Breaking
Breaking
Briana Pritchard: The Alaska B-Girl Balancing Breaking and Military Service
When she isn’t working as a helicopter mechanic deployed to Iraq, the only professional B-Girl from Alaska is focused squarely on her Olympic dreams.
Striking a balance between a career in the military and a passion for breaking isn’t easy. As a B-Girl from Alaska, Briana Pritchard (aka Snap-1) has heard it all. “People will immediately say ‘Yeah, but is she good at her job?’ Or ‘Is she wasting her time spinning on her head?’ Or whatever it is they think breaking is,” she laughs during a phone interview earlier this month. “I’m accomplishing my dreams with breaking and, on top of that, I’m highly successful at my job [as a Staff Sergeant in the Alaskan National Guard]. I’m here to prove that it’s completely possible to do both.”
Breakdancing and Alaska don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, either. Most people associate the dance element of hip-hop with an urban center like New York City, where it originated. But for Pritchard, the potential drawbacks of her icy and remote home state were no match for an urge to study the craft. She first got into breaking when she was 17 (toward the end of 2009), even though there wasn’t a whole lot of hip-hop culture accessible for a teenager growing up in Anchorage, Alaska. It was through her father, Todd McMillen, and his history with dance that Pritchard got into breaking, and became so taken with the artform that she quit softball and hockey to pursue it full-time.
“I’ve always known about breaking because my dad did it in high school in the ’80s,” she remembers. “He mainly did it because it was the fad at the time.[He] wasn’t that serious [about dance] because he was a very avid hockey player, and [was] trying to go professional with that. Then, he had a skiing accident that ended that dream. But because of him, I grew up very athletically-oriented and always thought breaking was pretty cool. My dad also instilled in me my work ethic, my drive and dedication, not just in athleticism, but anything I do.”
Intrigued after hearing her father’s stories, Pritchard began to practice in her garage, watch Youtube tutorials, and finally ventured out to local rec centers to meet other breakers. Through these local hubs she got connected with the Alaskan crew, ERO (Elements Of Rice, later changed to Express Original Rhythm), and began to take breaking more seriously. Pritchard began to travel out of state a few years later, battling in Seattle and meeting B-Girl Bean and B-Boy Pele around 2011/2012, and they not introduced her to the world of hip-hop as a whole but began helping her train.
Snap1 at BC One Camp 2019
© Little Shao / Red Bull Content Pool
“The hip-hop community in Alaska has always been relatively small,” Pritchard explains. “Not a whole lot of DJs, not a whole lot of graffiti artists, MCs and breakers. Which is why I so eagerly wanted to travel, because we don’t really have it. Through traveling I became addicted to the culture and everything that I didn’t have in Alaska—all the elements of hip-hop, more competition, higher skill levels, the culture itself, and meeting people from all over the country and the world. It was very exciting to me, and I began expanding my network to get to know the worldwide breaking community.”
As Pritchard’s skill level and knowledge as a B-Girl was rising, her life outside of breaking went through a massive shift as well. Now an Olympic hopeful for the upcoming 2024 games, where breaking has been added as a sport for the first time, Pritchard is eager to represent her country at the highest level of competition.Though, she’s also been serving the American people in another way for the last decade. Pritchard is an Army Staff Sergeant in the Alaska National Guard. She’s been working as a Black Hawk helicopter mechanic since 2011, and is currently on deployment in Iraq, where it’s trickier than ever to practice her dance. Though she considers every member of her formative crew ERO as lifelong friends, now Pritchard is a member of the all-female crew, Flooristas, and balances her time serving in Iraq with practicing breaking in her free time.
“It has had its challenges,” she explains. “My biggest goal in life is to be an Olympian, but it’s not for my own fame. Really the biggest reason I want to be an Olympian is because I want to be the USA people’s champion. I want to show them that you can have a career as demanding as the military, but you can also still have a passion. And you can be good at both. That you can be an all-star athlete as a breaker, and also be successful at your job.”
Snap1 Battling
© Little Shao / Red Bull Content Pool
With the support of her commanding officers, Pritchard has been able to pursue her love for breaking by participating in online breaking competitions like the Red Bull BC One e-battle. She placed fourth in the USA Red Bull BC One National Finals in 2019, and has fared well in other Olympic qualifier competitions. She recently didn’t fare as well in the 2021 Red Bull BC One e-battle, but reminds herself during times of that winning isn’t the only indication of success and skill.
“For this current Red Bull e-battle I was limited on what I was able to execute,” Pritchard says. “I just found out I didn’t make it past the top sixteen. But that’s ok, it’s like I’ve always said, just because you lose it doesn’t mean that you’re not dope and you’re not talented. I’ve had to beat that into my head multiple times. I’m also kind of at a disadvantage over here because I legit don’t have an actual dance floor. I’m limited to rubber weightlifting mats, or a metal pallet that really screwed up my back in a small room, or trying to dance on top of wood covered with tarp. I’m counting my blessings that I still have space to practice what I can.”
Snap1 in Action
© Little Shao / Red Bull Content Pool
So for now, Pritchard will be practicing in the limited ways she can while stationed in Iraq, and will continue waiting, along with the breaking community in America, for the decision as to who the national governing body for breaking will be. That organization will then decide what the path to qualifying for the Olympic team will be, and Pritchard will hopefully be able to leave her post in the Middle East to go participate in those events to pursue her lifelong dream of representing America, not just as a member of the military, but as an Olympian.
“In all reality I would love nothing more than to just be a part of that Olympic team,” she says. “That would be a dream come true. I want to be a part of the fact that breaking is in the Olympics. My dad and I used to watch the movie ‘Miracle’ about the 1980s hockey team. The impact that an athlete can have on a nation by being part of an Olympic team really touched both of our hearts. That’s been my goal ever since, I felt like it would be the highest honor to be part of that.”
