If you need any proof to illustrate how uncool I am, I only just found out that the term ‘breakdancing’ is not a favoured label among the community.
“Breakdancing, which we should henceforth refer to as ‘breaking’, is a dance-based culture that’s part of hip-hop. You might understand it as one of the four elements of hip-hop along with rapping, graffiti and DJing” Rachael Gunn explains.
Rachael’s a breaking gun (I’m sorry fuck) who studied the dance as part of her PhD, so you’d be a wise soul to listen to her during episode 23 of our PEDESTRIAN.TV X Platypus Shoes poddy, Sneak Up.
According to Gunn, breaking “really blew up in the ’80s and that’s when the media called it ‘breakdancing’ – a disregard for the culture and context”.
“‘Breaking’ is a better term to use, but you can also refer to the dance as ‘B-Boying’ or ‘B-Girling’ and the dancers as ‘B-Boys’ and ‘B-Girls.’”
Is everyone up to date? Good.
Despite being around for literal decades, breaking has rudely been shut out of sporting competitions as prestigious as the Olympics – that is, until recently.
In 2019, breaking jumped one more hurdle towards the 2024 Paris Olympics, with a final vote on whether it will officially be included being held in December.
“There’s not a lot of money in breaking, so anyone that has spent a long time breaking is doing it out of love, and for there to potentially be other opportunities to do something as a career in breaking, particularly in Australia, is pretty exciting,” Rachael explains.
Poddy host Jack Colquhoun and Rachael dive headfirst into the world of breaking, discussing the intricacies involved, the gender politics associated with what is curiously a male-skewed community (although Rachael does admit the lines to the bathroom are conveniently short at breaking jams), and, for anyone who’s interested in jumping on board, she even lists a couple of dance studios in Sydney to get you started: Crossover Dance Studios and Dancekool.
As a self-proclaimed Dud™, even I found the episode to be an interesting insight into a world I know very little about.
You can also head to Spotify and Apple to give the rest of our Sneak Up episodes a listen because really, what else are you doing with your life?
