Mayfield Park hosted its first event today with a breakdancing celebration ahead of the upcoming Manchester based international championships.
The city’s new urban neighbourhood – which opened in September – hosted a breakdancing showcase today as part of the Windows of Youth Creativity scheme.
This provided the perfect warmup for the upcoming 2022 World DanceSport Federation European Breaking Championships on the 5th-6th November.
Events such as this are used by locals and internationals alike to prepare for the championships, as well as to help spread the culture to locals.
Edenamiuki Aiguobasinmwin, a member of Break Dance Manchester, said: “It works very well as a lead up event to the European World Championships and it’s an honour for Manchester to be hosting it.
“Dance activities in Manchester are regular, be it classes or competitions or exchanges or jams.”
Breakdancing will feature for the first time at the 2024 Paris Olympics, leading many to wonder if it would begin to become too competitive moving forward.
He said: “It’s still an art form, it’s still a culture.
“We’re here for young people that just want to dance, young people that want to compete, young people that want to compete on a national level and people that want to take it to a global level, we’re here,” he added.
The event was organised by Wild in Art – famous for the trails of bees in Manchester – as a part of their youth art incentivising program, Windows of Youth Creative.
Ben Reed, head of creative development for the organisation, said: “We put an open callout and we basically asked for content to be submitted from a range of 17 or so youth groups.
“There is a real range of stuff that came, and we’re delighted by what came in.
“We’ve basically sort of selected work from children and young people and presented it in a different way in each space, so this is a live event, we’ve got window vinyl’s that have gone home and places like the Proud Trust, some corals created by children with special needs at the Town Hall.”
The Windows of Youth Creativity pieces are displayed publicly throughout the Manchester area.
