Ukweli Roach: dancer and actor

Breakin’ Convention, the international festival of hip hop theatre, bursts into action over the May bank holiday weekend at Sadler’s Wells in London. Dancer/actor Ukweli Roach will be making his second appearance as an individual dancer. His Aahehop-based company BirdGang will be appearing for the fifth time. Kendra Horsburgh, who is from Luxembourg and is a choreographer with the company, will also be performing her own solo piece

How did the two main strands of your career develop?

With dancing, it was from seeing a video of two tappers called the Nicholas Brothers – two amazing black Americans. They were so energetic and agile. They were jumping off pianos, doing the splits and stuff I’d never seen before. That was the first time I had seen extreme talent and flair exercised in a time when there was still segregation. Tap was the first thing I took a class in because I wanted to be like them. I only started dancing seriously when I was 16. I got in with a company called Dance to Xcess. That was really where my training started. All my training was off my own bat or through the company. I took lessons when I could afford them, saving my pocket money. The more dancing I was exposed to, the more I learnt. I didn’t know what poppin’ was. I only had a vague idea what break dancing was. But I knew that it was cool and I wanted to do it. We kind of learnt from each other.

How did BirdGang come into being?

It was founded by three of us who were in Dance to Xcess – myself, Simeon Qsyea and Ivan Blackstock. We had a different vision of what we wanted to do in dance, with BirdGang. We used to be quite secretive and we performed in masks – we still do sometimes – but people actually knew who we were [laughs]. Jonzi D (artistic director of Breakin’ Convention) heard about us, came down to have a look and invited us to be in the next Breakin’ Convention. That was in 2006. That’s how it all started for us. Soon we were being invited to dance in Europe.

Where did you do your actor training?

I always wanted to do it but didn’t know how. My family had no links to performing, When I was at school, doing A levels, a teacher told me about drama schools, where they trained actors. I kept on asking about drama schools and the name RADA kept popping up. So I researched it and I applied. I was over the moon when I got in. I took the call in the staff toilets at Gap where I had a part-time job, the only other job I’ve had. To be honest, I didn’t know the weight that RADA carried and I didn’t know how special it was to be accepted. Now I do.

Breakin’ Convention is at Sadler’s Wells in London from May 3-5, then touring to June 7.