After a strange year of no live theatre and dance, Breakin Convention presented an amazing hybrid show of live a pre-recorded performances from across the world this month.
As well as world-class dance crews and soloists, the 2021 programme featured films from Breakin’ Convention’s latest initiatives Power to the Pixel and Next Day Delivery – a collaboration between choreographers and writers.
There was a mix of dance genres, so definitely something to suit everyone’s taste, from Break Dance to Jazz dance to Physical Theatre.
Many of the pieces told a story and had the audience, myself included, truly captivated.
This was by far my favourite performance of the whole show, it was the closing act that had everyone on their feet, just partying (although social distancing and wearing face masks) – The amazing performance by Patience J Presents: Colours…
The vibrant dancers of Patience J absolutely rocked the roof off the theatre, with their bold moves, a mix of African, Jazz and Hip Hop moves with a sprinkling of gymnastics, this group is a mix of dancers from UK and Nigeria.
Like I mentioned earlier, many pieces had a message, some topics touched on included, Equality to Women and Race.
One of the pieces that was particularly strong was by Spoken Movement in a piece called Family Honor.
This powerful duet from the UK, is a mix of tutting and popping and shows the dynamic relationship and taboos of a Ghanaian family. It has won many awards worldwide, which is not a surprise.
Bringing the feminine vibes and some real attitude to the showcase was an excellent jazzy piece called Betty’s Blue by Gemma Hoody which was also a favourite of mine, the dancers were so sassy and could tap as well as perform technical jazz moves – the style was a mix of Musical Theatre and Hip Hop all performed to amazing hip hop beats by Mikey J Asante – I loved it!
Another outstanding piece was by the UK group AwA – ATypical With Attitude, who performed Blindfolded – wearing blindfolds throughout, whilst managing to stay in unison , have spatial awareness and perform!! I was mesmerized with the rest of the audience, this is definitely one piece I could watch again and again – it was pure genius!
Breakin Convention is an annual event at Sadlers Wells and usually running over a few days with lots of fun Hip Hop related activities such as Graffiti Workshops and Breakdance and Popping classes which I think are usually free – this was obviously pre-Covid, but hopefully we can soon get back to the way things used to be, soon.
I know that Breakin Convention will be back later this year and I know they love to add new acts and showcase new choreographers and voices, but it would be great to see some of these acts on the scheduled programme again soon.
Thank you Jonzi D and the Sadlers Wells team for still making this happen this year, with all the challenges, I am truly grateful!
Thanks for reading!
Chanel x
Chanel Williams