Boy Blue: Cycles – Barbican, London

Choreographer: Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy

Associate Choreographer: Jade Hackett

Concept and Composer: Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante

Boy Blue returns to the Barbican with a double bill of hip-hop dance pieces that explore the nature of connection, group dynamics, leadership and the body’s responsiveness to beat and light. Co-choreographed by Kenrick ‘H2O’ Sandy and Jade Hackett, Cycles is a mesmerising duo of dance pieces that showcase the skills and style that have made this company such extraordinary stage performers with unparalleled synchronicity and sophisticated routines that celebrate and almost defy their humanity.

The first section of Cycles, lasting approximately 35 minutes, focuses on the emergence of hip hop as a street culture expression in which a group of friends gather to perform, impress and engage with each other. Sandy and Hackett present the company as a pack whose unified movement borders on militaristic and the show returns continually to a motif of slow-motion running or marching. This basic step becomes more fluid as dancers are ‘called out’ into solos with entertaining ‘dance-offs’ deployed to spur each other on and showcase some of their individual talents.

Using a number of group and solo pieces, the changes of mood tone and pace across this opening dance are continually built around the circle, the group of individuals who may scatter and separate but are always drawn back into their small crowd, learning from each other as they go. The use of the space, lit in ever-decreasing circles and spotlights by Lee Curran, is powerful as the fluid choreography stretches across the stage creating pockets of action in a coordinated whole in which Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante’s music is the controlling factor that shapes Curran’s design as well as the performers’ responses.

After the interval, the second part of Cycles pushes this combination further, and while Matthew Josephs’ costumes in collaboration with Seeing Red are retained, the soundscape that Asante provides delivers greater range and depth, bringing a new emotionalism to the central section of the dance using different instruments underneath the hip hop beat.

There is a lovely romantic section with piano that leans towards RnB in which the dancers create a softer connection with one another, a tenderness that loosens the hardness of movement and adds a necessary variety. This is soon followed by a hyper-aggressive portion in which the performers get close to each other, as though shouting in each other’s faces and making gun gestures with their fingers. While so much of Cycles is about unity and cooperation, these shifting attitudes and changes of behaviour add touches of narrative that help to shape the second 35-minute performance.

As ever Boy Blue are exemplary performers, the speed, depth and range of the dancers is matched only by the precision and polish of the delivery. Everyone is on the beat: they swerve, morph and move as a unit even in when the choreography is different for each individual. This is a dance company that never disappoints, knows how and when to deploy its tricks and generates more than enough energy to fill the Barbican’s enormous stage. The absolute focus of Cycles proves endlessly compelling.

Runs until4 May 2024