Everything you need to know about breakdancing’s Olympic debut

At long last, the summer B-boys and B-girls are here, bringing their unique culture of dance, gymnastics and hip-hop to Paris. On August 9, breakdancing (don’t call it breakdancing) will make its Olympic debut, marking the sport’s most watched moment yet.

For a sport and dance style that has long fought for social acceptance, making it to the Olympics is a huge milestone. After all, you can’t be an Olympic athlete if you don’t reach incredible levels of fitness and ability. When you combine that with the agility required of a great dancer, plus a fierce competitiveness honed through street fighting, you have the recipe for a truly unique, groundbreaking Olympic sport—and one that will take this American-born street dance to the mainstream on a whole new global level.

To understand breakdancing, you have to understand the roots of hip-hop culture. Hip-hop was born in the Bronx in the late 1960s and 1970s, on the sidewalks and backyards of the Bronx. Four major trendsOr the elements of hip-hop art: DJs, MCs, graffiti art, and breakdancing. They have all evolved into cornerstones of contemporary mainstream culture. DJs are everywhere, from ordinary weddings to superstars performing in clubs and stadiums, and have further evolved into producers who develop rhythms and sounds. The more common name for MCs is rap, which has further evolved into a diverse and rich poetic language. Over the decades, graffiti has influenced modern art and popular aesthetics, as well as “guerrilla” art and other subversive underground art movements. It is now a regular installation in museums and galleries, and an important part of urban public art. Breakdancing has developed along with other related but unique street dance styles to become one of the most well-known and popular dance forms.

For decades, breakdancing and other street dance styles have benefited from popular dance media, e.g. intensify Franchise rights, Korean Pop and other popular Asian dance groups, and Chinese Street DanceAt the same time, high-profile international street dance circuits such as Juste Debout and Red Bull’s annual street dance competition have also emerged. BC One Challenge This has put breakdancing and its related culture on an upward trajectory that shows no signs of stopping.

When a B-boy or B-girl wants to become a serious breaker, they must not only prove that they can perform large athletic moves, but also that they can execute precise “Toprock” is an essential step in opening a dance and transitioning to more athletic movements – because rhythm remains essential to the performance. In Toprock competitions, as demonstrated below, bigger movements don’t always trump controlled musicality.

Aside from special Toprock competitions like this one, the purpose of Toprock is to help dancers get to the floor smoothly, as they are usually doing bigger, more gymnastic moves. But this isn’t always the case; 2020 InterviewDJ EZ Mike, a hip-hop pioneer, explains how, over time, breakdancing evolved into the moves we know today:

Over time, the dance changed. We didn’t do the windmill dance on the floor because it wouldn’t stain our clothes. We dressed modestly. So it had a lot to do with hand movements, facial expressions, and footwork. I think they call it Up-Rocking today.

As dancers became more comfortable with squatting, breakdancing expanded. In this classic breakdancing video from 1984, the hip-hop group Sidewalk Breakers demonstrates a variety of moves, showing how complex footwork can be combined with intricate floorwork:

This is how the most famous breakdance moves came about – like the “Thomas Fryer”, a famous gymnastics move that later evolved into an even more famous old-school breakdance move where the dancer balances on one or two hands while spinning…

…or “windmill,” which is essentially an inversion, with the dancer balancing on their elbows and shoulders, or sometimes just their head.

Obviously, some of these big “power moves” are extremely dangerous, which is one reason why breakdancing has struggled for decades to shake off its initial negative reputation. Part of this is due to the overall mainstream stigmatization of hip-hop culture and the racist stereotypes that it is inherently associated with gang involvement. In fact, the four “elements” of hip-hop are First collection As a way for Bronx gangs to unite and interact peacefully at block parties and other collective forms of community building, they gave rise to dance teams, which are still a staple of hip-hop culture. Hip-hop is both collective and competitive in nature, so you are always strongest when you are part of a strong team of dancers.

Another reason breakdancing has a negative reputation in the public mind is the media-created nickname “breakdancing” itself (a nickname derived from Manager In an interview, the legendary Rock Steady crew member) and the dangers and risk of injury it implies. In culture, the name “breaking” actually comes from the participants’ response to breaks in the music – that is, filling in what we now think of as “dance breaks” with, what else? dancing. Initially, breaking was purely for fun, improvised at block parties. This led to the “signal” or dance group, participants gathered in a circle — an informal stage — and took turns dancing for each other. Eventually, the code gave rise to a more structured form of competition — “battles” — that still dominates street dance culture today.

