Breaking
Breaking as an art or a sport: a coin on its edge
Is breaking an art or a sport? Can it be both? These are controversial questions within the scene. We asked 10 elite breakers to toss their opinions into the ring – read on and join the debate.
With breaking’s expanding visibility and popularity over the last several years comes the growing debate as to whether breaking is an art or a sport, especially given the prevalent recurring theme of competition, which has been an integral part of the culture almost from its very beginnings.
The debate itself with respect to dance in general isn't new. Competition in dance has been a point of contention in ballet and contemporary dance for as long as I can remember; in the ’80s there were two very strong opposing camps concerning dance competitions like the International Ballet Competition (IBC), often informally referred to as the 'Olympics of Ballet'. Today, in a world where dance competitions are more popular than ever (in large part due to reality TV), opposing opinions are still around, and the question has still not been resolved.
It's clear that the competitive aspect attracts people and to completely separate the element of sport from breaking is a bit like trying to separate eggs from an omelette. Canadian b-boy, Luca 'Lazylegz' Patuelli, the founder of Ill-Abilities Crew, an international team of high-level physically disabled breakers, says, “there's always been athletics to this dance. It's an art form because it allows for the individual creation of movements. But it becomes a sport because you need to be physically active and you need to have a regimen to be able to perform those movements.”
B-Boy Perninha at Red Bull BC One Cypher Brazil in Sao Paulo, Brazil
© Fabio Piva/Red Bull Content Pool
Lucas Ferreira Machado (aka B-Boy Perninha) from Brazil, is a member of Lazylegz Ill-Abilities crew. “For many years, I considered myself an athlete, honestly,” he says, “but after doing more things with Ill-Abilities, I started to change my mindset.”
When asked if he’s an artist or an athlete, B-Boy Kareem from the USA, says, “It changes. I would say more of an athlete at the moment. But I mean, how do you define a human being? All human beings have a different shape and size and height and colour, right? So with breaking, you can't really say you’re an athlete or an artist. You just are a breaker. It's deeper than just being an artist or athlete.” This being said, he still adds, “I would say I'm an artist that trains like an athlete.”
I would say I'm an artist that trains like an athlete
B-Girl Isis from Ecuador, feels like she’s “an artist that's being forced by society to be an athlete.” But she feels strongly that it’s always going to be an art form. “You have to be an athlete If you want to reach certain goals, but I think almost every b-boy, every b-girl – we are artists.”
“Well, it's a dance and dance is art and dance is culture, so it's tied to something more than just itself,” says Asia One. “It's definitely an art form because it's subjective.”
Asia One crowned B-Girl Sunny as the winner of Red Bull BC One Cypher USA
© Carlo Cruz/Red Bull Content Pool
There's a general consensus (to no surprise) that athleticism and artistry are both identifying characteristics of breaking. But as breaking becomes more popularised as a sport through highly visible events like Red Bull BC One and the Paris 2024 Games, does the artistic side of breaking risk being taken over by the competitive sport element?
In the '60s and '70s, the scoring for rhythmic gymnastics was heavily based on the artistic side of the discipline, much more so than the difficulty level of its athletic components. Today, that's no longer the case. So it's only natural to wonder what'll happen to breaking as it becomes presented as a sport before an audience of 'civilians.' Will this threaten the existence of breaking as an art form?
“I think yeah, a little bit,” says Isis.
“Some people have a certain energy and you just feel it,” says B-Girl Kate. “There's just a feeling. And how can you judge that? You can't. Trying to bring everything to ‘if you do this it’s good; if you do this it's bad…’ I don't think it's gonna work with breaking like this.”
B-Girl Kate poses for a photo at Red Bull BC One World Final New York 2022
© Kien Quan / Red Bull Content Pool
Lazylegz, however, doesn’t think a threat necessarily exists. “When you're competing at a high level, a battle is a conversation, right? The way that these competitions are formed… you still have these two dancers that are going at it and they're communicating with each other. And part of the art form is that communication.
“Where if we are focusing just on the athletic… then this dancer's going to be required to hit X amount of airflares at this angle, and this one will have to do the same thing and repeat this one, but make it better. But the reality is that this dancer could focus just on tricks and movement, and this one can focus just on foundation, flow, and style – and both of them have equal weight.”
While it's true that compulsory technical elements are a key score-influencing characteristic of competitive sports, if we consider a competitive sport like figure skating, competitors with no artistic qualities at all would have a difficult time winning in any major competition.
