Breakin Convention 2011: The year in review

2012 is around the corner and Breakin' Convention has had quite a year! In the 12 months leading up to 2012 Breakin’ Convention has been shifting as a company, taking on new staff while seeing old friends move on to greener pastures; adopting projects from the now de-funked Jonzi D Productions and pushing the boundaries of hip hop dance theatre with plenty of exciting new projects.

There’s plenty to round up from the year that was 2011, but here’s a selection of highlights:

February
It was goodbye from Breakin’ Convention’s Kate who left to project manage British Dance Edition 2012 and Claire who left for the Middle East.
Meanwhile the selection process was underway for Breakin’ Convention 2011, but the office was down by two people…

March
A male presence balances out the Breakin’ Convention office: Peter steps into Kate’s position as project manager fresh from East London Dance, while Dave ‘the Flave’ assumes the role of the newly created digital communications officer, overseeing the website, social networks and digital content.

April
Breakin’ Convention gets a brand new website! The dawn of a new era for online Breakin' news, it was out with the old green and black social network and in with the slick, clean and streamlined website we have now, making it easier to navigate our artists, calendar and video sections.

Future Elements, Breakin’ Convention’s half term project where kids ‘run tings’ took over Angel town centre for a music video shoot, to the surprise of onlookers, but the result, which made its debut at the Future Elements night, was completely worth it! Watch the video below:

May
It’s Breakin' Convention 2011 and our eighth year in business! While the nation’s eyes were glued to their TV screen for the royal wedding, the BC festival married flesh-eating Ugandan dancers, Ashigaru, the tutting robot that starred in Big City Brains’ hour-long Human Robot piece, and had an affair with some fringe projects in form of new performances for the Lilian Baylis Studio alongside the Freestyle Funk Forum.

June
With the festival behind us and summer in full effect, May was to be a month where BC took over the TV schedules as auditions for One Man Walking (see August, below) took place, while BBC4 was interviewing Jonzi for Dance the Most Incredible Thing! a programme dedicated to contemporary dance, while Channel 4 puts together its plans for Street Season.

Plus our acclaimed Breakin' Convention Pioneers week took place with five people that have lived the hip hop and social dances since their early days: Alien Ness, Trac 2, Popin' Pete, Suga Pop and Shannon Whichway Sha.  In the words of Jonzi D, for one week "hip hop was officially in the house!"

July
While Tabu Flo was in town in for the festival May, Oxfam took aside Jonzi to interview him for Oxfam Grow, which was released in July to highlight people’s attitude to food.

Regional Conflict saw Soul Mavericks take the national title… again! A predicable win? Maybe. But once again it secured Soul Mavs as the UK's top crew and qualified them to compete at the UK B-Boy Championships World Finals in October.

August
One Man Walking, the ambitious dance film made for Channel 4 by acclaimed dance film director Margaret Williams hits the nation's television screens, penned by Jonzi D, choreographed by Kenrick Sandy, and score composed by Mikey J Asante.
The work was something else, daring to drop dialogue in place of 17 minutes of thumping Mikey J beats, and it paid off with critical acclaim.

September
Assuming the popular education project from Jonzi D Productions, we introduce Breakin’ Convention Education, committed to raising the awareness of 'real' Hip Hop. Our line up of renowned artists specialise in dance, music, aerosol art to offer classes, educational packages, professional development opportunities and youth projects.

Elsewhere Jonzi D oversees a modern adaptation of A Clockwork Orange at Theatre Royal Stratford East with Katie P and internationally in Holland Breakin’ Convention is checking out The Notorious IBE and taking notes for next year’s festival.

October
In an unprecedented move Breakin’ Convention partners with Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Jasmin Vardimon, conceptual choreographer and pioneering ideas explorer for Back to the Lab, a unique project that took hip hop choreographers out of their comfort zone to create brand new pieces of work to present in December and potentially in Breakin’ Convention next year.

Open Art Surgery returned at the end of the month, a project where Jonzi spends a week with artists gifted in all hip hop elements to create a piece of work within a week.

November
Another acclaimed Jonzi D Productions project, Hip Hop Hospital, hit up Liverpool to bring hip hop to the children’s ward at Liverpool Alder Hey hospital.

Battle of the Year took place in France seeing Vagabonds take the title for the second time, but out of the battle Breakin’ Convention was collaborating with La Villette for WIP (Work In Progress) with Tony Adigun from Avant Garde Dance.

December
Back to the Lab: After two months absorbing the knowledge and approaches of Jasmin Vardimon in October, the artists Ashley Jack, Botis Seva, Ivan Blackstock, Simeon Qsyea and Toby G showcased new pieces of work. Expect to see some of these works in Breakin’ Convention 2012 and on the tour!

And since going back to the lab, it’s back to the start with next year’s festival - now we have to review the Breakin’ Convention 2012 submissions in order to programme next year’s tour. It’s going to be a hype tour – have you booked your tickets yet?