From the Streets to a World Stage

You can hear it before you see it. The sound of chatter, sneakers squeaking against the floor, the booming DJs reverberating through space. The boarded walls are covered in graffiti, the bars are selling patties and rice and peas. This is not Notting Hill Carnival, this is Breakin’ Convention, one of London’s most important dates on the dance calendar. A platform for Hip Hop culture from Britain and abroad, the whole venue is transformed for the festivities. There’s battles, workshops, cyphers (improvised dance jams), a silent disco, and even Double Dutch for those brave enough to try.

Performance

Breakin' Convention

Place

Sadler's Wells, London, UK, May 1-3, 2026

Words

Eoin Fenton

Redouan Ait Chitt and Samuel Henrique Silveira da Lima in “Broken Source.” Photograph by Paul Hampartsoumian

Founded by Jonzi D, icon of the British scene, Breakin’ Convention is now the world’s largest hip hop dance theatre festival and shows no signs of slowing in its 23rd year. The theme this year is friction, “kinetic friction between surfaces, bodies, and ideologies” as Jonzi D puts it. “We used to dance intimately” he reminds us with his spoken-word manifesto before the performance, “now we yell at each other with the noise of bigotry.” This tension is evident throughout the arts, and hip hop is no exception, many of the works grapple with darker themes in this year’s edition. Joseph Toonga, who recently was a choreographic resident with the Royal Ballet, remounts a work steeped in politics for an all-female cast. The quartet of women in “Born to Protest: The Reframe” demand to be witnessed, “see me, see all of us” they tell us between pained movements. Exhausted punches and kicks attempt to fling off invisible oppressive forces. Amanda Souza is particularly impressive in her screaming meltdown, her spring loaded body unrelenting in its fight. “I’m Amanda” she shouts in Portuguese, “I am a Black woman!”

Toonga’s work is one of many loaded with the darkness of contemporary culture in the festival. Mikee Trice’s “The Weight of Keeping Upright”, a duet exploring physical and mental perseverance, is full of burdened physicality: grappling, thrashing, shuddering. They are compelling snapshots of distress from the emergent choreographer, a graduate of the initial cohort of Academy Breakin’ Convention, the first school of its kind to teach students Hip Hop techniques, music production, and MCing. Marie Kaae’s spoken/danced solo work in the Lilian Baylis Studio, “What She Said”, looks at the cultural capital of “pretentious beauty” in a patriarchal world where women are often “reduced to purity and function”. The piece is ambiguous, smoky, elusive. Her movements are often free and flighty, steeped in House dance—her expression however is meditative. The work is rich in imagery, a reflective mirror is placed over her vagina and out to the audience, she covers her face with a braided wig and adopts an odd, possessed vocabulary. Ritualistic yet warm, it's an entrancing little gem of a work.

Giovanni Leonarduzzi and Lia Claudia Latini in “La Dolce Vita.” Photograph by Paul Hampartsoumian

Compagnia Bellanda’s “La Dolce Vita” too includes spoken elements. The duet blends b-boying and contemporary flow (courtesy of Giovanni Leonarduzzi and Lia Claudia Latini respectively) with almost constant connection to the floor, something they call “floor flirting” according to Jonzi D. The vocabulary is full of risk and kinetic adventure, they are often locked together in a whirl across the floor. It’s brilliant to watch. Throughout their tryst dancers repeat lines from Federico Fellini’s film of the same name to each other. It begins with infantile taunts: “catch me,” “I’m here,” “want to play with me?” before turning into more grown-up doubts: “how can I make you understand I’m sorry?” “how can I tell you I miss you?” Love is an exhausting thing, and Compagnia Bellanda have certainly captured the passion.

Not all of the work on offer is concerned with overt socio-political and cultural friction however. Ekleido presents an excerpt of “Femina”, a work that centres femme and flamboyant voices in street techniques. The ensemble strut in their shimmering black get ups to clubby runway beats, voguing and waacking to their hearts content, giving us glam in all its glory. International crew ILL-Abilities drop jaws with “Broken Source”, a work full of impressive Breaking virtuosity that never veers into boastful tricks for the sake of it. The duo, who both have limb differences, embrace the unique blueprints of their bodies with a fresh inventiveness. From France, AS Compagnie bring popping to the fore with humorous detachment in “Quatre Trois”, the pair inflect the style with allusions to martial arts and African social dances all done to a trance-inducing meter.

Marie Kaae's “That’s What She Said.” Photograph by Paul Hampartsoumian

While all impressive, Breakin' Convention is not only a platform of excellence in the form but a means of instilling an appreciation of the art into the next generation. Let It Happen, an emerging crew from The Netherlands have a natural presence and an embodiment of old-school grooves beyond their years. Their dreams of becoming a source of inspiration to younger people have seemingly come true. During the interval and as the audience files out, kids are seen strutting about the foyer, doing their best moves. Friction may be increasingly a part of contemporary life in London, but we may yet find a way to dance our ways out of it.

Eoin Fenton

Eoin (they/he) is a dance maker and writer based in Cork (Rep. of Ireland), and London (UK). They have danced across Ireland and London in venues including The Place, Project Arts Centre Dublin and Galway Cathedral. Eoin graduated with a BA in Choreography from Middlesex University in 2024 and began writing as part of the Resolution Reviews programme. They are a regular contributor to A Young(ish) Perspective.

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