Breakdancing on Monday cleared its final hurdle to feature in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, bringing the wholly original, electric art form to sport’s biggest stage.
Considered one of the pillars of hip-hop culture, breaking, as participants prefer to call it, originated in New York in the 1970s and has spread globally, enjoying enormous popularity beyond the US and particularly across Europe and Asia.
A 2019 Olympic Programme Commission report estimated that there were about 1 million participants in breaking worldwide and last year’s Red Bull BC One World Final in Mumbai racked up more than 50 million views across streaming platforms including Facebook and YouTube.
Photo: AFP
“It can resonate with a lot of people because hip-hop culture resonates with a lot of people, hip-hop music resonates with a lot of people,” said Logan Edra, a 17-year-old US dancer who goes by the performance name Logistx.
Breaking is not the first artistic movement to be counted as an Olympic sport, but its inclusion in the Paris Games has prompted soul-searching among many dancers, including Edra, a former gymnast who aspires to win the Olympic gold.
“It being in the Olympics, it makes sense that people would refer to it as [a sport], but I think one thing for the breaking community is we want to make sure that it’s not known as just a sport, but an art, a sport, a culture,” said Edra, who won the 2018 Silverback Open Championships b-girl solo competition.
Key elements in breaking include top rocks — typically a competitor’s introductory dance moves — footwork, power moves and freezes. Power moves are explosive displays such as spins, while freezes are when a performer sticks a pose.
In a blend of artistry and athleticism, competitors — known as b-boys and b-girls — are evaluated not only on technical skill, but also creativity and style, with strength, speed, rhythm and agility providing an edge.
“The biggest part is your stage presence and character, and your rhythm, whether or not you’re really feeling it,” said Ronnie Abaldonado, a competitive breaker since 2004 who won the international Red Bull BC One competition in 2007.
“People can hit the moves, but if you’re not feeling what they’re doing then you just kind of look robotic and that’s what kind of separates it being a sport to it being an art form,” Abaldonado said.
Richard “Crazy Legs” Colon, one of the pioneers during his upbringing in the Bronx in the 1970s, said he applauded breaking’s inclusion in the Olympics but wanted to ensure its cultural core remained intact.
“This is true folk art from the music to the dance, to the DJ to the rapper,” said Colon, who appeared in dance films of the 1980s including Beat Street and Flashdance.
“We’ve already legitimized ourselves so we’re not looking to the Olympics for legitimacy,” he added.
LUKASHENKO BAN
Meanwhile, the IOC on Monday suspended Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, from all Olympic activities, including the Tokyo Games next year.
Lukashenko, who has led the Belarus Olympic Committee for 23 years, claimed a sixth presidential term after an election in August widely viewed as rigged.
Belarus has since been in turmoil amid protests and a crackdown by security forces, and the IOC has investigated complaints from athletes that they faced reprisals and intimidation.
Bach said that the Belarus Olympic body’s leadership “has not appropriately protected Belarus athletes from political discrimination.”
“This is contrary to the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter and therefore seriously affects the reputation of the Olympic movement,” Bach said.
Suspending Lukashenko does not affect Belarusian athletes, nor their right to compete in Tokyo as a recognized national team.
Additional reporting by AP
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