In Tower Hamlets, east London, on Sunday afternoon, the hall is packed with teenagers performing hip-hop routines, their trainers squealing rhythmically on the floor. It looks pretty good but Kenrick Sandy comes into play. He is a powerful being with the serenity around him and his eyes that you feel are looking into your soul. “I’m listening to the weight distribution,” he tells the dancers, meaning he’s not hearing what he wants. “Feel the movement in your body, don’t just copy the steps.” He asks them questions about exactly what the energy of a pitch is, the difference between sharp, punchy or explosive. And he’s a stickler for details: fingers together or apart? Is the thumb on top of the fist? They transform over a period of 15 minutes.
That’s how successful Sandy’s company, Boy Blue, became. Founded in 2001 with composer Michael “Mikey J” Asante, not long after they both dropped out of school, the company was born from an earlier incarnation, Matrix, a handful of dancers who battled it out in street dance events with other crews from across the capital. South London. But while other bands were breaking up or going to find “decent” jobs, Boy Blue took off. They soon began training a group of 50 young dancers; They won the Olivier award in 2007; Became a joint venture at the Barbican centre; choreographed the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony; At the opening of Manchester’s shiny new Aviva Studios last year, they reunited with director of the ceremony Danny Boyle in Free Your Mind, an ambitious show that blended The Matrix with Alan Turing and Mancunian pop culture.
In works such as Redd, Blak Whyte Gray and Emancipation of Expressionism (which is on the GCSE dance syllabus), Sandy’s choreography uses expressive and tightly detailed formations that draw on hip-hop styles, popping, breaking, krumping and animation. The film’s soundtrack is scored with bass-driven pulsating loops by Asante, who is also known as the music producer for artists like Kano and also as the composer of TV’s Top Boy.
The duo have different roles on Boy Blue, but they co-direct and the sunny and chatty Asante is the one who explains the vision for their latest track, Cycles. It’s a return of sorts to their hip-hop roots; Much of his recent work is narrative-based, delving into deep topics or emotional states. “The concept of Black trauma has been front and center in a lot of our work,” Asante says. Cycles, on the contrary, are actually about movement, constant movement and the cycles of life. Asante began reading about ensō, the Japanese Zen symbol of enlightenment that represents eternity and cyclicality, as well as the presence of the moment.
When we met a few days later, in a rehearsal studio next to the O2 arena in south-east London, they were two weeks into an eight-week creative process and they didn’t yet know what the final piece would look like. “It’s starting to show,” says Jade Hackett, the show’s co-choreographer. Boy Blue has a real family atmosphere; Hackett was a dancer with the company when she won the Olivier award. She cradles Asante’s 10-month-old son on her knee. Meanwhile, Sandy describes how the choreography comes about: sometimes deliberately relying on ideas about form and structure; sometimes subconsciously, by listening deeply to the music and seeing what emerges in one’s own body. Now he’s thinking about what makes a move truly hip-hop and not just another dance step: the bouncing, the head bobbing, the rhythm.
“You’re not just making dry biscuit bop,” he says. “You need to add the relish, the butter, the jam. ‘What is funk? ‘What is Swag?’ And I get all these different energies. While hip-hop is essentially an American form, from a UK perspective it is the genre, with influences of UK garage, grime, jungle, carnival and Caribbean music brought together to create something distinctly British.
Music is at the heart of Boy Blue’s creations, as well as their friendship. At the age of 12, at school in Ilford, east London, Sandy was introduced to Asante with the words: “This guy can beatbox!” At 14, Asante was growing a goatee to get into the UK’s famous garage club Twice As Nice, and the two were “going wild in Ilford”. A sporty child, Sandy only started dancing seriously at the age of 18. He attended an intermediate class at a youth centre, and the teacher said he could do some freestyle at a show at the Hackney Empire in east London, as long as he also learned the final routine. An 11-year-old girl taught him this routine. “It was humbling,” he admits, but it was an epiphany. “Once I did that, everything changed: my entire focus, my entire life. So I thought: What is this feeling?”
Sandy soon began choreographing, and she and Asante formed their first group, Matrix, in 1999, which evolved into Boy Blue a few years later. They always did other work on the side; An impressive performer, Sandy has danced in music videos, including the original video for Murder on the Dancefloor. “He didn’t tell me about this!” Asante laughs. “I thought it was so cheesy or something. You’re part of British musical history bro! Over the years Sandy has choreographed commercials and musical theater for big brands including FKA twigs and Rita Ora.
Teaching has also been a big part of their job. Over the last two decades, Boy Blue has trained hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people, built an army of dancers – some of whom have gone on to become professionals themselves – and has had a huge impact on London’s street dance scene. Sandy’s mission has an almost moral basis, a sense of duty to the community: “If we had the keys to some doors we could open, why wouldn’t we throw them wide open?” says.
Unlike when Sandy and Asante traveled miles across London to learn from other dancers, young people coming to classes now see it all on YouTube and TikTok. Although Sandy and Asante were able to capture their 30-second routine on camera, they say they lacked stamina. Here, students also learn to be athletes. “We train them excellently,” Hackett says. There is warmth and humor, but Sandy treats everyone like a professional. “I’m not trying to feed your ego, I’m trying to feed your mindset, your creativity,” she says. And the dancers rise towards him.
Sandy and Asante have a lot in store. Later this year they will be guest artistic directors of the National Youth Dance Company. As well as Cycles, some of Boy Blue’s young dancers are performing at the Brighton festival in May and there are other things they can’t talk about on the road. Meanwhile, Asante is also busy outside the company. Last year he wrote the TV soundtrack for Netflix’s African Queens and Criminal Record, starring Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo, and is about to start work on Jamie Lloyd’s Romeo and Juliet, starring Tom Holland. He told me that rapper Ghetts had called him recently about collaborating, but he just didn’t have the time yet.
You really get it for this couple, Sundays spent teaching – Boy Blue’s motto is “Fun, education, enlightenment” – are as important as any A-list chatter. “It’s so rewarding to watch other people develop and grow,” says Sandy. “This is good.”
Boy Blue’s Cycles at the Barbican theaterLondon, 30. April until May 4.