Breakin’ Convention 2024: International Festival of Hip Hop Dance – Sadler’s Wells, London

Artistic Director: Jonzi D Now celebrating its 21st year, London’s annual festival of hip-hop dance theatre always contains much to delight and surprise. Taking place over three days, the event includes events going on throughout Sadler’s Wells, with performances and interactive sessions taking place on all levels of the building. Breakin’ Convention is in the process of inviting applications for a new performing arts academy that will focus on hip-hop theatre, extending the festival’s philosophy into a full-time educational role. But for this weekend’s main stage, hosted by the convention’s artistic director Jonzi D, the offering focuses on acts who are already producing professional theatrical presentations using a variety of hip-hop and related skills. Saturday’s schedule opens with London-based ShaolinOrShao, a collective of graduates from the University of East London whose piece MP3+Movement Init mainly revolves around dancing to Lethal Bizzle’s Pow. It’s a high-octane performance with a strong narrative about camaraderie, friendship and grime culture that ensures proceedings start with an adrenaline-fuelled explosion of rhythm and moves. That’s followed by a couple of more contemplative pieces. The Hereditary by Create4 shows two men, separated onstage in their own coloured pools of light, but who each experience a sense of...