Big Top Hop in the big time
Our hip hop show performs to full houses
Four performances in an 800-seat circus tent to full houses. Hundreds of people turned away at the door once the tent filled up. Ninety young performers from four community groups representing different regions across Melbourne. Big Top Hop – our hip hop show for the XVIII Commonwealth Games – was big.
Co-produced by Footscray Arts and Festival Melbourne 2006, Big Top Hop was performed at Alexandra Gardens. It featured hip hop crews from Noble Park (D-Force), Reservoir and Broadmeadows (ARAB Project), and Footscray (Jungle City). Participants performed alongside professional artists including circus performers Stephen Williams and Avan Whaite, hip hop dancers Nikki Ashby and the Demilition B Girl, and musical director Tamil Rogan.
After months of workshops and rehearsals, the Big Top Hop participants went big time from 16–19 March, performing to the biggest audiences of their lives. With 500 people turned away from the tent on closing night alone, this no-holds-barred three-ring hip hop free-for-all had audiences cheering as each crew stepped up to represent its home turf. The show drew people from all across Melbourne, including people who made the trip from some of Melbourne’s outer suburbs to watch their local crews make it big.
Award-winning choreographer Rebecca Hilton, who was the show’s Artistic Director, praised the energy and skills of the participants. “It was especially great to see the participants performing alongside the people they worked with, their trainers. The participants had a sense of pride about that – it was like ‘We’re that good.’ The trainers were also inspired by the energy of the performers.”
If you didn’t get a chance to witness the bigness, stay tuned for more shows from Footscray’s own crew Jungle City, as they take part in one of our forthcoming projects.
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