First, you need to know that 1984 was quite a year for what the media incorrectly called “breakdancing.” The movies Breakin’ and Beat Street were released, and the Majestic Visual Break Dancers crew (which included future actor Cuba Gooding, Jr.) performed behind a sequin-clad Lionel Richie as he sang All Night Long at the closing ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games. That same year, Chino ‘Action’ Lopez of the legendary crew the New York City Breakers wrote on a piece of paper: “We, the New York City Breakers, see the Olympic Games as our future. We see breakdancing as a future Olympic sport, and ourselves as pioneers in making this dream a reality. Signed by all the New York City Breakers.”
Time is a funny thing. It’s at once absolute and malleable, linear and cyclical. Here we are again, 40 years later, and breaking is about to make its debut at the Paris Olympic Games—not as a form of entertainment but as a competitive sport.
There has been much discussion about its inclusion in the Olympics, and impassioned opinions are coming from all sides: from bewildered sports fans, from excited dance enthusiasts and from deep within the breaking community itself. “It’s this whole sport-verses-art thing,” London “B-Boy London” Reyes told Observer. “Everybody’s trying to make breaking one or the other. To me, I think it can be two things at once.”
Reyes, who grew up in the Bronx and now lives in Yonkers, entered the underground hip-hop scene in 1979 as a DJ (“But not as the main DJ, just as a guy that would carry the crates.”) and started dancing in 1981. He was an early member of the New York City Breakers and has stayed connected to the crew and the wider B-boy community ever since. “You can be disappointed in how it all played out,” he said, referring to the long and complicated journey to get breaking accepted by the International Olympic Committee, “But you can’t be disappointed that it’s in the Olympics. That’s something to be celebrated!” Then he added with a laugh that “it’s amazing something that started in the Bronx took the world over, really.”
A short history of breaking as an art form
Breaking did start in the Bronx in New York City in the 1970s, as did the other pillars of hip-hop culture: DJing, MCing and graffiti art. The elements were inseparable, then: all part of a new lifestyle. Hip-hop’s origin story is the stuff of legends—a young Jamaican American DJ, a block party, a set of turntables and two identical records, people dancing to the instrumental breaks in the music.
The new style that evolved amid all that combined elements from many sources—gymnastics, martial arts and capoeira, double dutch and social dances like funk, disco, the Lindy Hop and the Charleston. Breaking has always been both artistic and athletic.
Breaking (and hip-hop culture in general) spread through the city and then, when the mainstream media took an interest, through the country and the world. Crews began to form and practice together, meeting up with other crews to show off their new routines and battle each other in gatherings that were casual but competitive.
At the time, breakers were mostly Black and Puerto Rican, mostly young and mostly male. B-girls were there from the beginning, too, but there were fewer, and they didn’t get as much attention in the media. Ana “Rokafella” Garcia entered the scene in 1994 when breaking was, as she told Observer, “not popular” anymore. “Many of the male Breakers from the original generation weren’t so receptive to women trying to participate in Breaking… It was only a few who were enthusiastic about welcoming and helping to develop B-girl talent.”
One of those few was Gabriel “Kwikstep” Dionisio, who Garcia called “one of the last ambassadors of the original wave of Breakers” in New York City. “I realized that I had to have an undeniable high skill level if I was going to create a lane for myself. Kwikstep encouraged me to learn not only the moves but about the music, Breakin history and the roots of this dance, and that helped me establish myself as a force.”
Garcia is undeniably still a force, and her hard work has paved the way for this and future generations of B-girls. She and Dionisio went on to run Full Circle Productions together and are both still active in the breaking community.
While breaking as an art form never went away, its mainstream popularity did wane. According to many, like veteran breaker and Princeton University lecturer Raphael Xavier, 1984 was the form’s pinnacle. It was featured in movies, on TV, in commercials and at the Summer Olympics closing ceremonies. It was even slated for President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration ceremony. After that, things began to slow down, and it looked like breaking was on its way out.
How breaking became a competitive sport
But breaking was reborn, and its new form looked a lot like a sport. International breaking competitions have been taking place since the 1990s—since 1990, to be exact, when Germany hosted the first Battle of the Year (BOTY), which was then called the International Breakdance Cup. Even though American mainstream culture had lost interest in breaking, the rest of the world hadn’t. The BOTY was the first large-scale, formally judged breaking competition. It has been held annually ever since and is still one of the largest breaking competitions in the world.
