Q&A: What’s the Deal With That Australian Breakdancer?

Breaking is not on the schedule for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. It was always intended as a “novelty” to appeal to younger audiences, according to USA Today. But despite its origins in hip-hop culture and its place of prominence in the Olympics, breaking remains unfamiliar to many.

UVA Today talked to University of Virginia pop culture expert Jack Hamilton, an associate professor of media studies, to learn how breaking became an Olympic sport and what influence it has on popular culture today.

Q. How did breaking emerge?

A. The standard history is that it comes out of the South Bronx in the ’70s. It’s the same moment that hip-hop music is emerging. There are four elements of hip-hop in the classic view of hip-hop culture. One of them is emceeing or rapping. The second is DJing. The third is breaking, and the fourth is graffiti. These were very important to hip-hop when it was in its subcultural phrase in the South Bronx in the ’70s. Breaking continued to be very common and popular into the ’80s.

Q. Those four elements of hip-hop culture continue to be prominent in popular culture today. Why do you think breaking is less mainstream?

A. To some degree, it is mainstream. The way a lot of people dance today is influenced by breaking. If you’re dancing at a wedding and people form a circle and someone dances in the middle of the circle, that’s derived from breaking. Moves like The Worm or The Robot come from breaking. … But musical aspects of hip-hop travel more readily than other art forms, particularly dance.

 

 

 

 

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Q. Was breaking always competitive?

A. It’s always had a competitive tinge. There wasn’t scoring, but it was certainly competitive. You would have these breaking crews who would square off with each other. They would try to outdo each other in these acrobatic feats.

Q. Why was it included in this year’s Games?

A. Breaking is intensely athletic and acrobatic. If you watch a great breakdancer, you’re going to see them do stuff with their body that you didn’t think was possible. I don’t think anyone was complaining that breakdancing wasn’t in the Olympics … but it’s kind of like the Oscars, where it’s an event put together by a bunch of people who are old and uncool and desperately trying to get the coveted viewership of younger, cooler people. 

Q. Do you think their bid for young people’s attention worked?

A. If the Olympics operate on the belief that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, then yeah, it totally worked. If there are millions of people watching those clips, making fun of them, making memes out of them, that still brings visibility to the Games. Media companies are very aware that viral moments are incredibly valuable, whether those things are going viral because it’s Simone Biles doing these incredible feats of gymnastics or if it’s someone like Raygun.

Q. Do you think that this has changed the public perception of breaking?

A. I grew up in the ’80s, and I can’t really remember a time when I didn’t know what breakdancing was. But if you’re younger, or if you’re older than me, you may not have any real familiarity with it. For some people, it was an introduction. I think most of us thought, “Huh, breakdancing is in the Olympics.”

Q. Has this changed public perception of the Olympics?

A. I don’t think so. There are always things to make fun of in the Olympics. Any big event that’s so over the top, something goofy happens and gets turned into a meme.