Street Dance XXL UK Championships

Posted on July 8, 2011

For the first time ever the Street Dance XXL UK Championships Finals will be held at Royal Festival Hall on July 17 as part of Southbank Centre’s weekend of hip hop culture. The competition is at the forefront of the street dance explosion in the UK and has, for 15 years, provided a launching pad for dance troupes such as Diversity and Flawless.

Channel 4 will film the finals as part of their ten-day Street Summer season, which will be broadcast in August this year. The finalists will also be competing for a chance to represent Britain in a UK versus US showdown in New York also covered by Channel 4. 

This year 800 dancers competed in the qualifiers in March, with only 30 groups going forward to the forthcoming finals and the chance to become the 16th winner of the coveted title. Amongst the UK groups “Britain’s Got Talent” 2011 semi-finalists Abyss (pictured top) have a point to prove and say they are coming back with a vengeance, as last year they saw their dreams slip through their fingers in a controversial shock win by Masters of Motion the first ever under 8–13-year-old dance group to win the competition outright. 

However, with previous “Britain’s Got Talent” semi-finalists, Peridot (pictured above), three times XXL runners-up, also competing, Abyss will have to put in a performance of a lifetime to make sure they are not pipped to the post again. The UK groups also face impressive entrants from Germany, France, Italy and Spain who made it through the XXL Qualifiers.

Other highlights of Southbank Centre’s weekend exploring hip hop culture (July 14–17, 2011) include a performance and workshops by hip hop pioneers and choreographers of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and “Beat It” videos The Electric Boogaloos and the launch of a new, international hip hop dance battle, Dance With Me, with the winners going on to the final in Los Angeles. 

The finals will take place from 3pm to 7pm. For tickets, call 0870 160 2522 and for more information, see http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/dance-performance/tickets/street-dance-xxl-uk-championships-58901

Photographs © Danny Fitzpatrick, courtesy of Street Dance XXL

Nicola Rayner

Nicola Rayner was editor of Dance Today from 2010 to 2015. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Independent and Time Out Buenos Aires, where she cut her teeth as a dance journalist working on the tango section. Today she continues to dance everything from ballroom to breakdance, with varying degrees of success. Her debut novel, The Girl Before You, was published last year in paperback, ebook and audiobook.