Breakin' hip-hop conventions

Breakin' Conventions '06, Saddler's Wells

For speed, ingenuity and sheer acrobatic exuberance, little beats free-style hip hop.

Some troupes, or crews as hip hoppers are called, explore its dance-theatre potential, but what we really want to see is urban insouciance mixed with gymnastic daring - an inverted pretzel-shaped freeze after a dervish-like head-to-shoulder-to-hand-to-forearm spin.

Both sorts were on offer at Sadler's Wells four-day Breakin' Convention festival, and, unsurprisingly, it was the dancedisplay crews who set jaws adropping-Project Soul was one such, with the Korean visitors offering extraordinary ping and power.

First came off-kilter, airborne somersaults; then hand and head and shoulder spins, all with legs nonchalantly, asymmetrically akimbo; then some dazzlingly, dangerously fast alternating hand/forearm spins.

They also made cat's cradles of themselves, a sort of Origami Me, half-martial arts, half-doodling their bodies into bonelessly knotty contortions.

It was exhilarating to watch, as was Phase T from France, whose raggle-taggle style was much more raw.

Billed as inspired by African circus, the crew performed some astonishing slide-spin combinations, and they were funny as well.

The bigger dance-theatre crews were less good at taking hip hop beyond its bravura enthusiasm, although one sly success was Frank Ejara.

The Brazilian soloist mixed locking and popping to show how hip-hop music works in our heads.

Visual and aural tricks were everywhere, as were some brilliantly boneless boogaloo moves. All phone cameras pointed his way.