Breakdancing, or 'breaking,' is headed to the 2024 Summer Games. Why pioneers worry about the Olympics erasing history.
Breaking is officially an Olympic sport after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that elite breakdancing will make its debut at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Although it’s big news being celebrated by B-boys, B-girls and dancers around the world, pioneers of the breaking movement share concerns about how the art will translate onto the Olympic stage.
“Street dance is a personal journey for most of us,” Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quiñones tells Yahoo Life. “How are you going to have these judges judge that?”
The 65-year-old actor, dancer, choreographer and activist was a member of The Original Lockers — a dance group known as the originators of a specific style of street dance called locking — and kickstarted his career on Soul Train in 1971 before famously starring as Ozone in the hit dance films Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2. While his work set the stage for breaking to be seen as more than a culmination of street dance styles that provided young people in underserved neighborhoods with a sense of pride and a goal to work toward, he also recognizes that those humble beginnings might be overlooked once a breaker wins gold.
“What we had to overcome in order to get to this Olympic moment,” is what he fears may be at stake, noting that his African American and Puerto Rican background is integral to the origin of his craft. All that had to take place so that people could be in music videos and go on shows like America's Best Dance Crew. It's that kind of understanding that has to be considered.”
Quiñones also worries that “the flavor, personality and the spontaneity” of breaking may be erased when the creative form of expression is broken down into a number of maneuvers that an athlete must complete in order to win points. “That's just another version of gymnastics,” he says, “unless you have the people there who understand and understand very clearly the balance that needs to take place.”
Neither the IOC nor the World DanceSport Federation immediately responded to Yahoo Life’s requests for comment to provide insight about how breaking will be judged and who is behind those decisions. “The Olympic committee has yet to call me or ... people who are experts,” Quiñones says.
Michael “Boogaloo Shrimp” Chambers, 53, who was introduced to breaking by members of Rock Steady Crew and starred alongside Quiñones in the Breakin’ films, echoes a similar sentiment, telling Yahoo Life that he was able to become a “very fair judge” of breaking competitions throughout the years as a result of his experience.
“I found my strength in being a master at robotics and popping and animation, but I also found my strength as an educator and a fair judge of being able to give a fair shake to dancers because I was well-rounded, I knew all styles,” he says. “Because I was in the trenches more or less and I could tell where the agility and the improvisation, and I could see all these other things that other people wouldn't see other than just battling and looking good.”
Still, Chambers recognizes that the dichotomy of wanting to preserve breaking’s origins and to advance its opportunities is one that has existed for a long time.
“That guarding of history and that underground-ness and that pride has really stagnated and prevented the art form from growing,” he says, noting that as a pioneer, he’s been affected by these feelings as well. “It's a territorial thing. But now, with this Olympic situation, it does open up the door for a new breath of fresh air and a new level of attention of the artists and a financial platform for what was underground before.”
Quiñones calls it a “seismic shift,” explaining that Olympic breaking might not only be a window to the Black and Latino youth living in the neighborhoods where the sport originated, but also can provide an opportunity to support them in unprecedented ways if the proper infrastructure is put in place. To do so, he reiterates that the Olympic committee needs to work with the “torchbearers of this culture,” himself included. A younger generation of breakers agrees.
“It’s about making the proper decisions of who is going to be the voice of breaking and who’s going to introduce this to the Olympic stage,” Jeremy “Icey Ives” Viray, a 25-year-old breaker from Anchorage, Alaska, says of preserving the integrity of the art form. “For the Olympic committee, it’s up to them if they want to introduce it in an authentic sense, they need to reach out to the icons and pioneers and make sure they’re representing the history who can tell them the whole story of breaking.”
“This has to be a way to shed light on the history and herstory of breaking,” Logan “Logistx” Edra, a 17-year-old B-girl from San Diego, Calif., adds. “I feel like the Olympic committee should have an open mind and heart for the voices of our community. Communication, humility and openness should take priority when people from our scene are working with the Olympic committee. They shouldn’t approach it like any other sport in the Olympics because it is more than just a sport; it’s a sport, art, culture, community.”
As for how dancers vying for a spot at the Olympics hope to get there, Viray explains that young dancers will be looking toward those who paved the way — including Quiñones and Chambers.
“Pioneers in our community will be motivated to train the youth and those that are gearing up to compete at the Olympic level,” Viray says. “I’m picturing breaking icons and leaders putting together teams, schools, mentorship programs — anything they can to get newer breakers ready for Paris 2024.”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Is breakdancing even a sport? The International Olympic Committee might think so
As dances go viral on TikTok, Black content creators find they are left out of the fame
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