Breakdancing is going to be an Olympic sport. Will it give the South Korean scene a hand(stand)?
- Set to feature at the 2024 Paris Games, Korean B-boys and B-girls are hoping the inclusion will revitalise the country’s breakdancing culture
- While the country is ranked No 2 in the world and its crews and stars are renowned overseas, celebrity status at home is harder to come by
Having already been featured at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, the IOC decided that the sport would be added to the main competition alongside skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing in an attempt to connect with younger audiences after the declining viewership of previous Olympic Games. To South Korean crews, however, this isn’t just a chance to win a gold medal, it’s an opportunity for the revitalisation of Korean breakdancing culture.
“B-boys would half-jokingly talk with each other about performing at the Olympics in front of crowds of thousands one day,” says Flex, the leader of the Fusion MC crew, one of the front runners to represent the country in 2024.
Fusion MC – currently ranked the 21st best crew in the world by Bboyrankingz, the community’s leading website – last year became an official arts organisation of the city of Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul. Their dance studio has a meeting room filled with trophies and medals from competitions around the world, including a 2013 win at Battle of the Year, also known as the World Cup of breakdancing.
Many of the younger members, in fact, started breaking after seeing Flex’s amateur dance club performing in the city centre, and Fusion MC’s partnership with Uijeongbu has given the crew a financial backbone at a time when dancers have found it hard to eke out a living due to restrictions on stage performances.
“We are one of the few crews that are lucky enough to have financial support to continue practising in our dance studio for six hours a day, six days per week,” says Flex, who at 32 is the oldest member of the crew.