Nick Power is a pioneer in the Australian hip-hop and breaking scene. With deep roots at Carriageworks, Nick founded the Platform Hip Hop Festival in 2008, an event that quickly became Australia’s largest hip-hop festival, running annually until 2012 and drawing over 10,000 people. His latest project, Deejay x Dancer (14-16 Nov 2024), sees Nick return to Carriageworks with a work that explores the foundational relationship between music and movement that first sparked in the 1970s in the Bronx. As Nick continues to champion the art form, his work reflects both the evolution of breaking and its vibrant community, embodying hip-hop’s enduring spirit and energy.
Q: Deejay x Dancer isn’t your first time at Carriageworks; in 2008, you founded Australia’s largest hip-hop festival, Platform Hip Hop Festival. Could you tell us about the festival’s origins and how it has influenced the Australian breaking community?
A: Platform ran from 2008 – 2012. It is something that the community felt an ownership of and are completely proud of – people still talk to me about it to this day. For 5 years the Sydney and Australian Hip Hop community was supported by Carriageworks to build an event run by hip hoppers that brought everybody together to celebrate and showcase the artistry, talent and people that make up the community.
My vision for the festival was to Platform the community – to show the public who we are and what we do – the positivity, diversity and skills that our community represents. To bring the four elements of our culture together under one roof.
Platform started out as a 2 day festival when Carriageworks was under the directorship of Sue Hunt, with me working closely with Loretta Busby and Tory Loudon. The first festival included dance battles, a graff comp run by Mistery, a hip hop theatre show by Stalker, and an improvisational hip hop game show called Flexing Skills hosted by Morganics.
The festival grew significantly during the 2010 + 2011 festivals from a 2 day festival to a 4 week festival with Jamie Dawson coming onboard at Carriageworks as Senior Producer and championing it as a major part of Carriageworks’ program.
This new scope allowed me to dig deeper into what the community was doing creatively. In addition to the Graff comp and battles we ran a film night with local and international hip hop film makers, we did street art walking tours, we presented major hip hop theatre shows including ‘Funk it up about Nothing,’ a Shakespearean hip hop play by a company from Boston.
We initiated a major music strand to the festival including The Magnificants with legendary beatboxer Rahzel, freestyle MC Supernatural and DJ JS1 from NYC alongside major Australian Hip Hop groups such as Def Wish Cast.
I flew in international judges for the dance battles who also held workshops. We expanded to include popping battles and next generation battles for up and comers.
We also ran a large-scale event at The Block in Redfern, collaborating with the Redfern Community Centre, showcasing Indigenous Hip Hop artists including the Redfern City Rockers and The Last Kinection.
It was four weeks of programming, taking over the entire building including the Public Space and the outdoor area and we had over 10,000 people through.
Q: The relationship between the DJ and dancer, traces back to the initial spark during the 1970s in the Bronx, New York. Can you dive deeper into that foundational moment and how it inspired your work?
A: At the original Block Parties in 1970’s New York, DJ’s began to notice that the dancing was getting particularly wild during the breakdown in the song that was being played. This is the moment when the melody drops away leaving just the drums. The DJ’s started looking for a way to elongate this moment. The idea they came up with was to have two copies of the same record, one on each turntable; they would play the break from one record while winding the other record back, cueing it ready to drop it in when the breakdown from the initial record was completed. This would then be repeated making the break go for minutes rather than seconds.
Elongating the breakdown of the record made the dancers get even wilder, people started going down to the floor… then people started staying down and Breaking was born. It wasn’t like it is today – a slick, technical acrobatic form, but rather more wild-spirited, going with the music and the moment. It was a reflection of what the music was doing to the dancers as well as the social environment in the Bronx at that time. It was also a reflection of the dance, music and culture held by the Black and Latino people at the party, on the decks, on the mic and on the floor.
This Hyper innovation is what sparked Hip Hop as we know it today. In recent years I noticed a shift in culture with the DJ being pushed to the back, particularly in big competitions… it seemed like the promoters wanted to only highlight the dancers and felt as though the conversation with the DJ was getting lost. This sparked my interest in bringing these two forms back together, starting a new conversation and honouring the 50-year connection between Hip Hop’s traditional musical instrument and dance style.
Q: You’ve described your work as both contemporary and breaking for theatre. Could you walk us through your creative process, particularly how you approach building a piece like Deejay x Dancer?
A: The work I bring into the theatre always has a starting point and central concept involving a hip hop ritual or history. This also means that the artists I work with have an immediate understanding and lived history that they can contribute to the work. I’m very honoured to get to work with DJ Total Eclipse – one of the world’s greatest turntablists and Demi Sorono, Anastasios Repousis and Jackson Garcia who all have incredible skill and musicality and a long history in battles, crews and shows.
It took time to develop the work… one of the main cultural and dramaturgical shifts was that I changed the orientation – usually the DJ would be playing for dancers who are battling head-to-head. In Deejay x Dancer the DJ is head-to-head with the dancers. This changes everything and makes for a real showdown between the forms. I really wanted to implicate the audience within the work – they line the edge of the performance area on all sides, creating an incredible energy and bringing that Block Party feel.
Q:The Australian breaking scene is known for its diversity. How does it compare to other breaking communities around the world? What’s our flavour? Who have you got your eye on?
A: Australia has its own flavour and it reflects our place within the Asia Pacific. We have strong established crews as well as up and comers who are making noise internationally. Many crews are still going strong after 20 years such as SKB and Stale Biskitz and you have emerging crews who are starting to win big competitions such as Flowtality. There is also a groundswell of emerging choreographers making work for the theatre. Azzam Mohamed is one of the leading artists coming through as well as Gabriela Quinsacara who is exploring a fusion of Popping and Siva – a traditional Samoan dance. Oh Sheila, an all-female crew and DSDA are about to do a season at Parramatta Riverside through FORM dance. In Sydney there are battles and jams happening every weekend. It really feels like the scene is in a strong place.
Q: What excites you most about the current breaking world in Australia?
A: Seeing the younger crews coming up and taking their place is always really inspiring and exciting and celebrating the established crews who are taking on new members and carrying it forward for another generation. The vibrancy of the scene currently is incredible … you can really feel the skills and momentum building.
Q: What’s next for you and breaking? Where can we see you after Deejay x Dancer?
A: Immediately after our Carriageworks season we head to Vanuatu with Deejay x Dancer for a residency and performance season at Wan Smol Bag – a fantastic organisation who are strongly connected to the Street Dance scene.
I’ve just been awarded the Creative Australia fellowship for dance. This will give me the opportunity to start my own company, which I’m calling The Foundation. So for the next 18 months I will be working away at that, building a community focused company with ties into the Asia Pacific, championing hip hop artists and culture.
You can see Deejay x Dancer at Carriageworks from 14 – 16 Nov.
Tickets from $25 | All ages
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