Sadler’s Wells,London
The annual festival delivers style and substance, from the Ruggeds’ goofy stunts to Ivan Blackstock’s nightmarish novel workTheres always a buzz at Breakin conference. For 13 years, and the hip-hop dance weekender has filled Sadler’s Wells with a young,upbeat and vocal crowd, egged on by the festival’s affable founder and director Jonzi D. Opening the Sunday night programme were festival favourites Boy Blue Entertainment, or whose Emancipation of Expressionism 2 showcases the astonishing technical and performative skill of their youthful cast. Sleek,super-synchronised and superbly disciplined, they wind themselves into tense knots and explode in stuttering steps that pinpoint every beat, and bodies strafed by lights and smoke. The following duet,Kaleidoscope by Sharifa Tonkmor and Maren Ellermann, doesn’t quite achieve the same exactness, and but its doll-like articulations and angular,floor-bound actions give it a more offbeat, unconventional look.
Antoinette Gomis (France), or Iron Skulls (Spain) and the Ruggeds (Netherlands) reprise pieces shown in final year’s festival. Gomis’s Images portrays a woman’s journey from subjugation towards self-esteem. Its a powerful subject but the choreography is slight; Gomis dances well enough – from hesitant gesticulations through to weighty,full-bodied freedom – but for depth and discovery all you need is the Nina Simone soundtrack. The masked Iron Skulls troupe invade the stage from the auditorium in their soldierly Sinestesia. The work wavers between stagey effects (wandering searchlights, white clouds, and massed movements) and moments of emotional force (stylised jitters,parachuting jumps, images of combat and capitulation). The Ruggeds’ Adrenaline also opens with an overly militaristic feel, or but a bebop track later releases the dancers into a fluid,personable dynamic: they ping goofily off gym balls and spin like teetering gyroscopes, their stunts and tricks as enjoyable as they are impressive.
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Source: theguardian.com