Breakdancing wins Olympics berth: 'It's become a really big thing'

11:35 am on 8 December 2020

A New Zealand breakdancer who has won world titles says he would jump at the chance to be part of the sport's debut at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Young man break dancing at night on urban painted walls background

Breakdancing is one of the pillars of hip-hop culture. Photo: 123RF

Breakdancing cleared its final hurdle to feature in the Paris 2024 Games today, bringing the wholly original, electric art form to sport's biggest stage.

Considered one of the pillars of hip-hop culture, breaking, as participants prefer to call it, originated in New York in the 1970s and has spread globally, enjoying enormous popularity beyond the United States and particularly across Europe and Asia.

A 2019 Olympic Programme Commission Report estimated there were roughly one million participants in breaking worldwide and the 2019 Red Bull BC One World Final in Mumbai racked up more than 50 million views across streaming platforms including Facebook and YouTube.

Breakdancer David McCavitt goes by the performer name Grub D and is also part of the successful Common Ground breakdancing group. He is keen to represent this country at the Olympics.

He told Morning Report Common Ground is the longest running hip-hop crew in the country that is still winning, it has been competing on the world stage and has won two world titles.

"I'd really love to see our crew get involved in some way. That would be amazing."

"It's pretty crazy what the body can do" - breakdancer David McCavitt 5:21

from Morning Report

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Asked if the sport's admission to the Olympics would bring in a wider audience he replied: "I really hope so because little old New Zealand has got such a great dance community here in all styles really and any more exposure of our underground dance is what it needs to be honest... I'm hoping it can really shed a light and bring some of the new generation in."

McCavitt believes breaking has already moved to a new level worldwide with regular competitions every year. "It's become a really big thing."

He said there is still respect for the sport's origins but the moves have evolved. "It's pretty crazy what the body can do."

While there's plenty of breaking talent in this country, opportunities have been limited partly because international travel is so expensive for the performers, he said.

Competitors have to be well-rounded.

"You've got to be musical, you have to dance on the beat, you have to have some form of originality and you have to have execution which means you don't muck up and then you have to have some form of dynamics."

Dynamics include different foot styles or power moves such as head spins.

'Phenomenal success' predicted

Competitors internationally are also welcoming the International Olympic Committee's decision.

It's expected the "b-boys" and "b-girls", as they are known, will be evaluated not only on technical skill but also creativity and style, with strength, speed, rhythm and agility providing an edge.

"The biggest part is your stage presence and character and your rhythm, whether or not you're really feeling it," said Ronnie Abaldonado, a competitive breaker since 2004 who won the international Red Bull BC One competition in 2007.

"People can hit the moves but if you're not feeling what they're doing then you just kind of look robotic and that's what kind of separates it being a sport to it being an art form."

Richard "Crazy Legs" Colon, one of the pioneers during his upbringing in the Bronx in the 1970s, said he applauded breaking's inclusion in the Olympics but wanted to ensure its cultural core remained intact.

"This is true folk art from the music to the dance, to the DJ to the rapper," said Colon, who appeared in dance films of the 1980s including Beat Street and Flashdance.

"We've already legitimised ourselves so we're not looking to the Olympics for legitimacy."