“The threat exists to some degree,” says South Korean B-Boy Hong 10. “The trend of breaking is going more towards competition and it's just the natural evolution of breaking. We need to adapt. But I think the artistic aspect, the essence of the art, will remain.”
Inspiring breaking stories
Kriss before the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final in Paris, France
© Little Shao / Red Bull Content Pool
“For me it's, as they say, the Golden Middle Road,” says the Czech Republic B-Boy Mr. Kriss. “For me, there has to be both [art and sport] in order to be complete, because I've seen b-boys who are purely athletic, and it just doesn't give me any sparkle and any excitement. It's too robotic, too boring. And at the same time, I’ve seen b-boys who think only of the artistic expression, which means that their lifestyle is also one big improvisation.”
Hong 10 feels that “for sure, there is a conflict between the essence of sport and the essence of art, but the essence of art overrides the essence of sport because dancers dance in their own way and express their own creativity and their own movement.”
B-Boy Hong 10 at Red Bull BC One Kazakhstan in Almaty
© Victor Magdeyev / Red Bull Content Pool
For Neguin, “First and foremost I'm an artist, because you know, it comes from this [he points to his head]. Before my body reacts to something or actually does any type of movement, it comes from this creation right here. So, in order for you to do that, you need to have a creative mind. And when you create, you're an artist.”
The essence of art overrides the essence of sport
“It's a competitive and combative situation,” says Asia One. “That’s kind of the way people can level up; it’s why I believe the dance has obviously stayed around so long. It challenges us; sports challenge you, sports test you, and that aspect of the competitive part of breaking challenges us and pushes us to try harder and learn more and do more with it.”
Similarly, B-Boy Hijck sees the sport side as an advantage to creativity. “If I treat my body as an athlete, then it'll only help the artist mindset create more and be able to reach higher levels, because my body then is prepped to be able to move creatively.”
Perhaps only time will tell in what direction things will ultimately go. But one thing that seems fairly certain is that competition in breaking isn't going away anytime soon. And with the discipline gaining a wider audience outside of the dance community, it might be inevitable that the sportive aspect takes the limelight.
“Of course the highlight goes a lot to competition,” says Neguin, “because that's what society has been putting out there since the beginning of time. People love the act of competing and proving who's the best or who's the loser. But the art form is such a beautiful thing that it's gonna be everywhere. So it doesn't matter what the highlight is.”
Isis showcases her skills at the Red Bull BC One Last Chance Cypher
© Little Shao/Red Bull Content Pool
And despite her strong artistic penchant and an uncompromising insistence that she's an artist above all else, B-Girl Isis also doesn’t have a problem with the competition side of breaking. “People have been competing since forever in breaking. It’s okay, competing.”
“I think a little bit of competition, even in us, is quite nice,” says Mr. Kriss. “And maybe important to try, because… most of [my] battles weren’t, and it’s a cliché of course, weren’t really battles with the opponent, but were kind of battles with myself. Many battles I lost because I lost with myself.”
It’s not a lone sentiment. Lazylegz also says that when he was very active and competing at a high level, what really drove him was that challenge of trying to always one-up himself.
“It was always about: ‘how can I do better this night, how can I do better that night?’ If I spin three times on my hands, how can I make it three and a half?
“I'd describe myself as a guy who's always going to try to figure it out and make things work, whatever the circumstances. When I truly believe and want something, I make it happen.”
Lazylegz holding a freeze with one crutch
© Jasper
Determination for sure – a common characteristic that I sense from everyone who's been in this game for as long as these dancers have. And an attribute that brings to mind something that both Lazylegz and Perninha referred to during their interviews.
“The message that Ill-Abilities shares is ‘No excuses; no limits’,” Perninha reminds us. “And I think breaking’s about that.”
Maybe this is the more important focus: that just as some rules are made to be broken, some limits are simply there to give us a reason to render them obsolete. And whether those limits are artistic or athletic, the point of it all may be to simply understand the limits and acknowledge them.
And once we’ve recognised those limits, and once we’ve decided where our own paths lie with respect to them – from what we’ve heard so far, it would seem that the most important takeaway is less about how we supersede those limits, but more about making sure that we continue to meet each other on the other side. To continue the “conversation,” as Lazylegz puts it, regardless of which side of the coin we started from.
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