Breaking for Gold

“Stand back and be cool! Listen, we’re not gonna waste any of our moves – and we sure not gonna dance with punks!”
– Ozone/Shabba-Doo

If you were a kid around L.A. in the ’80’s, it was hard to miss the cultural meteorites that were Breakin’ and it’s shockingly immediate sequel, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo. Released a scant seven months apart in 1984, the films themselves left a couple of long term icons burned into the collective id of world history, and neither of them was the semi-poetic Shabba-Doo. The first of those icons saw Breakin’ as his very first film, and would go on to an incredibly busy and lucrative career – as well as being the butt of some incredible John Mulaney and Rick and Morty jokes, the ever-incredible but not immediately recognizable Ice-T.

The other star of the film that really stuck culturally wasn’t one of the actors, or even the songs. While the films themselves were both decent successes, they blessedly didn’t spawn some Dance Off multiverse where Channing Tatum is eventually some unholy compilation of Gambit and Magic Mike. Although that does sound kind of cool, now that I think about it. What the movies left behind, possibly even more than Ice-T, is the dance form itself. Breakdancing, or Breaking, was very much the breakout star of the film, popularizing the dance form that was born in New York City in the late 1960s. When I was back home to Colorado in within a year or two of the film, many of my friends had never seen the film, but had more than a few pops or locks to show off.

Dancers don’t get much play as athletes when it boils right down to it, though it’s very much an element of the gymnastics, skating routines, and synchronized swimming routines that dot every Olympics. The dancers who are at the absolute apexes of their crafts, a Pavlova, a Baryshnikov, Hines, Astaire, Rogers, Tatum… even the illustrious Mr. -Doo… all sublime athletes, masters of their bodies and its movements.

So why shouldn’t dance be an Olympic sport?

The 2018 Youth Olympic Games saw the introduction of Breaking to the world stage, and was immediately the star of the show. With that success, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris will showcase Breaking as one of four new sports, along with sport climbing, skateboarding, and surfing.

As the creator of the art form, is the United States the runaway favorite for the Games, the way the Men’s Basketball team often is? Far from it. While the US has a talented squad, only a couple members of the Men’s or Women’s teams are ranked amongst the world’s top 20. To win a medal at these games would be an upset, indeed.

Dancers have to qualify by earning points at global Breaking events which must be World SanceSport Federation sanctioned. There are events still to come this year in both Chile and China, with a few more qualifying events before next year’s Olympics.

So even if you don’t know your windmills from your headspins, your freezes from your flares, you might just give this new Olympic sport a try. It will be scored and judged similarly to events like skating and gymnastics, based on both artistry and level of difficulty. And while it might seem a little bit out of the ordinary, it might just be the new breakout star like curling was at the Winter Games.