Breaking to debut for the first time as a sport at this year’s Olympics
For the first time, breaking will be taking center stage at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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For the first time, breaking will be taking center stage at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
"Extremely happy that now it has a chance to do something more, I always use this reference for it, it's like skateboarding. It started as a street style; street area and then now has sponsorships, endorsements and gave skaters opportunity for more." said breaker Freddy Muñoz.
Breaking is a form of dance. It originated in south Bronx back in the 1980’s under the umbrella of hip-hop culture. Breaking has long been considered a form of creative expression, but now it’s considered a sport and will take the international stage.
Freddy Muñoz has been breaking since high school and now owns a dance studio called, Dance on the DL also known as DL studio. The studio specifically teaches breaking and hip-hop.
Although Muñoz said he’s happy, he’s said he’s also nervous and wants to make sure the integrity and history of the dance form is recognized through the competition, “A lot of breakers are afraid that people are only going to look for the flashy moves and not understand what's underneath it; the culture part.” explained Muñoz, “not understanding that there’s the passion part of it, performance of it, the feeling of it, the dance of it and want to make sure it’s still understood as a hip-hop culture and an artform."
“Typically, at your normal event there’s three, for normal battles, sometimes they’ll go to seven for bigger events.” explains Muñoz.
For the Olympics there will be nine judges. All nine will judge on five criteria’s: vocabulary, technique, execution, musicality, and originality.
Students who dance at the studio said they’re excited to see their passion take the Olympic stage.
"It started as such a small piece of history and it's building up to so much more." said Ryan Coughlin.
Stella Paquette, a breaker herself, believes it’s important, "Especially for b-girls, because there's a lot of b-boys but I think it's good for b-girls to know that they're not alone."
Muñoz opened the studio so breakers would have a physical space to break. It was something wished he had when he was younger and just starting.
“It makes me the younger me happy because if there's someone else out there who wants to it's here it exists." said Muñoz.
Breaking competitions at the Olympics will take place on Friday, Aug. 9 and Saturday, Aug. 10.
