Breaking
Discover how fierce French B-Girl Kami battled her way to the very top and proved it's never too late to start breaking.
If you ask the majority of professional b-girls and b-boys when they started breaking, they'll say not long after they took their first steps. But for French B-Girl Kami, this wasn't the case.
Born and bred in Saint-Quentin in the north of France, Kami loved rap music and emerged herself in hip-hop culture as much as she could. Despite her affinity and attraction to the scene, her chances of making moves towards her destiny seemed unlikely.
"I wanted to break, but in my city there were no breakers. I started from videos alone, but at that time, it was not like now. You had only one or two VHS tapes, and those were more documentaries than actual tutorials," Kami explains. "I tried to take workshops to learn more, but every time it was only popping. So finally I gave in and started to practise that."
Kami's love for breaking was still running deep, but she was convinced it was too late to start and that she'd missed her chance. At age 17 she moved to Paris and started working in a dance company as a popper.
Soon a fellow breaker in her crew (and now her long-time boyfriend) B-Boy Bee D caught her attention. As she watched him and other breakers tear apart the floor in battle, her passion for becoming a b-girl herself rose to a boiling point.
Finally, at 26 years old, Kami decided she couldn't be vexed with regrets her whole life and had to give it a shot.
"Two key moments convinced me," Kami continues. "First was during a French battle called Who is Who. A French b-boy called out the judge K-Mel from Boogie Brats. That moment was so extraordinary. K-Mel did one of the best sets I've ever seen. Second, I was in Sydney for a show. Bee D asked me to go to a breaking workshop with him. It was a three-hour workshop with Poe One, and it was the best workshop of my life. From that point, I realised my love for breaking was too strong to not do it."
After a year of practise, Kami won 13 consecutive battles, including the French B-Girl Championship. "For me, that was a crucial moment because it showed me that everything is possible if you believe and if you put in the effort. It convinced me I had made the right choice to follow my dream," Kami beams.
Off the back of a blistering debut, Kami won Battle of the Year France 2 vs 2 B-Girl Battle, Unbreakable 7 to Smoke and became the first-ever female to win the French Championship BBF. Kami beat her greatest dance inspiration, instructor and boyfriend Bee D in the semi-final of a footwork jam in Bulgaria as well as took the title in the final.
If you want to do something, it's never too late!
"If you want to do something, it's never too late! There are no rules, you just need determination, hard work and love," Kami says.
Fast forward to 2020 and not only is she a fierce opponent, but Kami's become a teacher, choreographer, co-founder of Yeah Yellow and an invited competitor at the Red Bull BC One World Final 2020.
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"I can say that hip-hop changed my life. The culture showed me how to become a better person, and I can't imagine a future without it. Whatever I do, I will always find a way to stay connected to it."
When pressed to sum up her style Kami says: "I don't like to define my style, because when you define something, you give it limits that can close you in a box. I prefer to leave all the doors open and dance free."
Kami might have started decades after her peers. Still, the wisdom she gained from grinding her way to the top, rather than having overnight success, has given her on-point advice for the new-gen. "Be careful with the way you use social media. Don't forget this is a means, not an end. It can be a tool to arrive at your goals, but not the opposite. You can choose to put a video of your training, battle etc. on your social media to promote yourself, but if you go to training with only the purpose to do a video because you need more followers, this is not the same.
"This mindset can become dangerous, and you can lose yourself. Don't forget that nothing is more important than living your real life. So don't practise just to win battles, have a name, the fame, buzz, hype or whatever. Practise sincerely, because it's what you love. And if you can do this, you not only enjoy it but progress a lot more."
When it comes to starting out later than the rest and offering up tips for breakers out there who might be inspired to follow their own dreams after hearing her story, Kami proudly says: "The most important lesson I've learnt is that nothing is impossible. Most of the time, the limits we set ourselves are in our heads. As soon as you go over it and you leave no space for doubts, then the possibilities become endless."
Kami's journey to the top hasn't been painless. "I'm someone who likes to train, to surpass myself, but the line of when training switches to overworking yourself can be thin. It took time for me to understand where that was. Injuries became a source of depression, and it was tough for me. But I soon learnt that injuries are good to open new doors and that the recovery time allowed me to work and progress on things I wouldn't have done otherwise." She pauses before diving deeper: "I think we don't have enough medical specialists who really know and understand breaking.
"Sometimes it's difficult to get the right advice on how to heal quickly. So I've taken it upon myself to look for solutions to prevent injuries. I changed my training rhythm, I adapted my workout and stretching, and I changed my diet. Prevention is critical and should not be neglected. In the end, it's better to find a solution to not get injured in the first place rather than a solution to cure one."
The most important lesson I've learnt is that nothing is impossible
Having watched the b-girl scene evolve from a kid as a fan and now as someone carving out her own legacy that other b-girls look up to, it would be amiss not to ask Kami what her take is on the changes. "The b-girl scene has evolved a lot. There are more and more strong b-girls around the world. We are more and more present in events, whether that's in a crew, a mixed category, cypher or in shows.
"We are witnessing the arrival of a new generation of b-girls who no longer sees breaking as an exclusively male discipline. I remember the beginning when B-Girl battles took place in another room and/or on a different day from the main event… like a side thing, but not anymore."
