This high-energy festival of hip hop dance theatre, showcasing performers from across the world and just down the road, was a joy from start to finish.

Street Styles 4 All Dance Company from Eastbourne kick-started the action with a mature and disciplined performance and South Coast Champions, Paragon, from T21 Dance delivered a very sophisticated piece in which it was good to see female dancers outnumbering the boys.

Ukweli Roach performed a beautifully dark work about addiction in which even the smoke from the ensemble’s cigarettes seemed to dance.

French company Wanted Posse ended the evening with a muscular performance filled with masculine anger, violence and, thankfully, humour plus gravity-defying moves.

But the most jaw-dropping and uplifting act was international crew ILL-Abilities, comprised of members who have all overcome major physical challenges yet can compete with the best b-boy acts in the world.

A deaf dancer who cannot hear the music, an amputee, a man using his crutches to float and spin across the stage, this act showed the transformative power of hip hop to turn negatives into positives. It was not mawkish, it was inspiring, world-class dance and fully deserving of two standing ovations from the delighted crowd.