NYDC x Boy Blue Gravity Review
National Youth Dance Company teamed up with Boy Blue to create Gravity, an immensely enjoyable hip hop show
Rarely has such raw energy been unleashed on stage at Sadler’s Wells, untamed but harnessed at the service of a performance that was more than just a dance show. I am talking, of course, about Gravity, the 2025 production of the National Youth Dance Company (NYDC), directed by Boy Blue; and it was the conjunction of these two worlds that made the evening so special.
NYDC is run by Sadler’s Wells and described as England’s flagship youth dance company. Every year since 2013 dance students aged 16-25 from across the UK are given the opportunity to work with a dedicated director towards an end of year touring performance.
Past cohorts have worked with the likes of Wayne McGregor, Russell Maliphant, Akram Khan and Michael Keegan-Dolan, and their end of year show has naturally reflected the choreographer’s style and, indeed, substance.
Boy Blue, the brainchild of Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy and Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante, is to a large extent responsible from dragging hip hop from street to stage, but here’s the thing: in doing so, the original dance form of disaffected urban youth has lost none of its power. Since its humble beginnings in east London in 2001, Boy Blue has become a huge phenomenon and touched the lives of countless youngsters up and down the country with its motto “education, entertainment, inspiration”.
Just how inspirational Boy Blue was to the 33 dancers of this year’s very diverse NYDC was abundantly clear in the energy, commitment and professionalism they brought to their dancing.
NYDC x Boy Blue, Gravity. Elly Wel Photography
Billed as a show about community and the power of connection, Gravity was high-octane hip hop and its energy never flagged. As the curtain went up a shaft of murky light revealed one dancer, body contracting and releasing, arms reaching up, head held high, the music no more than a teasing chain of elongated electronic notes.
Gradually, the lighting increased as did the audience’s awareness of many other bodies lying down. Asante’s characteristically syncopated music asserted itself; and moving as one, the dancers submitted to its rhythms.
They went through the full gamut of street dance styles: krumping, breakin’, b-boying and more besides. A tall young man did a robotics solo, which sat perfectly on his long-limbed body. Girls and boys took their turn in the typical challenge, where a group assembled in a semi-circle defies individuals to go centre and show their moves.
Meticulously choreographed groups moved on and off stage, alternating group dances with individual prowess or duets.
NYDC x Boy Blue, Gravity. Elly Wel Photography
Impeccable production values made this a very polished professional show: plaudits to lighting designer Adam Carrée, whose varied, atmospheric, often moody lighting framed the dancers always to their advantage; and to costume designer Ryan Dawson Laight, whose stone coloured costumes were simultaneously ‘street’ and stagey.
Half-way through the one-hour performance a film made during one of the company’s four residencies allowed the audience to delve deeper into the dancers’ minds and hearts.
They talked of the warmth they felt throughout the process, of coming together for a common aim, of welcoming the visibility the whole process afforded them, of how dance gave them a way of channeling powerful feelings, such as anger and confusion.
At just the right length, the film put everything into perspective.
Then the dancers returned to the stage as if re-energised, and the vibrant finale had the audience cheering and clapping along. The now inevitable Sadler’s Wells standing ovation followed; but for once I didn’t begrudge the audience its enthusiasm. After all, I, too, stood to applaud.
© Teresa Guerreiro
(Banner image credit: NYDC x Boy Blue, Gravity. Elly Wel Photography)
NYDC x Boy Blue Gravity was at Sadler’s Wells Theatre on 19 July 2025 as part of an ongoing tour.
Gravity was presented as part of Sadler’s Wells YFX, a Festival for Young Dance, which continues until 27 July at both Sadlers’s Wells houses, in Angel and Stratford. Full info and tickets here