Robert Hylton Artistic Director

Biography

Brought up in the Sunderland area, the first explosion of hip hop in the early eighties has constantly been a source of inspiration and continuously manifests through out his work. From his first fascination with The Robot then Popping and Breaking. Constantly practicing at home and in Saturday, daytime clubs such as Tiffany’s, Newcastle and the local youth club, Roberts obsession with dance was cemented for life. In the late eighties when hip hop dance was disappearing he found UK Jazz Dance, heavily inspired by groups like IDJ and Brothers in Jazz, clubs like Walkers in Newcastle and Jive Turkey in Sheffield, the call of the underground beckoned, this led him to join Bamboozle, a street jazz crew based at Newcastle’s Dance City performing in Dance Umbrella 1990 amongst other festivals. This continuous thread of dance eventually brought many more performances and participation in 2 National Jazz Dance competitions with Bamboozle. Further seeping himself into dance he went on to full time vocational training at the Northern School Of Contemporary Dance (NSCD) in Leeds gaining a BA Dance.

After leaving (NSCD) he became an apprentice at Phoenix Dance Leeds, still going to clubs, it was contemporary dance by day and clubs and jamming with his boys known as Break Jazz along with Chris Hibbert and Derek Tauk by night. On leaving Phoenix he bounced around for a couple of years as a project based contemporary dancer, which would eventually lead him back to hip hop and street dance.

While at Northern in 1991 Robert went back to Popping, practicing at home to shake of the days ballet class, along with regular jazz jams in clubs, this practice though, was to grow and grow and 8 years later his First solo A Step into Urban Classicism obtained great acclaim and those years of silent practice developed into the template of Robert's work. In 2001, Hylton was a nominee for the prestigious Jerwood Choreography Award with 2002, earning him the highly coveted position of an Associate Artist at The Place London, famed for its groundbreaking programs.

Further solos developed such as Two Steps in Urban Classicism danced to 3, Bill Cosby monologues and the first collaboration with DJ Billy Biznizz, premiering at ‘The Illness’ Lillian Bayliss, Sadlers Wells in 2000 produced by Benji Reid. The company then began to grow with more dancers and touring, Life in Urban classicism 02/03, Physical Elements 03/04, Verse&Verses 05/06 and Swan Breaks 07 funded by the Arts Council of England. In 2010 Robert choreographed and composed the music for ‘Human Revolution’ a Pas de Deux for Ballet Black, his first Ballet which premiered at The Linbury theatre at The Royal Opera House

As a performer himself, Robert danced for numerous contemporary dance companies including Phoenix Dance, Jonzi D and as a guest artist with Sheron Wray’s JazzXchange, along with a short career in the commercial world in videos such as George Michaels ‘Spinning the Wheel’. His teaching credits include international British Council workshops with DJ Billy Biznizz in Taiwan, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangkok, Cuba and Adugna Dance Company, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia 2001. Nationally at Dance Works LTD (Sheffield), Ludus, Merseyside Dance Initiative (Liverpool), Reading McDonalds Our Town story @ The Millennium Dome, Cambridge, all in all pretty much covering most of the UK, In 2008 Robert was a Co director for ‘Demon Juice’ a hip hop opera produced and performed at The Royal Opera House and East London Dance.

Robert has performed his solo works in many international festivals such as the Copenhagen Alt Young Blood 01 Dance Festival and once again through the British Council his tours include ones to Prague, Zagreb, Antwerp and 3-week tour of South Africa jointly with Jonzi D, Florence, Cyprus, Lithuania, Mozambique, where Robert also choreographed a curtain raiser with the National song and Dance Company of Mozambique, a three-island tour of Indonesia, Melbourne, Sydney Opera House Australia, Libya and Algeria.

Film work includes Urban Classicism, Urban Voodoo and Jaffaman which was funded by the 2002 Capture Award and shown on 4dance, Channel 4. 2008 saw Roberts directorial film debut with Symmetry a Robert Hylton production and Fresh a Spaghetti and Fried Chicken Western produced by MJW Productions and funded by the Arts Council of England.

Education is at the forefront of Roberts work which has taken him all around the world, teaching hip hop and contemporary fusion, along side specific hip hop only intensives such as Skills n Drills a yearly event focusing on hip hop dance technique, history and video lectures. He has been a guest lecturer at Benji Reid's bi annual Process Festival an intensive two week programme based on theatre practice in hip hop, as well as a guest lecturer for the University of East London's Urban Dance Degree programme. Robert is also the first UK hip hop artist to lead a Popping course on the Government led CAT scheme for talented young dancers based at Swindon Dance in 2009

Educational film commissions include the ground breaking Two Sugars with My hip hop please… with a group of pensioners from West London commissioned by the Southbank Centre. Robert was also movement director for an educational film The Real Thing commissioned by the Royal Opera House, BBC Blast and East London Dance for a hip hop version of La Boheme, and 2006 Frames commissioned by the National Gallery, working with young people from Ealing incorporating themes of paintings from Collections at the National Gallery.

His personal journey has led him to extend his experience as a professional mentor, to many young artists and within his own self development Robert is continuously studying theatre and film practice as well as constant training in Popping with The Electric Boogaloos. The future will bring many more productions and hopefully his first book!