Can street dance work as staged choreography? If anyone can vault over the built-in contradictions in those two concepts, it's Robert Hylton, a dancer/choreographer who has been blazing the hip hop dance trail for the past decade.
Physical Elements, a programme taking in two live dance pieces and a short film, is Hylton's most ambitious enterprise to date. Enlisting the talents of Jonzi D as director and DJ Billy Biznizz on the decks, Hylton is aiming to take his fusion of urban rhythms and contemporary dance technique to another level.
Hylton started out as a street dancer and those roots are clear in Innocence, a dance set in a parallel world in which hip hop is illegal and a character called Dizzi has to fight for the right to make his moves. The future looms large in Landscapes, too, a trio in which Hylton lets his imagination roam in the direction that future societies are likely to take.
It's thought-provoking stuff from an artist working in a genre where, of late, it's all been a bling-driven affair. Hylton is going back to hip hop's roots to push things forward.
