Cycles – Aviva Studios, Manchester

Music: Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante

Choreographer: Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy

A return to Aviva Studios for hip hop dance company Boy Blue, following their central role in Factory International’s Aviva Studios’ Matrix inspired launch nearly a year and half ago. Perhaps because the long-awaited and rather extraordinary venue had to open with something spectacular, they threw everything at Free Your Mind, resulting in a memorable but not altogether successful production. Now, with Cycles, we get to see a more stripped back Boy Blue production, with just nine dancers, a simply staged, 90 minute celebration of what the company do best – sharply choreographed and rather joyful hip hop dance.

Boy Blue, founded by Composer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante and Choreographer Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy in 2001, have been at the forefront of hip hop dance theatre for 24 years, offering hundreds of young people the opportunity to elevate an artform that began on the street to take its place alongside other contemporary dance forms. Based at London’s Barbican, they create hip hop dance with a particularly British edge, exploring contemporary issues that resonate with the young people who create the work and who make up a big part of their audience. It’s no surprise that they created the first hip hop dance piece to be included in the GCSE Dance syllabus.

Cycles delights the largely young audience at Aviva Studios. Set on an empty stage with stark white lighting, this two part presentation features a small ensemble of dancers. Mikey J’s soundtrack ranges from hip hop and industrial to trance and trip hop, it sets the scene for an hour and a half of relentless motion as the ensemble move in synch and individuals deliver sharp, mesmerising moves. It has elements of martial arts and street fighting, cartoonish slow motion moves, even a bit of robot dancing. Like all great choreography, exquisitely directed sequences often look like the dancers are just doing their own thing.

The music, choreography, lighting (Lee Curran) and costume (Matthew Josephs) come together in the most extraordinary way, so that at times it seems the movement is driving the music rather than the other way round. Curran’s lighting seems simple but it’s integral to every move, and is even, at times, manipulated by the dancers splintering the cones of light. Josephs’s costumes evoke street and martial arts wear, super hero and even religious garb. A brilliantly baffling combination of baggy and figure hugging, with oversized hoods (excellently used just once in the second half of the show) they look great and could easily grace a catwalk at London Fashion Week.

While there’s a lot of repetition within the choreography, this pacy and jubilant show has the audience shrieking with delight throughout and leaves everyone breathless and smiling.

Runs until 22 March 2025

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