As ambassadors of the country where breakdancing originated 50 years ago, members of Team USA have something to prove — and potentially to lose — when the hip-hop dance form makes its official debut at the Paris Games in 2024.
That’s because for U.S. breakers like Carmarry Hall, Victor Montalvo and Jeffrey Mike Louis, it’s more than just nailing the right moves; it’s about preserving breaking’s soul.
“When I started breaking, it wasn’t about competition; it was about culture, it was about Black dance,” said Hall, an African American Team USA member. “The Olympic platform is not going to appreciate the understanding. It’s structured in a certain way, and in that structure, you lose a little bit of the heart.”
But it is precisely that structure that international competitors to the U.S. have zoned in on while battling for a shot at Olympic gold in head-to-head contests over the past year. And at the moment, Team USA’s squad of b-boys and b-girls, the term for male and female breakers, is trailing in rankings tabulated by the World DanceSport Federation, the International Olympic Committee-approved body that administers breaking battles.
As of Friday, the top three b-boys in the world are Canada’s Philip Kim, known as B-Boy Phil Wizard; Japan’s Shigeyuki Nakarai, known as B-Boy Shigekix; and France’s Danis Civil, known as B-Boy Dany. The top three b-girls in the world are Japan’s Ami Yuasa, known as B-Girl Ami; China’s Qingyi Liu, known as B-Girl 671; and Lithuania’s Dominika Banevič, known as B-Girl Nicka.
“Everybody else has surpassed the United States, so we better go out and do some workout camps,” said Chuck D of the iconic hip-hop group Public Enemy. “The United States probably ain’t going to gold, silver or bronze. … Other places, they’ve been training for years. It’s like martial arts.”
Dancers need to win or perform well at WDSF-sanctioned…
Read the full article here
