Breakin’ Convention Bringing International Hip Hop Crews to Blackpool!
16 May 2017
by Visit Blackpool
Sadler’s Wells’ critically acclaimed international festival of hip hop dance theatre, Breakin’ Convention, is back, with performances from UK and international companies and crews. Now in its 14th year, this hugely popular Sadler’s Wells Production is once again hosted and curated by Associate Artist Jonzi D.
Having established itself as one of the major highlights on the British dance calendar and one of the world’s greatest celebrations of hip hop culture, Breakin’ Convention will return to Blackpool by popular demand for a second consecutive year.
The UK tour will see talented local dance companies perform alongside International acts which this year include: Soweto Skeleton Movers, Tentacle Tribe and Just Dance.
Soweto Skeleton Movers, who performed as part of the 2016 Breakin’ Convention Festival in London, mix comedic contortionism with the Pantsula dance style native to the townships of South Africa and performing to Kwaito music, a form of Afro house.
Joining them on tour is Canadian group Tentacle Tribe. Founded in 2012, the Montreal based dance company creates uncommon dance works with a contemporary twist using conceptual hip hop and influences from all types of earthly creatures.
Completing the international line up are Just Dance from South Korea. Under the artistic direction of B-boy Ducky of the Drifterz Crew, Just Dance presents an updated vision of Korean shamanistic mask performance. Live Korean drumming accompanies a crew of poppers and B-boys, with many with world titles to their name.
The local line-up includes: Freefly Crew, Generation Movement, Urban Dance Project (UDP) and FY Wingz.
Freefly Crew is a Blackpool based dance crew who specialise in breakin’, also known as b-boying. The crew is built up of four lifetime friends of different ages who have been together for over eight years competing in b-boy battles, competitions and performing over 300 shows together both in the UK and Internationally.
Generation Movement is a company of two male young dancers, Ryan Fenton and Sam Wise who is just fifteen years old. Both train in broad styles from Hip Hop, Commercial, Krump, Contemporary and Popping.
Urban Dance Project (UDP) was established in 2012, providing street dance, breakdance and contemporary classes to the local community. The Urban Dodgers (under 10s) are current World Streetdance champions.
FY Wingz is an Urban collective formed in 2013 following the former success of dance troupe FY Westcoast which was established in Blackpool in 2006. The crew train in all styles of Hip Hop but specialise in Breakin', Poppin, Lockin', House, Krump and Lyrical. FY Wingz will be performing 'The Blackpool Get Down' at the Breakin Convention, a piece that explores the discovery and development of Hip Hop in the 1970's.
The show itself will be on Saturday, 27th May but the festival will also have events running on Saturday 20 May at The Grand Theatre, Blackpool as part of build-up for the show.
Date & Time: Saturday, 27th May 7:30pm
Tickets: £12.00
Concessions: £9.00
Under 18s: £9.00
Family of 4: £44.00 (Select 4 adult tickets and enter promo code BREAKINFAM)
Booking fee is included in all stated ticket prices.
Call Box Office on 01253 290 190 or visit blackpoolgrand.co.uk