Breaking’s Olympic Debut

from The New York Times I'm Sabrina. Tavern and this is the daily someone. name is Gabriel quickstep d raella r o k. a f e l l a i go by Kid Glide I. represent Dynamic rockers I'm from. Queens New York this year at the Olympic. Games there's one sport that's on stage. for the first time break dancing I'm. excited that people are going to be. exposed to it on that kind of stage. they're going to see breaking they're. going to see Hip-Hop they're going to. feel it they're going to you know what. I'm saying so it's going to be an.

experience today my colleague Jonathan. Abrams tells the story of how it went. from the streets of New York all the way. to the Paris games but I'm also. concerned that it's not being. represented at its fullest cultural. capacity people are clueless to what. this even is and um people are going to. be really surprised and the debate that. Journey has inspired about whether. treating break dancing as just another. sport might be mistake this comes from a.

culture that you know had to go through. so much just to exist so are you going. to do right by. [Music]. us it's Friday August. 9th Jonathan welcome to the show thank. you so much Sabrina so Jonathan we're. gonna talk today about the Olympics and. I think something that catches people's. attention is when the Olympics adds new.

sports you know the Olympics is this. ancient thing so you know I find that. kind of surprising when new things pop. up and you've been writing specifically. about the new event that is debuting. this year in Paris and that is break. dancing yeah a lot of people in the. community refer to it as breaking break. dancing is kind of a term that they have. said was created by mainstream media and. not a term that they use so it's almost. frowned upon ah okay breaking got it so.

it's been a little bit of a journey. these last few years to get it to the. Olympics and this is such a special. watershed moment it's kind of crazy to. think that break dancers are going to be. at the Olympic Games they're going to be. mixing along with LeBron James with. Kevin Durant with Simone bil all these. athletes you historically think of being. involved and intertwined with the games. you're going to have a component of. hip-hop right there alongside with them. and it's joining a class of new sports. recently added to the Olympic like.

skateboarding and rock climbing and. surfing and if you look at these Sports. what they all have in common is that. there's trying to get a younger audience. to watch the games and what the. international Olympic Committee they've. been Frank about what they're trying to. do is that they're trying to go for that. younger audience because viewership has. been way way down and so these ancient. games are trying to modernize themselves. by changing the rules and welcoming. these new events to have a newer younger. more diverse viewership.

okay so break dancing oh sorry breaking. is here to try to breathe some new life. into the Olympic Games you know expand. the audience as you say but I don't. really think of breaking as a sport I. mean never mind a competitive Olympic. sport lots of people make that argument. Sabrina but competition has been part of. breaking since its Inception in the. Bronx in the. 1970s at that time New York City is. basically in this state of disrepair the.

construction of the Cross Bronx. Expressway cuts through the heart of the. South Bronx and it displaces thousands. of residents crime levels rise. unemployment increases these large. buildings are set in vacant because of. white flight and Property Owners some. are facing default and they start. burning their buildings in order to cash. in on the insurance value and people. especially the black and brown people in. the Bronx they're feeling this sense of. utter hopelessness and the culture of.

hip-hop grows out of that despair it was. a way for these marginalized communities. to take something back and to have. something for. themselves and breaking is a key. component of hip-hop because when hip. hop first formed and came along it was. presented as this vivacious multifaceted. gym where you had four distinct tenants. and. components one was lyricism the artist. words going along a track of Music one.

is turntablism or being a DJ and that's. scratching. records the other one is graffiti or. writing and then the last one is. breaking and that's the physical. expression of hip-hop dancing to the. music and so these latchy kids in the. Bronx would throw these massive parties. where breaking was born and people they. came together and they formed Crews and. they competed against one.

another and they dance to make a name. for themselves they dance to earn. respect in their street than in their. neighborhood than in their city and that. was how they cultivated self-esteem and. made something of themselves when they. really had nothing. [Music]. else okay so in these poor neighborhoods. in the Bronx In This Very turbulent time. kids were finding themselves finding.

inspiration in Breaking why exactly did. they call it breaking why that word. breaking comes from these pioneering DJs. being able to figure out how to extend. the breaks for songs so say there's a. drum break like in a famous song where. it's a snippet and then the song will. [Music]. continue and they were the most popular. parts of the songs where kids would. dance for 10 15 seconds and then stop.

