Breaking gives back to the community in Buenos Aires 10/10/2018

Photos: 305kidjet

On paper, 9 October was supposed to be a day off between competition days – 24 hours where the athletes, judges and the rest of the Breaking crew could put their feet up and recuperate a little after a gruelling but highly successful two days of battles at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games. In reality, the day was arguably the busiest one yet for the WDSF team.

In keeping with Breaking’s tradition of giving back to the community, judges AT, Mounir and Moy provided workshops and educational sessions in different parts of the Argentinian capital.

Judge Mounir gave a motivational speech to athletes at the Youth Olympic Village on awakening their mental potential to release their athletic and technical potential.The French b-boy shared his many years of experience on the scene and held a Q&A session.

A member of the famous Vagabond Crew, Mounir has won many major titles at the world’s biggest competitions. He recently toured the world with his Hard Work Easy Everything workshop, teaching young people about dance and how to improve their mental and social skills for a better life. Who better than Mounir, then, to deliver an inspiring speech to the athletes competing in Buenos Aires?

“It is our responsibility to give back to the community and to share with the new generation," Mounir said. "We came to the Youth Olympics for the very first time not only to compete but to inspire people!”

While Mounir was at the Village, AT and Moy were across the city at a community centre providing a free breaking workshop of their own for local youth (Mounir later joined them).

The workshop lasted five hours in total and was attended by some 240 people. B-girl AT got things underway with a workshop that touched on the importance of confidence and losing yourself in the music to spark the magic in dance. Within minutes of starting her workshop she had the entire crowd on its feet and practising their moves. Moy and Mounir followed with motivational sessions that had the enthusiastic crowd calling out for more.

Earlier in the day, AT and Moy – who are also doubling as Athlete Role Models in Buenos Aires – appeared on the Olympic Channel’s talk show #YOGdaily. The two sat down with presenter Ashlee Tulloch to discuss everything from their personal inspirations to the level of ability of the 12 b-boys and 12 b-girls taking part in the Games.

Asked what he was looking for when judging the 1vs1 Breaking final the day earlier, Moy explained: “Personally for me, what’s important for a dancer is to distribute the overall understanding of the dance, having a well-developed style, a solidified round, which is kind of your solo, executing those movements, and attacking the music.

“I think for the most part people see Breaking as a specialty dance, kind of like a circus act, but it’s a dance. You have to connect with the music first. So we want to see dancers that are connecting with the music, having an understanding for the dance, but also throwing in their own difficulty and creativity and executing that.”

Some of the dancers who did just that joined AT and Moy on the programme. They included b-girls Ram (JPN, gold medallist), Emma (CAN, silver medallist), Yell (KOR, bronze medallist) and b-boy Shigekix (JPN, bronze medallist), while a posse of other Olympic breakers put on an impromptu demonstration on the broadcast studio’s balcony in the Athlete’s Village. You can watch the 20-minute segment here.

Following the talk show, the b-boys and b-girls headed to the practice area to put some routines together ahead of the mixed-gender 2vs2 battles on 10 October. The preliminaries will be broadcast live on www.breakingforgold.com and the Olympic Channel, as will the knock-out stage and finals on 11 October.

The mixed-team seeding is based on the 1vs1 ranking of the b-girls and b-boys, where the b-boys from rank 1 to 12 have been paired with the b-girls from rank 12 to 1.