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Paris Olympics 2024
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Logan Edra, also known as B-Girl Logistx, competes in the Red Bull BC One World Final in New York. Photo: AP

Paris 2024 breakdancing contenders emerge as B-Boys and B-Girls eye Olympic debut

  • Becoming an Olympic sport divided a community but race is on to qualify for the Games by accumulating points in sanctioned competitions
  • Red Bull BC One World Final features Paris wannabes, watched by some of the original B-Boys and B-Girls from the culture’s early days

Breaking is in Victor Montalvo’s blood. He is a descendant of twin breakers – his father and uncle – who were performing in Mexico long before they taught a young Montalvo to spin on his back.

Born in Florida, the 28-year-old who also goes by B-Boy Victor has mastered the foundations of the dance form. He has power. He has the flavour and swagger expected of a diehard B-Boy. His movement syncs with the breakbeat flowing from the DJ’s turntables.

Scribble, chirp, rip, boom, blip.

He hopes to take breaking further than his relatives ever dreamed when the now-global dance art debuts at the Olympics in 2024. “I feel like I have a really high chance,” Montalvo said.
Victor Montalvo, also known as B-Boy Victor, says breaking’s foundations “are like creating a story”. Photo: AP

He is among dozens of B-Boys and B-Girls – a term for a male or female entrenched in the culture of hip hop – charting a path to the Games in Paris. The International Olympic Committee announced two years ago breaking would become an official Olympic sport – dividing the community between those excited for the larger platform and those concerned about the art form’s purity.

But after the Red Bull BC One World Final, held earlier this month in the birthplace of hip hop and a short distance from the streets where black and Puerto Rican New Yorkers pioneered breaking, the field of Olympic competitors is starting to take shape. The event also attracted some of the original B-Boys and B-Girls, as the community prepares to celebrate 50 years since the culture’s founding in 1973.

“You never thought that something you were doing for fun was going to go around the world,” said Douglas “Dancin’ Doug” Colón, a B-Boy of the first generation of breakers from Harlem who beamed with pride over the dance form’s acceptance into the Olympics.

Along with Colón, first-generation B-Boy Trixie sat near a circular stage in the centre of Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom. One by one, World Final competitors from Canada, China, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Venezuela took to the battle stage. The energy drink company runs the world’s largest breaking competition.

The originals offered blessings to their descendants by giving them dap – a friendly gesture of greeting that communicates solidarity and well wishes. Joe Conzo Jnr, a photographer known in the community as “Joey Snapz”, who documented hip hop in the Bronx from its infancy, also sat stageside taking pictures of the Olympic hopefuls.

“Nothing’s going to change the culture, the culture stays the same,” Colón said. “Even though it’s now an Olympic sport, people back in the hood will still be doing their thing.”

Japan’s breakers show Hong Kong Bboys and Bgirls road map to Paris Olympics

Victor Alicea, a World Final judge, said judging had always been very subjective. That will not be the case at the Paris Olympics, where officials will use a new system to decide which B-Boy or B-Girl bested their opponent.

Trivium, created for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, is a digital scoring platform that allows judges to react in real time to breakers’ physical, artistic and interpretative qualities. Five judges score breakers on creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality.

Scores can be lowered if a breaker “bites”, or copies, a set of moves from their opponent. Misbehaviour, such as deliberate physical contact with an opponent, and other unsportsmanlike conduct, can also lower a breaker’s score.

“I look for someone that takes over the floor. It’s a battle. It’s not just ‘you dance and then I dance’. You’ve got to bring it,” said Alicea, also known as B-Boy Kid Glyde.

Montalvo, who was ranked the world’s top B-Boy after a world championship competition in Paris last December, said his path to the Olympics would require intense training.

It will also require more winning performances at competitions sanctioned by the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF). Those events score points to qualify for the Paris Games, where 16 B-Boys and 16 B-Girls will compete outdoors at the iconic Place de la Concorde.