[Music]. DJs like DJ Cool her and Grandmaster. Flash they were innovators and Engineers. because they figured out how to extend. those. [Music]. breaks and once they were able to Loop. them endlessly then kids were able to. extend their dances and be able to dance. and be creative with it and form the. circles and that's where breaking came. from so what did it actually look like.

there's no way I can accurately describe. breaking just through words I can try to. say that it's graceful or powerful or. athletic and all those words seem to. fall. flat breaking is a call and response. it's a back and forth conversation it's. almost like trumped up Jazz picture this. you're going into a crowded party. there's people everywhere music is. thumping if you're walking to the cipher. which is the circle where it break. perform and compete in you finally get.

to the front and what you see is people. doing these most amazing moves moves. that you don't think are possible with. the human body they're spinning. contorting their bodies in pretzels. stopping on a dime bending backwards. doing windmills and air flares and then. the next person is going to come in and. challenge them and what breaking is it's. attitude it's an expression of yourself. is energy balded up.

and when did Breaking go beyond the. streets of the Bronx and really kind of. emerge as a sport well before it got to. that level it had to become part of the. mainstream culture and breaking started. to hit that level around the early to. mid. 1980s and at this point people may know. Rappers Delight they can maybe say a. hipop a hippity hip hop you know. everybody knows that song by then but. these movies like flash dance and wild. style are also starting to come out and. they're starting to capture Hip Hop's.

infancy and one of the main ones that. comes out in 1984 is beat street and. that's. pivotal come. on this let's. Ser there's a scene of the movie with. these Crews coming together in a. [Music]. club and there's anticipation there is. adrenaline it looks like they may fight.

but no instead of fighting a dance. battle breaks. [Music]. [Applause]. out and if you've never seen this like. like I said earlier about ws and being. able to describe it if somebody. described break dancing to you and you. had never seen it in person you wouldn't. have a good clue as to what it was but. now for the first time in movie theaters. from LA to New York you can actually see. what it is and then you have the these. pioneering groups like Rock Steady Crew.

and dynamic. rockers Zulu Kings New York City. Breakers they all start to be in these. movies and do these demonstrations. globally and that inspires a whole. generation of kids to get into break. dancing this is the newest craze it's. called break dancing so as the. popularity of break dancing continues. experts say it's okay to dance as long. as you just watch your step it's the big. break dance contest from the.

Roxy and at this point we're starting to. see judges and prizes be introduced into. breaking then in 1990 a German breaker. set up a break dance competition in. Germany known as Battle of the. Year and 2001 was a pivotal year because. it's the first year that Red Bull has. its lord of the floors competition. history in the making. y'all and that again convene all the. best Breakers to be able to compete.

against one another to measure. themselves up but there's also the. carrot at the end of the stick the. runner up of the 2001 Red Bull Lords of. the floor is there's a multi thousand. cash prize that's awarded to the top. talent the. winners Los Angeles. Breakers come get to chear so you start. to see the the trappings of this thing. that was created in New York City in the.

Bronx in the 1970s start to leave its. Beginnings a little bit and become more. of a competition and more of a sport. through Red Bull and these other. entities that are sponsoring it was. y'all loving that or what give a big. round of applause to all the. contestants we like to thank jaman and. the whole Red Bull crew C okay so. breaking is going mainstream in a very. big way but in my mind there's a big. difference between a Red Bull event in.

the Olympics so how do we get from here. to. there it's actually a bit of a wild. story so nearly three decades ago this. Global governing body of dance. International Dance Sport is recognized. by the international Olympic Committee. and they want to bring dance to the. Olympics so they want to have ballroom. dancing and they suggest that and they. get rebuffed so they eventually Rebrand.

themselves as World Dance Sport. Federation and they find out that it's. not Fox Trot or salsa or Ballroom that. the Olympic thinks could have a shot. it's. breaking breaking is highly watchable. easily viewable on social media and it. comes along as the Olympics is. re-evaluating what they're going to use. as a sport to try and gain that younger. audience there was a testing period in. 2018 Winter Olympic Games just got a.

little more exciting break dancing will. now be part of the Youth Olympic Games. and there's still a search for they. debuted breaking at the youth Olympics. in Buenos. area. two what it's battle. [Music]. time and what happens is that it exceeds. almost every expectation by every metric. possible there was more than 50,000.

people who attended the 2-day event in. 2018 there was over 2.5 million social. media Impressions according to the. international Olympic Committee I mean. it seems like it aligns itself perfectly. with the Olympic's mission of trying to. skewer to a younger audience and once. you see those numbers that pretty much. locked up breaking for the 2024 Olympic. Games in Paris the Olympic games are. changing and the future of breaken is. coming.

