Breaking
Breaking
The culture of breaking: Why context is paramount and variance is king
Take a closer look at what the culture of breaking is from the words of breakers themselves including B-Boy Neguin, B-Boy Hijack, B-Boy Hong 10 and more.
In the world of sports, fair competition usually happens when there is a set of common rules. Everyone trains and practices according to those rules, then they come together to compete, all aiming for the same result.
But in the world of breaking, where scoring is commonly based on characteristics like technique/variety, performance/musicality, and creativity/personality, the main rule is to be different. Distinct. A common culture that aims for an uncommon result.
Difference can be individual, but there are cultural differences that also very much guide the way people see things: context is everything, and it is context that shapes the reality of the observer. Environment shapes individual truth, and there are as many truths as there are grains of sand.
Breaking very much lives in this relative space, where multiple truths preside, and where there is perhaps no wrong or right— only perspective, motivation, and diverse priorities.
Kate and Hijack at Red Bull BC One National Final in Philadelphia
© Carlo Cruz / Red Bull Content Pool
“The U.S. is the birthplace of this dance,” says American B-Boy Hijack. “But there’s something about the outside international cats that just—it remains almost in a sense more true. They're more about like the footwork and the power and stuff, and really creating their own, as Poe One would say, creating their own fingerprint within this dance.”
“I'm fortunate enough to travel all over the world,” says B-Boy Neguin from Brazil. “And what I can see and observe and learn is that every country has their own way towards the culture.
“Some countries have more passion, some countries are more determined to win competitions, some countries, they're more into the philosophical aspects of it— and that's a beautiful thing about culture.”
In a way, perhaps the tradition of breaking is actually to be non-traditional. Perhaps being true to the artistic sport is in fact a question of adapting it to one’s own context.
B-Boy Neguin during Red Bull BC One Camp in Sao Paulo, Brazil
© Marcelo Maragni / Red Bull Content Pool
“In Brazil we receive breaking straight from the U.S., you know?” says Ill-abilities B-Boy Perninha. “I cannot say we have the same vision, but we have a similar way of seeing breaking and hip-hop.
“But in Europe, they look at breaking in a different way than America. They look at it like, ‘yo we need to take a break and do this.’ Whereas we do it to change mindsets, to change lives, you know. We have a lot of things behind it.”
Hijack says, “A lot of our friends who are in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, they all do like theater performances with their dance— you know, [what] I’m sure the sports side doesn’t really look for. There's not much of a big sport side in that sense, because they can be artists and be supported as artists.”
And Asia? Does their mindset diverge from the North American one?
Hijack thinks, “Yeah, I definitely say yes. Like Singapore, Japan, China, as opposed to being in Europe, like Amsterdam, Denmark, Italy. I've really liked that they remain true to the style part of it. The “not about what you do, but how you do it” kind of mindset.”
B-Boy Perninha with team Latin America at the Red Bull BC One Camp USA
© Little Shao / Red Bull Content Pool
“I was in Asia for my first time in 2019,” says Perninha. “I was in Shibuya and we were with some dancers and they had a b-boy there in that festival. His name is Moriko and he's blind. And man, I have been traveling the world for so many years and I have seen a lot of people with disabilities and like pushing themselves to keep growing up the level of breaking. But this guy— when I saw him, I was like ‘What???’ He’s blind and he does a lot of power moves. He does a lot of things, and I think obviously because he has a lot of fire inside. But I think that the Asian and Japanese culture can make him this way.”
“A difference between Asia and Latino America,” he continues, “I think that in Latino America, we are more like—I cannot say chillin’, but more fresh in a different way. We can like, take bad things and smile, for example.”
Ironically, he says this smiling, and I get the point more through feeling than through cognition.
B-Boy Hong 10 from Korea says about Korean motivation, “Compared to European and American breaking, I personally think that the European or the American breakers enjoy dancing, whereas Korean dancers put their effort into winning the game. Or to excel or be good at the competition, to beat the competition.
B-boy Hong 10 at the Red Bull BC One All Stars Paris take-over in Paris
© Dean Treml / Red Bull Content Pool
“In the past we had more of a tendency to focus on the consequences or results,” he adds. “But now we are kind of changing, and enjoying dancing more.”
An interesting statement, as it would seem to illustrate the influence that one culture can have on another.
“I think, first of all, geography really influences how people dance and perceive dance,” says Kristián Mensa, a b-boy better known as Mr. Kriss. “Europe is culturally and geographically so diverse, and you have so many small countries that have different languages, different architecture, different even, you know, like natures.
“And different people, too. Even I feel it. I can drive two hours and I'm in Germany and I'm in a completely different place.”
Neguin brings attention to the fact that with different geography also comes different climate challenges.
“You can see like kids from Kazakhstan— that’s in a type of environment where it’s like, wow, it's cold and dark out there. And they're so creative you know because that's their own approach to breaking. It's like, ‘Okay, well I cannot go outside, so I'm gonna stay in the house, and be creative and dancing.’ You know?”
Many different environments, many different challenges, many different solutions, many different adaptations. But in the end we will all meet at the cypher and we will acknowledge that we’re different because that’s the name of the game. The uncommon result that defines the common culture. It is here that our influence on each other begins.
“I don't think I would be who I am today, if it wasn't for breaking,” says Canadian Ill-Abilities B-Boy Luca “Lazylegz” Patuelli. “Because breaking to me goes beyond just the dance. It really relates to life in general, like what I've experienced and the idea of constant adaptation. It's something that I've taken on with me, my whole life in general; I've always had to adapt in my situation. But the beauty about breaking is that it allowed for it.
“If there's any message that I could give for breaking or the future of breaking, it’s to keep this beauty that we have of being open and accepting of all different types of people because we all learn off of each other.”
To which an introspective Mr. Kriss adds, “I think sometimes even, I have to remind myself that it's important to be open to change and to new inspiration.
“And I think then— beautiful things happen.”