As we can see from the first video above, the format is usually very simple. Two contestants improvise, or “freestyle” dance, to a song chosen live by the DJ and moderated by the host. They usually compete in two rounds, after which the judges announce the winner. The judges are almost always on stage with the contestants or next to them, and in most cases they vote in the most informal way possible – deciding on the spot, pointing out the winner.

If the judges can’t make a decision, they will make an “X” with their hands, indicating that the dancer needs to do one more round. In some cases, “one more round” may turn into multiple rounds, becoming a test of endurance. This is significant for breakers, who are known for their stamina for long battles rather than their explosive power.

Of course, there are variations of one-on-one battles, such as two-on-two battles or team battles. The most famous team battle is probably “7 to Smoke”, a brutal battle format where the contestant who wins a round continues to fight other competitors until they lose and the new winner takes over. This continues until a total of 25 minutes have passed, and the person with the most winning rounds is the winner, or until one person successfully wins seven rounds.

Those are the basics of breakdancing. But of course, for the Olympics, things are a little more complicated.

In the 2010s, an Olympic dance lobbying group called the World DanceSport Federation work hard Raising awareness of breakdancing and advocating for breakdancing to be included in the Olympics. (After failing to get ballroom dancing into the Olympics, they made breakdancing their primary goal – a major shift, but a success.) In 2016, breakdancing made its debut at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, and they were a huge success. Breakdancing is widely seen as a precursor to the Olympic stage, and the official Olympic website Praise The Olympics showcased breakdancing as “a truly global sport”.

You might expect the Olympics to revolutionize the way break battles are played, but surprisingly, it only Slightly adjust Basic fight concept. In Paris, we will see 16 men and 17 women go through two main rounds. (Since the women’s tournament has an odd number of entries, the two lowest ranked women will go through one round first to choose who will compete in the remaining rounds.)

The first round of the men’s and women’s groups will be a full round-robin competition. The players will be randomly divided into four groups of four, and each group will play two rounds against the other three.

After the game, the two players with the highest scores in each group will advance to the next three rounds, each group will play three rounds of one-on-one games, and the last winner (or windmill player) will receive the gold medal.

The format differs only slightly from the standard competition, and the most important element—improvisation—remains. There are no pre-rehearsed routines here; breakdancers will still demonstrate their ability to adapt to songs that were not prepared in advance. Judging will necessarily be more formal. Judges will vote on six criteria after each round. As with skating, some factors are more important than others, but surprisingly, it’s not a “technical/artistic” division: technique, showmanship, and creativity account for 60% of the score; individuality, variety, and musicality account for 40%. (“Showmanship” here refers to whether the execution of the moves is clean and crisp.)

Participants of note include members of the Afghanistan IOC refugee team Maniza Tarashwon her heart Inspirational story Discovering and rediscovering a breakthrough across two continents. 42-year-old Japanese veteran dancer Fukushima Ayumi She’s facing a younger group of dancers, many of whom are still teenagers and only started dancing a few years ago. She may also face her own teammates, Yuasa Amishe and Ayumi have a fierce rivalry. She defeated Ami at the 2021 World Championships; Ami went on to win the 2022 World Championships, but Ayumi came back strong in the 2024 Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

In the men’s category, Vancouver leader Philip Kim, aka Phil Weitzgood at creating miracles – he Decide entered a cryptography competition in Los Angeles and vowed that if he won, he would drop out of school and pursue codebreaking full time. He did. His main competitor? Probably Japan’s Nakarai Shigeyuki, aka ICUknown for their big dance moves that wow the crowd. To get a preview of how this matchup might play out, here are photos from their showdown last year:

As exciting and new as it all is, these competitions and the contestants still have a lot to prove to skeptics and Olympic officials. “Dance is not a sport. It is an art form, and it is not something that the IOC or So, do you think you can dance? The judge is trying to tell you,” think “The addition of dancing seems to be an attempt to attract a wider audience,” one columnist wrote in 2022. As Fortune magazine recently reported famousHowever, despite Los Angeles being the birthplace of street dance culture and a regular venue for street dance competitions, breakdancing has not yet been approved for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

However, if there’s one thing we know about breakers, it’s that they know how to put on a big, dramatic show. The Olympics may indeed be trying to attract a wider audience, but this year’s breakers will make the gamble worth it – and hopefully they’ll have more shows to look forward to over the next four years.