[Music]. we'll be right. back okay so now we're at the games. everybody's watching how this is going. to go which must be pretty exciting for. Breakers you would think so but there's. a lot of skepticism and tension from. many of these veterans and Pioneers in. Paris of breaking and what do they say. why do they not feel excited about this.

well I think anytime you take something. and strip it away from its roots and. let's be honest uh Paris 2024 is very. very very far away from Bronx 1970s that. is true it is not going to be the same. thing or presented in the same thing and. I think that's what the purists and the. Pioneers are afraid of but Jonathan. couldn't you also make the case that you. know skateboarding is also a specific. kind of culture and that it also has all.

of its own peculiarities and is also. potentially hard to judge by a bunch of. Olympic judges to some extent yeah but. breaking it's just different in a lot of. ways the pioneers and the purists the. ones who invented this thing will argue. that it's more than just a hobby or even. a sport it's it's a lifestyle it's the. product of a culture it's something that. was born from black and brown people's. struggles in a deeply turbulent time in.

American history and is a way for people. to express themselves to tell their. stories to to build. self-confidence and on top of that. there's a lot of Breakers who just. aren't happy with how this arrived at. the Olympics in the first place it. arrived in the hands of the world Dance. Sport Federation and remember that's an. organization that wasn't even associated. with breaking they were trying to put. ballroom dancing into the Olympics way. before they ever thought about.

breaking so back in 2017 a bunch of. Breakers they got together and they. signed a petition essentially protesting. this. organization and they were saying you. don't represent us you're not from our. community but you're taking our art form. and using it to advance your own goals. and all of this has left a lot of. Breakers really worried and concerned. about what exactly this weekend is going. to look like for breaking okay let let's. dig into that what will Breaking look.

like on stage in Paris what can we. expect right so there's a lot of. questions about how it's going to. actually. look in Paris you're going to have some. of the crucial components of breaking. you're going to have attitude you're. going to have Breakers they're going to. be challenging each other there's going. to be. athleticism but there's also going to be. judges uh a breaker is going to go get a. score then the next breaker is going to. go and get a score so you can kind of.

see those seeds of the origin of this. thing that was born in New York in the. 1970s but it's definitely something. different and it's more sterile and. [Music]. sanitized there's going to be 16 men and. 16 women who will go across 2 days of. competition there's going to be nine. judges and they're going to score the. breakers based on five criteria. vocabulary technique. execution originality and lastly.

musicality and break those down for me. what do they actually mean the. vocabulary is not you know how many. words somebody can say it's the array of. moves that a breaker deploys then. technique covers the breaker's body. control and their use of space execution. consists of the cleanliness of one's. moves then originality is improvising. during their round. being able to react to what their.

opponent is doing and then musicality is. staying on beat with the music they're. not going to know the music beforehand. so they're going to have to really. attune their moves to what's going on to. the. beat okay so this is how the judges are. actually going to do it but what about. kind of what we know about breaking the. like Spirit of competition the kind of. outdoing each other the attitude is. brings like the showboating is that.

taken into account in how it's going to. go with the Olympics yeah I can. guarantee you this Sabrina that this is. going to be the only Olympic sport with. the misbehavior button what's that the. judges will be able to hit a misbehavior. button if competitiveness crosses into. crassness if if they deem that to be the. case what's an example of something that. would get a misbehavior button say if. you finish off a move with the freeze. and stick up your middle finger at your. opponent okay fair enough got it okay.

misbehavior button so this sport of. course started here in the US I have to. ask who are the Americans competing this. year tell me about them yeah somebody. that I've Ted to a lot leading up to the. games is sunny Choy who was the first. American woman to qualify for the. games it up all the way to USA first. Sunny she's korean-american she's from. Tennessee she's ially the only New.

