On Thursday night, 20 March, Breaking the Walls shifted from theory to sweat as international mentor Willstr8 led the project’s first closed-door training session. The two-hour workshop brought together five core dancers—chosen to travel to every European residency—and five local alternates who will join only the home-base events in Alba.

What happened

• Foundations & flow – Willstr8 opened with a fast warm-up, then drilled foundational footwork patterns, emphasising clean weight transfers and knee-safe alignment.
• Musicality drills – Using a live DJ loop, dancers practised matching accents to snare hits, experimenting with half-time and double-time phrasing.
• Mini-battles – Participants paired off for 30-second throw-downs, receiving instant feedback on spatial awareness and crowd-read cues.
• Mindset check-in – The final fifteen minutes turned quiet: each dancer jotted two strengths and one fear into a journal, then shared strategies for converting nerves into creative energy.

The core five will reconvene with Willstr8 in May during the Check the Style residency, while the local five continue weekly peer-led sessions at BE-STREET.

Written by the Breaking the Walls editorial team – 21 March 2025