Other international breaking events soon followed, including the B-boy Masters Pro-Am (now the ProAm Dance/DJ Expo) in Miami in 1997, organized by Ricardo “B-boy Speedy Legs” Fernandez ,Jr., who is largely responsible for creating the blueprint for breaking competitions in the United States. Inspired by his background in competitive martial arts, he created separate categories based on abilities and styles, including Traditional 1vs1, B-Girl and Crew Battles. He also created one of the first judging systems for competitive breaking.
“He had a concept,” Antonio Castillo told Observer. “It wasn’t just the circle, people battling. He created a system.” Castillo entered the scene as a B-boy in 1996 and has become one of the most influential advocates for the sport. He founded The Lab Breakin’ Academy in Washington D.C. and the Competitive Breakin League. He met Fernandez, Jr. around 2010 and the two became fast friends. “You know, us three, the New York City breakers, Speedy Legs and myself, we all have something in common, right? And that’s that we all saw breaking as a sport.” Castillo helped expand the reach of that sport by developing scoring criteria, rules and regulations and an arena for competitions. He traveled around the U.S. to share his system with other communities so that they could host their own events.
These formally judged competitions breathed new life into the breaking community, and many other large-scale events rose up around the world, including the World DanceSport Federation’s World Championships and the Red Bull BC One Championships.
After years of negotiations headed up by the WDSF, as well as advocacy by Castillo and other competitive breaking advocates, the International Olympic Committee finally agreed to include breaking on the sports programs for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires (where it topped one million viewers, according to NBC) and then—thrillingly—to the 2024 Olympic Games now on in Paris.
The structure of the Olympic competition
Here’s how it will work: 16 B-Girls and 16 B-Boys will face off in solo battles, with the women competing on August 9 and the men on August 10. The full-day competitions are expected to last about five hours.
Each day will begin with round robin sets of four groups of four. Every one-on-one battle in the round robin will consist of two rounds (each exchange between one breaker and another is a round). When one breaker finishes their round, their opponent instantly begins their routine in a battle format. After each breaker faces the other three opponents in their group once (with solos lasting approximately one minute), the breakers will be ranked by number of rounds won, with the top two in each group advancing to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, each battle is a three-round one-on-one contest. The semifinal winners will face off for gold, while the semifinal losers will compete for bronze.
Breaking’s scoring system explained
A panel of nine judges will score the battles on five criteria: technique, vocabulary, originality, execution and musicality. Each category constitutes 20 percent of the total score.
“Technique” and “execution” focus on the actual skills the athletes are performing—how well they do the moves and how smooth the transitions are between. “Vocabulary” deals with the moves themselves—their variety and difficulty. “Musicality” is one of the most exciting categories to watch because the breakers don’t know what music the DJ will play until it’s playing. They will have to quickly connect to the beat and improvise.
Breakers come prepared with moves, but their routines are never fully choreographed. They must decide on the spot, based on the music and their current opponent, what to do next. This takes us to the final category, “originality,” which gets to the deepest roots of breaking. The best breakers have always created their own moves and their own fresh styles. Repeating themselves or “biting” (copying) others can negatively impact scores.
That said, there are no raw scores assigned to individual moves, as in gymnastics or figure skating. The panel will be judging the competitors on a sliding scale in a comparative judging system. Whichever competitor is deemed the winner by the majority of judges will win the round.
The Trivium Judging System, which builds on the pioneering work of breakers like Fernandez, Jr. and Castillo, was developed by influential B-boy Niels “Storm” Robitzky and DJ Kevin “Renegade” Gopie. The “intuitive digital scoring platform that allows judges to react to Breakers in real-time according to their physical (body), artistic (mind) and interpretative (soul) qualities” was used in the 2018 Youth Olympics with great success.
The moves you’ll see in Olympic breaking
As you watch for musicality and originality, there are certain movements you’ll see. Each routine starts with moves performed standing up, known as top rock. Top rocking was traditionally used to clear the space in a packed room, signaling others to get out of the way. This is where breakers establish their fierce or cute or funny personas. Back in the day, this could take up most of the dance routine, but nowadays, it’s only the beginning.