Yorker she now lives in New York who was. competing in Paris at the games all. right. yay well you started as a gymnast is. that true yeah so I actually I watched. the Olympics growing up she has a. background in gymnastics and she was. working at Estee Lauder when she decided. to to go into breaking full some people. have been like you're a very unlikely. Olympian I'm like yeah kind of I had. always envisioned myself going to the. Olympics as a gymnast and then I never.

thought I would have the chance again. and so it coming back full circle is. amazing Victor okay Victor what you on. the men's side you have Victor Montalvo. who goes by B boy Victor and he's a. two-time Red Bull world one Champion. he's from Florida so my dad and his twin. brother used to break back in Mexico and. um they actually taught me my brother.

and my cousin his father was a Pioneer. in the Mexican breaking scene I was. introduced into breaking at the age of 6. years old and I took it serious at the. age of 10 oh my God I'm always so. breaking is really in Victor's blood and. he's definitely a favorite to medal on. the men's. side what you Victor with the eye. contact going straight into it he's like. I see you and I got you. [Music].

okay so I'm assuming these Americans are. poised to win this fundamentally. American. sport not necessarily Sabrina breaking. is such a global enti now that I feel. like America has really fallen behind. some of these other countries and when. it's more popular and when people do it. more often so you look at this field and. there's Breakers from Japan from the. Netherlands from France from Kazakhstan.

from all over the world on the women's. side there's B girl NAA from Lithuania. huh and last year she won the 2023 World. title at the age of 16 wow amazing a. Lithuanian girl has the world title. actually yeah and you know she's an. amazing story and I think she's. emblematic of breaking and its Evolution. because she discovered breaking on. YouTube at the age of five and within. just about a decade is one of the.

world's best Breakers in the world and. will be heavily favored to win a gold. medal at the first Olympic breaking. competition just to go back to the. tension around breaking in the Olympics. that we started with Jonathan you know. and the question of it leaving its roots. becoming detached from the place and the. culture it sprung from is there an. argument that that's already happened. that as people are kind of wanting to. pull it back toward where it came from. it's already gone it already went out.

there is there any going back yeah. that's a great question and I think. we're at this Crossroads where you have. breaking's authenticity at stake and. breaking is about that expression from. the heart it's about being able to show. your attitude your charisma who you are. as a person through your dance and the. pioneers and the purist are going to be. watching this to see what part of the. soul and the struggle exists as this. thing that they invented nurtured and.

cultivated reaches its biggest stage. ever but it is out there and for. somebody to be able to be in a foreign. country and just study the art form on. YouTube and be able to become world. class leaders in it it it says something. one about the art form and how wide. raging and impactful it can be and it. also just says that this isn't just New. York's anymore this is global and. perhaps the people performing on that.

stage are what break dancing is now. right in some ways yeah and we're going. to see people men and women from. different countries all over the world. represented in Paris and in some ways. it's very very far away from what was. invented in New York in the. 1970s but at the same time seeing people. from different countries and and men and.

women be the best at breaking that they. can possibly be is also exposing. breaking to a whole new generation and. exposing breaking at the Olympics could. be the vessel that keeps it alive for. the Next. [Music]. Generation Jonathan thank. you Sabrina anytime. [Music].

we'll be right. back here's what else you should know. today on Thursday former president. Donald Trump held a news conference at. Mara Lago it was his first public. appearance since vice president kamla. Harris became the Democratic. Presidential. nominee I look forward to the debates. because I think we have to set the. record straight in his remarks Trump.

proposed three dates in September for. debates with the vice. president I haven't recalibrated. strategy at all uh it's the same. policies open borders weak on crime. Trump insisted that little had shifted. in the contest despite polling showing a. tightening race listen I had 107,000. people in New Jersey you didn't report. it I'm so glad you ask what does she. have yesterday 2,000 people if if I ever. had 2,000 people you'd say my campaign.

is finished it was an effort by the. former president to recapture some. political momentum as the new Democratic. ticket has continued to dominate the. news. coverage during his remarks ABC. confirmed that it would host the two. candidates for a debate on September. 10th a quick reminder to catch a new. episode of the interview right here. tomorrow this week Lulu Garcia avaro. talks with Republican senator James.

lenford including about Republicans who. turned on him when he tried to pass. bipartisan immigration reforms I did. have several folks saying I'll I'll. destroy you if you do this because I. though I like you I like President Trump. better and he's got to be elected for. the future of the country and you can't. take this issue off the. table today's episode was produced by. Sydney Harper and Luke Vander pluk with.

help from Shannon Lynn and will Reed it. was edited by Lexi Dio and MJ Davis Lynn. with help from Ben Calhoun contains. original music by Dan Powell Marian. Lozano and Diane Wong and was engineered. by Alyssa Moxley our theme music is by. Jim brunberg and Ben Lans of wonderly. [Music].

[Music]. that's it for the daily I'm Sabrina. tavernes see you on Monday. [Music].