We were on our way to meet Connie and Michael at the 2007 Breakin’ Convention but as we had some time (and also had a giant lunch to walk off) we decided to go for a bit of a walk around the city. In a little green near St Paul’s Cathedral we saw something that was a bit surprising – a bunch of guys practising their parkour skills. Parkour is about moving from one point to another in the most efficient manner possible. It seems to be a cominbation of gymnastics, acrobatics, and martial arts even. Clearly these boys were still learning but it was nice to see and reminded me that its something that I’m keen to learn.

Here is some video footage:

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the Breakin’ Convention but Connie was certainly excited about it. She attended to the event last year and had only good things to say about it. The convention attracted quite a varied crowd from the very young to the very old which was rather surprising. The convention is actually about hip hop dance and the energy in the building before the start of the first programme was quite buzzy. I also like how they’ve themed the area with graff all over the place. Wish I could paint like that!

Its wierd but seating at the main stage was on a first come first serve basis and it certainly added to the chaos before the start of the first show. The room was also set up with a standing area up front where the keen (or the late …) could take up residence. We seemed to be surrounded by the little teeny boppers who seemed to know everyone on stage personally and they certainly showed their appreciation with their hollering and whistling.

The session we attended involved a number of groups performing a set piece each including Rapture (young female (including one girl who surely wasn’t older than 4 or 5!) street dancers fro Northern Ireland), Baby Flex (a young girl I think 12-13 who actually made it to the last 16 at the recent World Hip Hop Championships in Germany), Dance 2XS (who brought a wierd story about a toy shop maker who falls in love with a beautiful doll he makes), Moving Shadows (an Austrian group who took a look into the darkest depths of the human soul), and Compagnie Revolution (represented by one woman who in her high heels and eventual nudity certainly brought a few comments out of the crowd. I don’t think people knew what to think of it!) The finale were the Electric Boogaloos who in the mid-1970s created dance styles which influence the world of dance today.

It was all actually pretty cool and the music wasn’t too bad either: