVIEW | BREAKIN’ CONVENTION SPOTLIGHT: 20 YEARS OF BIRDGANG

By Rishma • On Interviews ,

Photo by Paul Hampartsoumian

As they cel­eb­rate their 20th anniversary, BirdGang Ltd returns to Breakin’ Con­ven­tion with Con­stel­la­tion, a power­ful homage to two dec­ades of innov­a­tion, struggle, and trans­form­a­tion. Known for their dynam­ic fusion of Hip-Hop and theatre, the com­pany reflects on its leg­acy while reima­gin­ing key moments from past works. We caught up with found­ing mem­bers Ukweli ‘Quails’ Roach and Kendra ‘KRO’ Hors­burgh to explore the inspir­a­tion behind Con­stel­la­tion, the evol­u­tion of their unique move­ment lan­guage, and how BirdGang con­tin­ues to shape and elev­ate the UK street dance scene.

Con­stel­la­tion cel­eb­rates 20 years of BirdGang Ltd, what inspired the concept behind this performance?

UR: As it is now two dec­ades that BirdGang has been oper­at­ing and con­trib­ut­ing to the dance scene, we wanted to pause for a second and reflect on what we have built over this time. We didn’t only want to show the growth of BirdGang but also the struggles we have encountered, which will hope­fully inspire those who come after us not to give up, in an industry and scene that can feel bru­tal and unre­ward­ing at times. So we decided to cre­ate a piece that high­lights spe­cif­ic moments in BIRDGANG’s devel­op­ment along­side some spoken word to help punc­tu­ate the journey.

You’re reviv­ing and rework­ing past works, how did you choose which moments to include, and how have you reima­gined them for today’s audience?

UR: To be hon­est this was a very dif­fi­cult thing to do as we found we have such a large data­base of past works that trim­ming them down to just fill a 12 minute Breakin’ con­ven­tion piece was hard to do! We chose num­bers that were par­tic­u­lar fan favour­ites or that helped flesh out the themes of growth and per­sever­ance that we wanted to con­vey. With our exper­i­ence of per­form­ance that we now have we are upgrad­ing and enhan­cing those num­bers so the BC audi­ence are in for a treat.

 BirdGang has always blen­ded Hip-Hop and theatre in innov­at­ive ways. How has your move­ment lan­guage evolved over the last two decades?

UR: it’s only really in hind­sight that you can see your own evol­u­tion and whilst our move­ment com­plex­ity, pre­ci­sion and vari­ety has def­in­itely expan­ded and improved, the thing that we have most developed is our abil­ity to tell stor­ies and dive into com­plex themes effect­ively, with works like ‘Vice’, ‘White Girl/Black Girl’ and more recently ‘Sad­boi’. This has been the most reward­ing skill we have developed and cer­tainly seems to res­on­ate and land with audi­ences that view them.

The UK Street­dance scene has changed sig­ni­fic­antly since you star­ted. How do you see its evol­u­tion, and what role has BirdGang played in shap­ing it?

KH: We have stayed loy­al to our ini­tial mis­sion and val­ues AAHE­HOP (indi­vidu­al­ity) FLOCK (col­lab­or­a­tion) and COM­MIT (integ­rity) and have there­fore found ourselves cre­at­ing, dis­trib­ut­ing and teach­ing the art forms to brands, stu­dents and audi­ences around the world. With our pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment pro­gramme HATCH­WORK we nur­ture cre­at­ive voices, cre­at­ing innov­at­ive and diverse con­tent for the Hip Hop theatre Industry, and with our Battle event THE BATTLE CAGE we keep an ear to the ground and cre­ate com­munity and space for free­stylers and bat­tle­rs (which is the found­a­tion of our art form) and with our NEST and FLOCK we train and cre­ate work that evolves the UK street dance Scene.

Breakin’ Con­ven­tion has been a key plat­form for Hip-Hop theatre. What does per­form­ing Con­stel­la­tion here mean to you?

KH: Com­ing back to per­form at BC to launch our 20th Anniversary is a huge hon­our and feels like com­ing full circle. The fest­iv­al hos­ted our very first per­form­ance in 2006 as a com­pany. It was the first time we intro­duced BirdGang Ltd to the world and was the launch­ing pad for a move­ment and a FLOCK that con­stantly evolves and has become a home for many cre­at­ives and move­ment architects.

What emo­tions or mes­sages do you hope audi­ences take away from Constellation?

UR: Con­stel­la­tion is a 12 minute snip­pet of a lar­ger piece that will be a cel­eb­ra­tion of the roller­coast­er jour­ney that the past 20 years of Birdgang has been. From its incep­tion to its cur­rent pos­i­tion. We hope audi­ences are inspired by the growth and mat­ur­a­tion of Birdgang and how it has inspired, weathered storms, and touched audi­ences in vari­ous ways over the past two decades.

All of our work in whatever medi­um has been an offer­ing to those who view it, almost a love let­ter to hip-hop theatre and dance, and how it tran­scends lan­guage or cul­tur­al barriers.

Can you share any behind-the-scenes insights into the cre­at­ive pro­cess, chal­lenges, sur­prises, or standout moments?

UR: The piece fea­tures many audi­ence favour­ites from Birdgang per­form­ances over the past two dec­ades, espe­cially those done at Breakin Con­ven­tion in our first show. Any­one who has seen some of our per­form­ances will recog­nise revamped pieces from as early as 2006! Unfor­tu­nately we couldn’t include any of our film work as we just didn’t have time to include any or the show would be way to long but we have been able to invite back a few well known former Birdgang mem­bers to per­form with us such as Ivan Black­stock, Chal­don Wil­li­ams, and Nich­olas ‘Mar­vel’ so in a way it feels like a big fam­ily reunion!

BirdGang has influ­enced dance, media, and pop­u­lar cul­ture. How do you see the company’s impact con­tinu­ing into the next 20 years?

UR: We have worked hard over the last 20years to estab­lish our ‘voice’, style of storytelling, and per­form­ance and it’s been a pleas­ure to see how that has influ­enced some of the next gen­er­a­tion of dan­cers and artists on the scene and the industry, in the same way that we ourselves were inspired but those who came before us and expan­ded on it. In the next 20 years we hope to estab­lish a leg­acy of innov­at­ive storytelling and explor­a­tion (both through us and the young artists who we inspire) and move into lar­ger realms of fea­ture film pro­duc­tion, dar­ing artist­ic endeav­ours, and ment­or­ship pro­grammes for the youth and those who are dis­en­fran­chised to pro­voke new ways of see­ing life, art, struggle, and over­com­ing dif­fi­culties. Mat­ter that really has sub­stance and that can change lives.

What advice would you give to the next gen­er­a­tion of UK Street­dance artists look­ing to innov­ate in Hip-Hop theatre?

UR: the advice we would give is to firstly con­sume as much art as you can. From Film, Theatre, Install­a­tion, Music Videos, books, Con­certs, Poetry, Rap Battles, and all that is avail­able to you either live or online. Build­ing a know­ledge of what you like, what com­mu­nic­ates well to you, what is effect­ive in get­ting its mes­sage across, what looks good in per­form­ance etc will all help you in shap­ing your own way to tell stor­ies or explore themes.

Finally, if you could sum up Con­stel­la­tion in three words, what would they be?

UR: GROWTH, MUR­MUR­A­TION, LEGACY

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

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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.