An award-winning choreographic and talent development programme is in place for aspiring young choreographers and dancers from across the East and West Midlands, aged 11 to 19

Xzibit Young Creatives is an artist-led hip hop dance theatre project that focuses on developing the young creatives of the future through an intensive choreographic mentoring programme. It offers mentoring from internationally renowned

choreographers including Gareth Woodward and Jasmine Eccles (Xzibit Young Creatives), Kenrick Sandy MBE (Boy Blue Entertainment) and Jonzi D (Breakin’ Convention), amongst others. The project is designed to provide opportunities for the young people involved to present their own work to live audiences in professional venues.

First conceived in 2011, with the very first talent development project taking place in 2012, Xzibit Young Creatives has successfully been rolled out across the East Midlands every year since. The team behind the project, Artistic Director and Mentor Gareth Woodward and Co-Mentor Jasmine Eccles, have worked to scale-up the programme with Executive Producer Amy Dalton-Hardy, using time during the pandemic to undertake significant development work on the future of the project. Arts Council England has now invested funding from National Lottery Project Grants, showing an unprecedented level of support for hip hop dance in the Midlands.

Xzibit Young Creatives 2021/22 project is very kindly supported by the following organisations: Arts Council England, Curve, One Dance UK, Coventry City of Culture Trust 2021, DanceXchange, Inspire Youth Arts, Lakeside Arts, Dance4, Corby Cube, Deda, Lincoln Performing Arts Centre and Hub Dance.

The following organisations are also offering strategic and/ or sector support: Breakin’ Convention, Artists 4 Artists, Go Hard or Go Home, Marshon Dance, Coventry Dance, and Ascension Dance.

Xzibit Young Creatives are grateful for the support of these organisations in inspiring the next generation of Midlands’ dance creators.