Breakdancing enthrals the Pavilion crowd

Incredulity marked the faces of onlookers on the De La Warr Pavilion terrace, balcony and roof as Kala Phool's Big Dance Battlejam took Bexhill by storm on Saturday.

Big Dance 2006 - a week-long celebration of dance across the UK- saw Kala Phool in partnership with top UK breakdance crew All Elements and the De La Warr Pavilion fire around 160 local youngsters with hip-hop enthusiasm.

In three workshops last Tuesday and Thursday pupils from King Offa Primary and Bexhill High learned the rudiments of a dance craze that is as energetic as it is expressive.

Bexhill's contribution to the nationwide Big Dance Class proved an instant and infectious success.

Indy Hunjan of Kala Phool was delighted with the local response.

She told the Observer: "I do the Brighton Hip-Hop Festival and we do Battlejam there.

"This year it was completely sold out.

"But this is an amazing response in Bexhill.

"The venue has been amazing and everyone here has really worked so hard to make it a success."

For pavilion programme assistant Jane Freund seeing a breakdance show in Manchester was a revelation.

Instantly, she wanted to bring breakdance to Bexhill. Saturday's dynamic event was staged in conjunction with head of education Polly Gifford.

Through an afternoon of spectacle, excitement and fun, local youngsters were able to show an audience ranging from their contemporaries through to intrigued pensioners how much they had learned in so short a time.

But it was the tea-time finale, when dance events across the country were timed jointly to break the record for the biggest-ever dance participation, which left on-lookers spell-bound.

What is breakdance? It has to be seen to be believed, let alone appreciated.

It owes something to ballet in its fluid movements and a great deal to floor gymnastics in its skilled - not to say reckless - athletic moves.

There were jaw-dropping moments when the top performers appeared to defy gravity.

Older, rheumatically-impaired by-standers winced in involuntary sympathy as dancers performed high-speed contortions suggesting they were double-jointed in every limb.

Spinning, twirling, balancing on one hand - for those not previously party to the seemingly impossible, this was an afternoon of revelation which frequently evoked gasps of astonishment and spontaneous applause in mid-act in response to some hugely improbable feat.

It was everything Jane .... had hoped.

It was an eye-opener for Bexhill - and yet another new dimension in Pavilion art.