LEGACY AND CONNECTION
25
PRESERVING THE BEAT
CHAMPIONING AND ARCHIVING BRITISH HIP HOP VOICES
BY IAN ABBOTT PRODUCER, WRITER, FOUNDER OF THE HIP HOP DANCE ALMANAC WWW.HIPHOPDANCEALMANAC.COM
The Hip Hop Dance Almanac is a media platform committed to commissioning and archiving the stories and voices of hip hop dance in the UK and internationally. Started in 2018, it presents primary accounts of people who are active and an integral part of the broad diaspora of the hip hop dance community.
In the past decade the UK has seen an emergence of a third wave (people in their 20s and 30s) of hip hop pioneers who have been creating a rich field of performances, events, battles, research and programmes deepening and challenging their connection to the culture, whilst building on the learnings from previous generations and recognising the social responsibility that we have.
Ian Abbott © Odd Venture
My introduction to hip hop dance started when I was working for Dance South West. In late 2009 we were building a new dance centre - Pavilion Dance - which would open in Bournemouth in 2010. It was part of my role to build a programme of activity with different communities across the town and this was when I met Nick (Freeze Fine) Palmer, Paul (Lacemaster) Spencer and John (DJ Junk) Isaacs from Second To None crew alongside b-girl Angela Reece. They had been let down by another venue and were looking for somewhere to hold b-boy and b-girl dance battle Vile Style 4. At the time I had access to the ballroom in the Pavilion Theatre and was able to offer it to them as a space for the jam. Fast forward a few months to 11 April 2010, and we had Vile Style 4 taking place in a 1920s ballroom with panoramic views of the sea and Bournemouth’s Lower Gardens whilst b-boys and b-girls took over the 15m x 15m highly polished, sprung wooden floor.
