Breakin’ NYC

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For those, like me, who know practically nothing about the world of hip-hop dance and rap music, then Breakin’ NYC at Theater 555 is the show to see.

A compendium of all things hip-hop, krump, house music and street performed by an energetic cast led by an effervescent Ajalé Olaseni Coard, Breakin’ NYC is not only an exhibition but a colorful hour and a half on the stage directed and choreographed by Angel Kaba (assisted by Elodie Dufroux) who clearly knows her stuff.

Peter R. Feuchtwanger has designed a scenic frame for all the fast-moving dances.  It included several panels resembling contemporary stained glass windows featuring graffiti and the outlines of dancers’ bodies.  Dead center is a large screen. On this screen fleeting videos of hip-hop royalty illustrate how it all began, mostly on the streets of neighborhoods like the South Bronx in the turbulent seventies.

I am not usually fond of audience participation, but Breakin’ NYC turns out to be the perfect venue when Olaseni Coard invited audience members onto the stage.  The results, both at the beginning and the end of the show, were beyond charming, especially watching youngsters—mostly female—do credible versions of very complicated dance moves, vivid proof of this art form’s popularity.

All the different forms of hip-hop dance performed so expertly in Breakin’ NYC are as technically difficult as any ballet or modern dance technique. This is why it is now an event in the Olympics.

It can be popping (a jerky motion made by contracting and releasing muscles; locking (moving quickly then stopping in an impossible pose); waving (the simulation of soft, flowing movement through the limbs); breakin’ (the best known form featuring acrobatic exhibitions, whirling on the floor, turns on the head, etc.); and krumping (born on the streets of L.A., a full-body vibration that expresses urban angst, as seen in the film Rize).

All these forms have become ubiquitous infiltrating videos like Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and “Thriller.”  Even Broadway musicals have incorporated hip-hop as in Camille A. Brown’ choreography for Hell’s Kitchen.

Each dancer contributes a unique personality and approach to the parade of styles, but when they all perform together it is as if they had been together forever.  Each has a solo and a chance to speak about how they came to love hip-hop and how it changed their lives.

Several impressed: Choung Woo Hyun has an elegance and lanky quality; Irina Brigita Laiciu’s bare midriff is as expressive as any ballerina’s toe-shoed feet; and Adrian T. Martin has a loose-limbed, easygoing quality.  The other principal dancers are  Jihad Ali, Messiah Brown, Kayla Muchotrigo, Rafaela Oliveira and Nicholas Porter, all displaying terrific individual qualities.

Joan Racho-Jansen’s colorful lighting highlighted every contraction, twist, fall and turn.

Breakin’ NYC (through July 27, 2025)

Theater 555, 555 West 42^nd Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.breakinnyc.com

Running time: 80 minutes without an intermission