What new sport is taking place at the Paris Olympics this year? The answer is breakdancing, or as the community calls it, breaking. For many, the next immediate question is, “Is that a sport?”
Breaking is many things: a movement, art form, and competition. The dance style started in the streets of New York City in the ’70s among Black and brown youth. It’s one of the pillars of hip-hop culture. This week, breaking will have its debut at the Paris Olympics after the International Olympic Committee included breaking at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. The B-girls (short for break-girls) repping Team USA are the Asian American breakers Logan “Logistx” Edra and Sunny Choi, with only 16 B-girls and B-boys from around the world competing.
I chatted with breakers from across the nation about what it means to see the sport included in this year’s Olympic games and how Asian Americans express themselves through this historically American dance.
The Origins of Breaking and Its Cultural Significance
Born and raised in San Diego, Maya Luv, who goes by Pebblz, started breaking at the age of 7. Through her dad, she was exposed to dance. Pebblz is part of Team USA and qualified last October to join 15 other breakers at an inaugural breaking training camp at the U.S. Olympic Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Breaking is one of the four elements of hip-hop, she tells me. DJing, MCing, and graffiti, also known as writing, are the other three.
“Those four elements kind of just bring other people from all around the world together, just through the form of love of the art,” Pebblz says. “Breaking is actually very much more than a sport. It’s really an art form. That’s why you see a lot of people create together. … It’s really about solidarity and community. It just brings all of us together because we’re so passionate about it. I’ve been around the world and literally just seeing different styles of different versions of how to dance.”
The…
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