The world caught Olympics fever once more this summer season, because it does each two years. However this 12 months, breaking (what some name “breakdancing”) was a part of the thrill. There are numerous intriguing questions across the type taking the world stage, within the context of sports activities.
How a lot is it a sport, and the way a lot is it an artwork type? Can it’s each? How will we successfully and truthfully rating one thing subjective? How can we current all of it to the world in a means that helps the type and the artwork type? Breaking competitions are definitely nothing new – however how can they most efficiently translate to the Olympic Video games?
All of these questions apart, what we noticed on the Video games was some really completed artistry and athleticism. We at Dance Informa need to shine a lightweight on those that rose to the highest, the six medalists — gold, silver, and bronze within the males’s and ladies’s classes. To be clear, nice work wasn’t unique to these six rivals.
However let’s take a more in-depth have a look at them particularly — their background, their work on the Olympics and extra. Additionally to notice, after every of the next rivals battled, they embraced. That’s sportsmanship. The medals are nice – however the love of the type, of competing, of the group and of continuous to raise one’s recreation…that’s what actually issues.
Ladies’s Medalists
Gold: “B-Lady Ami” Ami Yuasa (Japan)
Yuasa, 25, started breaking the way in which that many dancers start — within the footsteps of an older sibling. At solely six years outdated, her massive sister launched her to the shape and sparked her ardour for it. (Her sister nonetheless dances, and competes…the 2 have even competed, and received, collectively!)
By age 10, she was coaching onerous – even commuting two hours to a prepare station the place a bunch commonly gathered to observe. She realized from high Japanese breakers reminiscent of Katsu-one and Taisuke. In 2018, she received the Purple Bull BC One World Ultimate – the primary 12 months the competitors held a B-Lady class. She received once more in 2023. Subsequent cease: the Paris Olympics. After an thrilling remaining with B-Lady Nicka, she clinched the primary ladies’s Olympics breaking gold.
She strikes in a notably grounded means, however with power persevering with to channel up and out. She has satisfying move whilst she executes hanging athletics – making her come off as notably human, slightly than “dancer.” Maybe greater than some other competitor, she delivers that cliché dance ultimate of constructing it look “simple” when it’s in fact something however. Maybe that’s why the gold is hers.
Silver: “B-Lady Nicka” Dominique Banevic (Lithuania)
Banevic, solely 17, is definitely already making her mark on the breaking world. She found the shape at solely 5 years outdated, and has been keen about it since (coaching six hours a day, along with schoolwork). Banevic believes that age doesn’t matter – what’s vital is “the way you dance.”
She additionally underscores the significance of mindfulness in dance and competitors, to be “totally within the current second.” (Banevic additionally works with a sports activities psychologist to assist her keep mentally grounded.) Authenticity can be key, she believes. Banevic definitely has distinctive artistry, by means of each physicality and musicality.
With hanging flexibility and plasticity, she strikes with a top quality that feels elastic – but additionally eruptive. She fluidly rides the beats of the music at hand, and the momentum shifting by means of her physique, to maintain all of it integrating collectively. Making the Olympics in 2024 was a key purpose of hers, and she or he’s now finished that. She nonetheless has years of competing and creating forward – so the sky’s the restrict on what she might obtain from right here.
Bronze: “B-Lady 671” Liu Quingyi (Folks’s Republic of China)
Quingyi, 18, additionally began breaking at 10 years outdated. She noticed it on the road, grew to become immediately fascinated, and instantly discovered a studio the place she might prepare. In breaking, she discovered group and enhanced her confidence. (She says that breaking helped her to be extra outgoing and communicative.)
Working with B-Boy Ho after which B-Boy Chao, she began to dominate at nationwide competitions. Quingyi grew to become recognized internationally first at Slovakia’s Outbreak Europe, then on the Purple Bull BC One World Ultimate 2022. Within the 2023 competitors, B-Lady Ami took the title, but 671 (how her title is definitely pronounced in English) affirmed her standing as one of many high feminine breaking rivals on the earth. Paris 2024 got here, and the remainder is Olympics historical past.
Her motion is, in a phrase, explosive — bursting with pure energy, sharp articulation of accents and full use of house (greater than many different rivals). Her shapes are crisp, however not caught; she finds that ultimate mix of kinetic readability and continuity. She’s one other notably younger competitor and artist – so she has years forward to additional refine her craft and preserve shifting ahead.
Males’s Medalists
Gold: “Phil The Wiz” Philip Kim (Canada)
Kim, 27, was one other competitor impressed to begin breaking after seeing a avenue battle. With household from Korea, but raised in Toronto, Canada, he started his breaking journey at 12 years outdated with the N.O.N. Crew. He went on to be taught from breakers reminiscent of B-Boy Jugz and Reflex, and to bop with the 7 Commandoz Crew.
He’s constructed a reputation as a high international competitor by means of Purple Bull BC One titles in 2017 and 2018, and thru the 2023 Pan American Video games (Santiago, Chile) – by means of which he certified for the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games.
Kim dances with a hanging mix of accent and suspension: crisp punctuation of motion in fast footwork, and extension of actions as he holds freezes. He creates an excellent musicality by means of how he brings these qualities collectively. Maybe that’s what the judges noticed that had them awarding him the gold; the thrill of dance will be on the intersections of varied qualities, the tensions between them.
“It glided by very quick…it looks like a dream,” Kim stated after clinching the gold. On the high of the sphere, he continues to consider in continued self-improvement and creative authenticity.
Silver: “B-Boy Dany Dann” Dany Civil (France)
Civil, 35, hails from French Guiana. He found breaking at age 15, and later relocated to mainland France with a view to research the shape extra significantly and to have aggressive success (that’s dedication!).
His worldwide titles started in 2018, with competitions reminiscent of Battle of the 12 months, 2022’s European Championships and World Championships, and 2023’s Breaking for Gold sequence in Brazil. 2024 introduced him competing for his adopted house nation of France, proper in its capital.
Civil strikes with stunning move, over a basis of notable energy and management. He navigates smaller, extra nuanced actions – nearer to his core middle (“kinesphere”) – and people who increase farther and sooner. All of that comes collectively to create a method that feels as distinctive to him as his blue hair and affable smirk. He passes on the entire positivity, individuality, and craft by means of his group Finest One, which helps younger folks in studying to interrupt and in reaching their goals.
Bronze: “B-Boy Victor” Victor Montalvo (USA)
Montalvo, 30, continues to be impressed by his late mentor B-Boy MexOne. “He actually made me consider in myself,” Montalvo says. “I take advantage of what he instructed me till today.” The Mexican-American b-boy from Florida additionally adopted within the footsteps of his father and uncle, trailblazing breakers in their very own proper.
In truth, when he received the Purple Bull BC One title in 2015, he gave his father his trophy belt. His father had at all times believed in him, Montalvo stated, and – whereas profitable – by no means fairly received at that stage. He has stated that’s the “most vital” title he’s ever received. Does he really feel the identical after profitable the primary Bronze in Olympic Males’s Breaking? He may have the groundedness and coronary heart to have household persevering with to imply probably the most, it doesn’t matter what occurs.
In high rocks, Montalvo weight shifts with a candy suave and a clean finesse. In freezes, he creates a seamless channeling of momentum that might encourage envy in lots of completed up to date dancers. That every one comes collectively to make him extremely satisfying to observe – in a means calming, even whereas he strikes with uncooked energy.
By Kathryn Boland of Dance Informa.
