ABOUT US

Marie Mathias

(Bgirl Petit Filou)

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Marie has been dancing for many years, beginning her journey with Salsa in Nancy, France, before exploring and performing a wide range of dance styles. Her main passion is Breaking and Locking, which she developed while travelling and training across Europe, learning from dancers and communities in Spain, France, Sweden and Estonia and England. She participated in many battles such as : Tech Styles International, Break Mission, Fresh Skills, Rotation Dance Exchange, Groovanometry, Juste Debout, Just Jam International, FISE (Festival International des sports extrêmes) and judge 2 battles : RDE School League in Manchester and a Toul Hip Hop battle, in France

Marie is currently one of the principal dancers with Breaking Tradition, touring theatres and festivals across the UK. She has also performed at a wide range of events and venues, including Breakin’ Convention, Leeds Light Night, Superheroes Week at the Royal Armouries and the Kirkstall Art Trail, alongside many other community and cultural events across Leeds such as Burmantofts Festival and Beeston Festival.

Alongside her performance career, Marie has over 10 years of experience teaching dance to people of all ages. She is passionate about helping others reach their goals and sharing the knowledge and experience she has gained throughout her own dance journey. She teaches Breaking and Locking through Bust-A-Move and has also taught and assisted with programmes at Yorkshire Dance, CAPA, NSCD, Dance Studio Manchester and community centres.

Marie also has experience using dance and events to support wider community causes. In France, she created and organised an event to raise funds for an orphanage in Cameroon, which took place twice over two years.

In 2020, Marie founded Bust-A-Move Leeds, creating opportunities for people to learn, perform and connect through dance and Hip Hop culture. In 2024, she founded the Bust-A-Move Festival, the annual Hip Hop community jam in Leeds.

‘Cheeky, smiley and full of positive energy’

Chris Banks

(Bboy Bank-C)

PART TIME NINJA

Chris has been involved in Martial Arts and Dance for 28 years. He began Tae Kwon Do at the age of 7 with Shabir Akhtar and has loved Martial Arts ever since. Having studied many styles of Martial Arts and learning from two Power Rangers (yes Power Rangers), he eventually ended up holding many titles, including European Champion in fighting and forms. Due to learning from Mike Chat, he was also amongst the first Martial Artists to do Tricking in the UK. His family now have a Martial Arts school in Wakefield called Nactics Family Martial Arts where he continues to help with flips, tricks and kicks.

His love for dance began when he was introduced to by his brothers to Bboying and Locking at high school. After his initial meeting with dance, he chose to go study dance at Higher Education level where he learned, Ballet, Contemporary and Jazz dance. Since then he has performed alongside various contemporary dance companies such as Random Dance Theatre and Ascendance Dance company. Without forgetting his roots of Bboying and Locking, he continued to perform at events for larger companies on stage and television such as the Gadget Show, Bench Clothing, Monster Energy, Sky Television, Desperado and more. He is currently a principal dancer in Breaking Tradition Dance Company and continues to tour with them around the UK.

‘Knowledgable, passionate and full of laughs’