Breakdancing is included in the Paris Olympics? Do you want to dance?

Speaking of breakdancing

What can you think of?

Bat-shirt, bloomers, and afro

The shining ball of light...

This is the symbol of street culture that has been popular since the 1970s and 1980s - "breakdance", a dynamic word widely known in China.

Time flies, and decades have passed in the blink of an eye. This art form, once regarded as a synonym for rebellion and fashion, has miraculously crossed the gap of the times and made a gorgeous turn on the stage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, becoming one of the four new competitive events and being classified as "sport dance."

Image source: China Sports Daily

This transformation is not only an international recognition of the unique charm of breakdancing, but also the best interpretation of cultural integration and innovative spirit in the changing times.

After reading this article

Don't ask me what break dancing is.

Breakdancing has only been around for half a century!

In the early 1970s, a group of young people in the Bronx, New York, faced employment difficulties due to poor transportation and information. They turned to the streets as their stage and danced. At first, they performed free and spontaneous movements, like the prototype of modern disco, with unruly and energetic expressions between their bodies.

Afterwards, they spontaneously organized competitions, competing to show off increasingly complex and humorous movements, giving rise to dance spectacles that challenge the limits, such as high-speed rotations and extreme jumps. Further, they incorporated difficult elements such as combat steps and acrobatic skills into the dance, gradually carving out a unique and distinctive style of technical street dance. They called this dance Breaking, which means "breaking the boundaries."

British boys practicing breakdancing on the streets in the 1980s

Image source: Dance China Network

This rebellious trend originated from the streets, initially led by African-American and Latino youths, and later crossed racial boundaries, sweeping across the United States and the world, becoming an indispensable chapter in contemporary dance culture. In the 1980s, with the introduction of the American movie "Breaking" to China, the passionate and unrestrained dance style in the film was vividly translated as "breakdance", and the movie became the first milestone work focusing on this dance style.

Breakdancing quickly became popular in China, leading a generation of fashion trends. Even well-known movie stars such as Sun Honglei and Donnie Yen were once masters. However, with the changing times, the mainstream culture's orientation, the high threshold for practice, and the difficulty of making a living, breakdancing once faded out of the public eye.

Until recent years, the comprehensive revival of hip-hop culture, fueled by popular variety shows such as "Dance Storm" and "This! Is Street Dance", and the selection of breakdancing for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, has once again brought glory to breakdancing, and street dance culture has regained widespread attention and love among young people.

As a highly personalized and competitive technical street dance, breakdancing has a style that widely incorporates elements such as tapping, combat steps, acrobatics, gymnastics, and martial arts, forming a unique movement system that includes four major categories: rock steps, leg rows, big floor steps, and freeze frames, showing the infinite possibilities and creativity of dance art.

Highly technical street dance

Street dance, a dance form that combines the essence of sports competition and street art, takes body language as its core and is accompanied by the beat of street dance's exclusive music. Whether it is individual solo dance or team collaboration, it demonstrates its unique entertainment and fitness value and outstanding performing arts, becoming a cross-border integrated sport.

In the vast field of street dance

Hip-hop, locking, robotics and breakdancing

The four major schools complement each other, each with its own characteristics

Image source: CCTV News

As the pinnacle of technical skills in street dance, breakdancing has three distinct characteristics that make it stand out among many other dance types.

First of all, it lies in the infinite charm of improvisation . Each dancer can respond to the random music melody according to his or her personal style, and creatively arrange and reorganize the movements accumulated in daily life. Each performance is a unique artistic presentation, ensuring that it is difficult to find the same scene in the street dance arena.

Secondly, breakdancing challenges the limits of the human body with its difficult movements , which is another source of its unique charm. From the rapid transition of hands on the floor to the thrilling rotation in the air or mid-air, each movement explores the infinite possibilities of the body in the rhythm of music, showing the dancer's extraordinary physical fitness and skills.

Hangzhou Asian Games Breakdance Women's Final

China's Liu Qingyi wins gold medal

Furthermore, the benefits of breakdancing to physical and mental health cannot be ignored . On the physical level, continuous explosive power and control training strengthens the leg, core and hip muscles; as a high-intensity aerobic exercise, long-term practice significantly improves cardiopulmonary function and aerobic endurance. On the psychological level, breakdancing encourages the release of personality and creative expression. Dancers express themselves on the stage and inspire unlimited creativity; at the same time, as a sport that involves the whole body and mind, it can also promote the secretion of endogenous hormones, effectively relieve stress and anxiety, and promote mental health.

