Academy Breakin’ Convention delivered by Breakin’ Convention and Sadler’s Wells and is one of the major initiatives at our new venue, Sadler’s Wells East. It’s a Further Education programme offering up to 40 young people aged 16 – 19 the opportunity to study Hip Hop Theatre, with a focus on live performance and theatre production. On completion of the 2-year full time course, students will achieve a Level 3 qualification in Performing Arts, specific to Hip Hop Theatre.

ABC will be filled with energy and ideas guided by the institution that is hip hop. Encouraging creativity and originality while acknowledging the values of hip hop culture. Students will receive high quality training, studying the technical elements intensively to prepare them for further studies, performance work and opportunities into wider creative industries.

For the first term, we will introduce (breaking, popping, hip hop) music (rap, DJ, beat making) and graffiti. Covering what is widely known as the 4 elements, as well as West Coast funk styles. This multi-disciplined approach to studying hip hop will engage different performance skills and allow students to understand the connection between them. The first cohort of students at ABC will start in September 2024. Recruitment will begin in September 2023 and run through the 2023/24 academic year.

Breakin’ Convention’s professional development programmes; Back to the Lab and Open Art Surgery, grew out of a need to fill a gap in the progression routes for hip hop artists making theatre. Similarly, ABC will provide a much-needed pathway for young people to study Hip hop disciplines and pursue a career in the creative industries. As a dancer, an actor, a recording artist, graphic artist, theatre maker, and potentially a game changer with a vision for the future.

academybreakinconvention.com

ABC will be based at our recently developed fourth venue Sadler’s Wells East in east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Sadler’s Wells’ new space will be part of East Bank, opposite the London Aquatics Centre, alongside BBC Music Studios, UAL’s London College of Fashion and the V&A Museum. The site will form part of a new cultural and education district, which will also include a major new University College London (UCL) campus and have direct links to the creative communities already based in east London.

Sadler’s Wells’ East will house a 550-seat mid-scale theatre, and include facilities for The Rose Choreographic School as well as Academy Breakin’ Convention, all planned to open in 2024.