Metamorphosis in Motion:
Linda Hayford’s Choreographic Alchemy

Belinda Mathieu

In France’s hip-hop world, Linda Hayford is an icon of popping and a widely recognized expert in street dances. The dancer and choreographer, who also co-directs the Centre Chorégraphique National de Rennes and is an associate artist with the CN D, takes inspiration from many different styles, integrating them into a metamorphic dance all her own.

With her big glasses and serious gaze, Linda Hayford unfolds her thoughts with care and confidence – which she also exudes on stage, combined with explosive power. An expert on popping, the queen of house dance, and a seasoned locking and new style dancer, this thirty-something artist from Rennes can say she’s mastered almost the whole range of hip-hop dance styles known as “stand-up dances.” All these styles have found their place in the Breton dancer’s artistic DNA, without ever altering it. On the contrary, choreographic mix and match is fundamental to her style. The Rennes-born dancer had a head start in this respect. “My parents come from Ghana, an English-speaking country. In my family, the influence of American and African-American culture was more prominent than French culture,” she explains. “My father used to play a lot of funk, RnB and new jack swing.”

Music and dance were part of young Linda Hayford’s daily routine: “I started dancing in my living room with my brothers and sisters. We even had a disco ball for parties,” she recalls with a smile. Guided by her eldest brother Mike, who also became a star of popping – a hip-hop dance that stems from funk style and relies on quick muscle contractions – she began to participate in battles as a teenager. “We already knew most of the mixtapes (the music played during hip-hop competitions),” she says, “because we danced to them at home.” She first performed in the Trans Musicales de Rennes festival in 2003 with Breakout Project, a group of dancers and DJs. “I was only fourteen,” she remembers, “it was crazy!”

She then went on to participate in a flurry of international battles, where she acquired a solid reputation for extravagance, leading her to the famous Juste Debout competition several years in a row. It was there that, somewhat by chance, she came across house dance. “I was immediately attracted to this way of moving that came out of clubbing,” Hayford says. “I learned it on my own, like almost everything else I do.” A few years later, she met Ousmane Sy, aka Babson, one of France’s leading dancers in this style. She joined the Paradox-Sal crew, which brings together sixteen female dancers around house music and vocabulary. “In addition to technique, Baba passed his values on to the crew – like transmission, team spirit and a sense of family,” she recalls. “More than just a choreographer, he became our mentor.” After the choreographer’s sudden death in 2020, the crew continued to honor his spirit in two high-energy pieces, Queen Blood (2019) and One Shot (2021), which are still widely touring internationally.

Ousmane Sy wasn’t the only one who noticed Hayford’s potential in the 2010s. Breakdancer Anne Nguyen cast her for Autarcie (2013), a show with martial gestures, then the Black Sheep company, co-directed by Johanna Faye and Saïdo Lehlouh, invited her to join the FACT septet in 2017. “What struck me about Linda’s dance was its singularity and maturity,” explains Lehlouh. “It’s as if she contained all the forces of humanity within her. She exudes an incredible power, not in terms of strength, but in terms of sensitivity.” Lehlouh also witnessed Hayford’s debut as a choreographer: “In her composition, she takes on a hybrid approach, which is very thoughtful and original.”

Hayford’s multiple experiences as a performer fed her creativity. Her first solo, Shapeshifting (2016), launched her choreographic explorations into what she calls “shifting pop.” In this style, which would become a catalyst for her future pieces, the jerky movements of popping are tinged with a visceral interpretation in which a multiplicity of emotions spring forth. “Shifting refers to change and pop to popping,” she explains. “It’s a sensitive alternative that leaves room for emotions, a variety of physical states and imaginations. Dance is where metamorphosis, transition from one form to another, from one creature to another, happens.” With AlShe/Me (a 2019 work whose title, when spoken out loud, sounds like the French word for ‘alchemy’), she staged a performance featuring herself and her brother Mike. The two also danced in her piece Recovering (2022) alongside three other performers, exploring the processes of healing from trauma and overcoming one’s limitations.

Being part of the FAIRE collective has also helped Hayford mature as an artist. In 2019, this group of nine performers was appointed to direct the Centre Chorégraphique National in Hayford’s home city of Rennes. By putting her research into practice, the venue has become a melting pot of hip-hop aesthetics under her co-direction, and she is committed to enriching the style and giving it its rightful place. “Even though hip-hop dances are increasingly gaining recognition in the dance world, the specificity of many choreographers’ works is still not very visible,” says Hayford. 

Hayford’s “listening skills” and “emotional intelligence,” says Lehloudh, are, above all, what “enable her to understand projects and how they react internally.” Scheduled to premiere later this year, her next piece, Abîme, is all about sharing. With this new work she’s passing down her research on “shifting pop” to seven performers with whom she will dance on stage. The result is a choral morphing, in which passages, transitions, and those often neglected in-between moments become an aesthetic in their own right.

Belinda Mathieu is a journalist and dance critic who works for several publications, including Télérama, Mouvement, Trois Couleurs, Sceneweb, and La Terrasse. She holds degrees in French literature (Université Paris-Sorbonne), journalism (ISCPA) and a BA in dance from Université Paris 8. She is currently enrolled in their MA program and she continues to reflect on her practice and what is at stake for critical texts in the ecosystem of contemporary dance.

Shifting Pop
Amateur practice workshop by Linda Hayford
April 13 at the Palais de Tokyo, 
as part of plan D, CN D X Palais de Tokyo

“Dance, maternity and parenthood”
Panel discussion and workshop with Linda Hayford
March 8 at CN D Lyon

CCNRB - Collectif FAIR-E
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