Musicality is the debut show from Hopscotch and as I knew that many of them were relatively inexperienced my expectation was not high. I was preparing myself for another Hip Hop show (which seem to happen weekly at the moment) and was pleasantly surprised to see that there was a variety of dance in the programme.

The first item, Lost and Found, was modern new school/RnB about the emotions generated by the finding and loss of love. What I liked about this was that as the story unfolded it gave us an insight to all the individual personalities of the company members. The dance was beautifully staged and the thoughtful choreography had moments of tenderness and humour.

This was followed by a dance/mime solo by company member Tama inspired by marionettes. Tama gave a polished performance and should continue to develop this idea as it showed real promise.

The next item, The Wu Shu Clan, was performed by guests and a sharp contrast to the previous item. It displayed the considerable acrobatic skills of this group of guys as they jumped, flipped and continually defied gravity with a combination of gymnastics and Wu Shu martial arts. I couldn’t help but think, however, that this extremely talented group might perhaps now think about developing choreographic skills to enhance future performances.

Bitter fun was a light and frothy little contemporary piece performed to live music. It was well staged and the movement vocabulary was simple and effective, giving the music performance an extra dimension. Kat Walker was particularly delightful in this piece, which showed off both her musicality and lovely sense of release.

Following this Chris Hogdson and partner performed an Irish hard shoe dance. I’m a sucker for great rhythm and good feet and the dancers had both. 

In Practising My TV, company principal Josh Mitikulena played the part of a bored music student who is supposed to be studying but instead finds himself drifting into more fun pursuits. I liked the concept and the B’boying movement was well adapted to the theme however it lacked cohesion and it would have been more coherent if they had developed fewer distractions. 

The three “Lady Lockers” who followed this gave an accurate and entertaining performance of this Hip Hop style.

A guest performance by City Trouble, a trio of Krumpers followed. I have to admit that Krump is not my favourite arm of Hip Hop. There is something a little too aggressive about it and this group looked positively menacing at times. However I appreciate the skill involved in this style.

More B-Boying followed with a break battle between crews Infinite Style and The Supreme kids. Although I appreciate the skill level of the performers I do find it hard to understand B-Boying as theatre performance unless the audience are able to surround them.

The next item, Become One, was a mixture of the Hip Hop styles popping and Iso and was cleverly integrated to the Electro music. I loved the variety in the choreography and the effective use of the space, an element too often ignored by hip hop crews.

Again the mood changed and we were entertained by a very slick Rumba and Jive by two very well rehearsed ballroom dancers.

The final item was billed in the programme as Concert Class and it was explained that many of the dancers had little or no experience in dance, however the expert choreography showed all the dancers at their best. This in itself is no mean feat when you have a group of performers of varying ability and experience. The choreographers and tutors of this piece must be congratulated on the end result.

This highly entertaining and well rehearsed item was a great finish to the evening with all performers giving one hundred percent. The combination of Hip Hop styles and staging were excellent and I loved that I could sense that ALL those on stage were having great time.

I must make special mention of Josh in this piece. I have watched this young man dance at various events over the last few years and have often found him to be a tad ungenerous (or perhaps shy) in his performance . However in this item his connection with the audience was wonderful, recognised by the spontaneous applause that ensued.

What was clear to me after viewing this show was that the company are all committed to their craft. I was impressed by the confidence of the performers, the care that had gone into each item and the obvious camaraderie between dancers.

In closing, Hopscotch Dance company proved that they could stand alone and my suggestion would be that they now aspire to move beyond a variety concert. While the ‘extra’ items were entertaining they lacked the structure and creativity of the company pieces. A more seamless production next time would allow the quality of their choreography to be appreciated as a whole rather than being seen in snippets.
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