28 April 2011 Last updated at 10:52 ET

Dance Offensive troupe opens festival at Sadler's Wells

Dance Offensive, with a hard-hitting performance exploring sexual assault and injustice

A Cambridge-based dance troupe whose members include referrals from the Youth Offending Service, is to open a major festival in London.

Dance Offensive will perform on the main stage at the Breakin' Convention on Saturday.

The festival features hip-hop dance and theatre from around the world and takes place over three days at Sadler's Wells.

The group will perform a piece exploring the theme of sexual assault.

The original dance, called Beneath Me Lies, is set to a "beat-heavy remix" of Prokofiev's String Quartet No 1.

It includes break-dancing, capoeira, tango and physical theatre and aims to tackle the issue of sexual assault and the consequences of not speaking out in the face of injustice.

In 2010, Dance Offensive was one of the only non-professional groups to perform at Breakin' Convention.

This year they will be the first act to perform on the main stage and will be followed by dance companies from Korea, Japan, the USA and France.

Paul Sadot, Dance Offensive's artistic director, said: "Jonzi D, the festival director, said that he was 'blown away' by our work, and that is an incredible compliment, particularly as we are dealing with a serious subject matter and emotions."

Breakin' Convention runs from 30 April to 2 May 2011.