Paris 2024 breaking contenders

B-Boy Victor

What sets Montalvo apart from other B-Boys, he said, is his command of judge-favoured foundations of breaking: “toprock” moves, footwork, “downrock” moves done closer to the floor, “power” moves showing acrobatics and strength, along with the classic “headspins”, “windmills” and “freeze” poses.

Yuki Minatozaki, or B-Boy Yu-Ki, has been breaking since he was five years old. Photo: AP

“I feel like the foundations are the most important thing,” he said. “I see a lot of dancers doing big moves, but then they don’t have those small details. They don’t know how to get out of those big moves. It’s important to create a story, and the foundations are like creating a story.”

B-Boy Yu-Ki

During a quarter-final against Japan’s Yuki Minatozaki, Montalvo transitioned from a windmill into a downrock move in which his legs moved back and forth so quickly that they looked like turning double Dutch ropes. Minatozaki responded with a smirk, half-hearted applause and sarcastic thumbs up – all in the spirit of good sportsmanship – before exploding into a headspin and showcasing energetic standing footwork.

“It feels great that the sport now has a lot more eyeballs on it,” Minatozaki, who goes by B-Boy Yu-Ki, said. The 23-year-old has been breaking since the age of five. He intends to seek a spot in the Paris Games, he said.

Minatozaki lost against Montalvo, who went on to the final to defeat Lee-Lou Demierre of the Netherlands, another likely Olympic contender. That victory did not earn Montalvo points toward qualifying for Paris.

B-Girl India

India Sardjoe, a 16-year-old from the Netherlands, won the World Final B-Girl title. She said she planned to focus next on competing in crew battles – teams of breakers competing against one another for group titles and bragging rights, reminiscent of breaking’s roots in the Bronx.

India Sardjoe, also known as B-Girl India, won the World Final B-Girl title. Photo: AP

Sardjoe had just won the top honour at the European Breaking Championships, a WDSF event held in England earlier this month.

B-Girl Logistx

Sardjoe defeated 19-year-old Logan Edra, also known as B-girl Logistx, who won last year’s World Final in Poland. Hailing from San Diego, Edra began breaking aged eight, after first training in ballet and jazz. Her father nudged her into hip hop lessons.

Edra said she would compete in WDSF events over the next year or so for a spot in the Olympics. Last Saturday, she competed in the Breaking for Gold Challenge Series in Tokyo and took home a silver medal behind Lithuania’s Dominika Banevič, known as B-Girl Nicka.

“I’m competing against the best of the best,” Edra said. “Because I have such a high standard for myself, I try to out-train everybody. The training is crazy – I’ve got bruises on my elbows and my knees from practising moves over and over. It’s a lot of commitment because we don’t have as many resources as other sports do.”

B-Girl Isis

Isis Alexandra Granda Chalen, a B-Girl who grew up in Ecuador before moving to the US, started young in ballet, folk and contemporary dance. But breaking spoke to her rebellious nature.

“The moment I understood that I have more responsibility for myself, I put more work into breaking and I got the opportunities to be here,” Chalen, 27, said.

Sunny Choi, B-Girl Sunny, is aiming for a spot on the US team. Photo: AP

“Now we’re going to do this transition from artists to athletes,” she said of her Olympic dreams. “It’s a big opportunity for every country. I came from Latin America, where there aren’t as many opportunities. But the Olympics are for everybody.”

B-Girl Sunny

Sunny Choi, a New York-based B-Girl who won the Cypher USA in September, said there was an accessibility to the art and sport of breaking that would make it a huge draw in 2024. She hopes to earn a spot on the US team.

“We have a lot of diversity in breaking, which is really beautiful about what we do, because there aren’t many financial barriers to entry,” Choi said. “If you have a clean floor and, nowadays, access to YouTube or something where you can learn, and some music, you can just do this on your own.”

She said her nascent Olympic journey had required personal and professional sacrifices that initially had her questioning if she wanted to compete.

“I’m one of those all-or-nothing people,” Choi said. “I’ve done a lot of soul-searching to remove some of the mental blocks. I feel like this journey is going to pull out a lot from me and I just need to be ready for that.”

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