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.