Breakin’ Convention 2012: This Year’s Dance Companies of the Future

Breakin’ Convention, the international festival of hip hop dance theatre takes place this weekend from Saturday 5 May until Monday 7 May at Sadler’s Wells Theatre London and features another stellar line up of the best hip hop dance companies from around the world and around the corner.

Breakin’ Convention festival has always had an emphasis on up and coming choreographers, as a platform for future stars. From the cast of Into the Hoods to Street Dance 3D, nearly every street dancer that’s had success on their side has performed at Breakin’ Convention as a rite of passage. And Breakin’ Convention 2012 isn’t short of acts that can scarecly buy a drink at a bar but can still tear up a dance floor.

The youth companies of today have surpassed the simple one-two step choreography of years gone by as well. While in hindsight sticking together a routine wasn’t too difficult, since then the form of hip hop dance theatre has matured and evolved, and with it it’s brought through a host of new talent. These guys below are smashing it.

Buckness Personified

Buckness Personified is an all-female krump collective that are free of their insecurities and in touch with the spiritual. Founded by Duwane ‘Sparxx’ Taylor (the evil overlord in Some Like It Hip Hop), the group was put together six weeks ahead of their debut performance at Serious About Street Dance.

Buckness Personified are going to bring the gully, explosive style you’d expect in an all-male posse while proving krump can still keep its feminine composure and that the girls can still smash it when getting buck!

Video: Buckness Personified at Serious About Street Dance 2012

Botis Seva

Botis’ company, Far From The Norm is like an offspring of Avant Garde Dance Company, influenced by Tony Adigun‘s approach but with Botis’s own take on movement.
The World In Which We Exist is a piece that was developed at Breakin’ Convention’s Back to the Lab, and has been devised and revised since its initial debut in November 2011, while Botis has been testing and refining the piece at smaller events for its presentation at Breakin’ Convention 2012.

You’ll see from the video below how thinking outside of the box and keeping ‘far from the norm’ is what Botis and his company excel at.

Video: Far From The Norm – Inner Teaser

Da Bratz

Just how many groups does Boy Blue Entertainment need? BBE, Soldiers of the New School, Boy Blue Girls, Da Bratz? Enough is how many, because there’s always such a flow of dance talent passing through Boy Blue Entertainment that the Wu-Tang of street dance needs to break itself into sub groups!

Just like their annual showcae, A Night With Da Bratz at The Barbican, Da Bratz’ set at Breakin’ Convention 2012 has been overseen by Vicky ‘Skytilz’ Mantey and Bruno ‘Boom’ Perrier.

Spoken Movement

Kwame Asafo-Adjei (aka Kwamelicious) has danced at Breakin’ Convention before as part of Unity, but it’s his breaking off from Unity that makes his company debut with Spoken Movement so interesting. Distancing himself from introducing the company with a showcase set, Rebound – Perfect World is a performance about human trafficking prosititution and drug gangs.

ZooNation ZYC

Like Boy Blue, ZooNation Dance Company has seen many different generations of dancers pass through its ranks: ZYC (ZooNation Youth Company) is the next. Their piece follows a destitute soul, lost in a crowd, to self belief, from the award-winning company behind Some Like It Hip Hop. Expect to see some trademark lyrical choreography from Kate Prince.