It is worth mentioning that the well-known movements such as "wiping the glass" and "moonwalk" actually belong to the category of locking and robot dance, not breakdance. This further highlights the diversity and richness within the street dance family.

Selection for the Paris Olympics is inevitable

With its unique entertainment and fitness value, outstanding performance charm, and wide influence among young people, breakdancing naturally attracted the attention of the International Olympic Committee and became a member of the Olympic competitive family. This is an inevitable trend of the times.

First of all, breakdancing perfectly meets the rigid threshold for Olympic selection. According to the Olympic Charter, to be included in the Olympic Games, it must have a recognized international basis and be widely practiced among men in at least 75 countries and 4 continents, and among women in at least 40 countries and 3 continents.

According to valid statistics, there are approximately 1 million breakdance enthusiasts worldwide, spread across more than 100 countries on five continents. This not only fully meets the requirements for "entry into the Olympics" in terms of data, but also fully demonstrates the far-reaching international influence of breakdance.

On the other hand, breakdancing has a mature and fair judging system, which is in line with the Olympic spirit of "higher, faster, stronger, more united". Its judging dimensions cover a wide range of aspects, including skill sophistication, movement diversity, stage performance, music compatibility, creativity and individuality , ensuring the fairness and enjoyment of the competition, and adding a new artistic style to the Olympic stage.

More importantly, breakdancing is precisely aligned with the core concept of the new sports to be added to the 2024 Paris Olympics. As the host country, France is pushing for sports that can spark a social media craze, promote community exchanges, integrate into daily life, and have strong environmental adaptability.

According to statistics, France already has more than 350 breakdance clubs, with millions of members, and most participants are under 30 years old (World DanceSport Federation 2018 Annual Report). This series of data perfectly fits the Paris Olympic Committee's vision of innovation, youth, urbanization and accessibility of the Olympic Games.

As Paris Olympic Committee President Estanguet said, the addition of breakdancing has undoubtedly injected new vitality into the Paris Olympics, making it more in line with the pulse of the younger generation and showing the new era of the Olympic spirit.

How is the breakdancing event scored?

Breakdancing is essentially a scoring event, but compared to other events with strict rule systems, it is highly personalized. For example, the music played randomly by the DJ during the competition, and the dancers need to independently choose the movements and form a competition style based on the music in order to win the approval of the judges on the spot.

Image source: China Sports Daily

How is breakdancing scored?

Adopting the Trivium principle (dial-style scoring), the judges continuously change the specific values ​​of the dial according to the actual situation, and give specific and real-time feedback on the five major standards of the contestants, including the technique, richness of movements, degree of completion, musicality, and originality.

Breakdance Competition

Most of the competitions are conducted in the form of one-on-one duels (Battles), and the competitions are divided into men's and women's groups, with 16 players in each group.

In the preliminary round, the players are divided into 4 groups, each with 4 players, and play a round-robin match. The top two players in each group advance to the quarter-finals. The 8 players who enter the quarter-finals will be matched according to their rankings. The winner of each round advances and the loser is eliminated until the champion is determined.

Each match of the round-robin and knockout rounds consists of 3 rounds. In each round, one contestant performs for 1 minute first, followed by the second contestant's response. This process is repeated 3 times, and the winner is finally determined by the referee team.

Chinese Breakdance Team Olympic List

Women: Liu Qingyi, Zeng Yingying

Man: Qi Xiangyu

On July 11, in Beauvais, a satellite city of Paris

Three Chinese athletes qualified for the Paris Olympics

Qi Xiangyu, Liu Qingyi and Zeng Yingying (from left to right)

Image source: Xinhua News Agency

For these three people, their appearance on the Paris Olympic Games has already made history. We also look forward to this thunderous whirlwind bringing us more surprises!

END

References:

1. "Construction of Breakdance Power Move Action Technology Chain", author Ge Yang, "Nanjing Institute of Physical Education" 2023 No. 1

2. "Birth and Development: Breakdance in Historical Evolution", author Zhang Yayue, "Journal of Shanxi University", 2020

3. "Research on the Special Characteristics of Breakdancing, a New Olympic Project", by Kong Fanming, Zhu Miaomiao, etc., Journal of Beijing Sport University, 2022

Author: Wei Deyong, member of Shenzhen Writers Association, Guangdong

Editor: Dong Xiaoxian