Then the breakers will transition to the floor with a (smooth, hopefully) “go-down” or “drop” to begin down rock—the moves performed on the floor. Subcategories in down rock include footwork (like leg sweeps, kicks and the six-step), supine spins (like the 1990 or 2000) and power moves (like the windmill, float and the flares and air flares inspired by pommel horse flares). Another move to look for is the freeze—actually the opposite of movement—when the breaker halts their set completely while holding a difficult position. Breakers can also throw in other tricks like flips and headpins.
Who to watch in the Paris games
Most of the athletes competing qualified via the 2023 World Championships, the Continental Games/Championships (Africa, Asia, Europe, Pan Am and Oceania) and the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) held in Shanghai and Budapest in May and June of this year. France was granted two spots (one per gender), and there were four Universality places (two per gender) on offer. To be eligible for a Universality place, athletes needed to compete in the OQS and finish in the top twenty-four of the final rankings.
The U.S. will be represented by four athletes: Sunny Choi (“B-Girl Sunny”), Logan Edra (“B-Girl Logistx”), Jeffrey Louis (“Jeffro”) and Victor Montalvo (“Victor”).
Choi, a former gymnast, is the 2019 world silver medalist and 2023 U.S. champion. Edra finished second at the 2023 U.S. Championships behind Choi and won the Red Bull BC One World Final in 2021. Louis lost to Montalvo in the 2022 World Games final and is ranked No. 4 in the World DanceSport Federation rankings. Montalvo is the 2023 world champion and is considered the gold medal favorite.
Other B-Girls expected to contend for the medal are Lithuania’s 2023 world championship Dominika Banevic (“B-Girl Nicka”), Japan’s 2022 world champion Ami Yuasa (“Ami”), Japan’s 2021 world champion Ayumi Fukushima (“B- Girl Ayumi”), the Republic of China’s 2022 world runner-up Liu Qingyi (“671”), France’s bronze medalist at the 2023 Worlds Say Dembele (“B-Girl Syssy”), and the Netherlands’ 2022 European and Red Bull BC One champion India Sardjoe (“India”).
Other B-Boys to watch for are Canada’s former world champion and Pan American champion Philip Kim (“B-Boy Phil Wizard”), Japan’s bronze medalist at the 2018 Youth Olympics, 2022 World Games and 2023 World Championships Shigeyuki Nakarai (“B-Boy Shigekix”), France’s 2022 European champion Danis Civil (“B-Boy Dany Dann”) and Kazakhstan’s 2021 Red Bull BC One World Final champion Amir Zakirov (“Amir”).
What to look for when watching Olympic breaking
When I asked veteran breakers what to look for when watching both the art and sport of breaking this during the Paris Games, they offered this advice:
Reys said, “Look for a person’s energy. Like when you hear people speak, they can speak in a calm manner, or they can speak in a more forceful tone. Usually, the person who speaks with a little bit more of a forceful tone will get more attention. It’s the same thing with breaking. The one who speaks with more of a force when they dance is going to get a little bit more attention… Also, look for originality. Something that’s different, unique, peculiar, odd or special. And then look at form. Lines, movement, the way they get in and out of things, the way they start and finish things. I think that’s pretty important, too. What is it that they’re trying to say? What statement are they leaving?”
Garcia said, “It’s a dance, so listen to the music and see how each one responds to it with their moves. It’s also a call and response, so look at how they each respond to what the other dancer does and try to outmaneuver the other.”
Castillo said, “Look at the exchange between competitors. There’s a conversation going on when they’re going back and forth. It’s not just technical moves. There’s a feeling behind it. Be aware that everyone has their own unique style. And the biggest thing is that people are dancing to the music on the spot. There is no premeditated music selection or anything like that.”
And Xavier said, “I urge the viewers to sit back and enjoy what they are going to witness. Do not place judgment on any parts of the event. Definitely do not compare yesteryear to today’s current state of breaking or the culture. Do not compare race or ethnicity. Extremely different times, places, generations, cultures and circumstances have gotten it to this point.”
“One thing hip-hop has done is bring together a multiverse of cultures, backgrounds and traditions,” he added. “Let’s enjoy this moment together as it was intended.”
The inaugural Olympic Breaking competition will start on Friday, August 9 and conclude on Saturday, August 10. The full schedule can be found here.
