Breaking will debut at the 2024 Olympics as a medal sport, and here’s why India needs to pay attention

From emerging in the streets as an outlet for self-expression to being recognised as an Olympic sport, breaking is an evolving sub-culture in India that deserves attention

B-Boy Wildchild, aka 24-year-old Eshwar Tiwari, remembered how he was approached by an elderly gentleman in the park a few years ago, where he was practising his breaking moves. “He asked me if I had dropped my money and was therefore looking for it on the ground. When I told him that I was ‘breaking,’ he had no clue what that was!” laughs Tiwari. In fact, ‘breaking’–or its better-known erstwhile nomenclature of ‘break-dancing’–still remains on the fringes of popular cultures, despite it being recognised as an Olympic sport now. However, the last decade has seen this athletic mix of urban dance moves gain ground in India, buoyed by the rise of B-Boys and B-Girls. Tiwari and a few others hope to represent India in the 2024 Olympic Games, where breaking will debut as a medal event. But the road to Paris, where the Games will be held, has not always been rosy.

“Breaking” into the scene

Breaking started as a subculture in the streets of Bronx, New York, in the 1970s and ’80s where teens broke into power-packed moves as they jammed to hip-hop tracks. This slowly but surely pervaded popular culture that led to many partaking in it and by the 2000s, “battles” soon became competitions, with the Red Bull BC One being one of the biggest. Videos of these battles soon reached Indian shores, too.

In fact, popular Indian B-Boy Flying Machine or Arif Chaudhary, 24, credits his initiation into breaking to a video from this competition that he watched. “I was mind-blown by the moves of some of these B-Boys and since I was always into superhero movies and video games, I likened their moves to my heroes. Very soon, I wanted to be one of them,” Chaudhary, who later earned the moniker ‘Flying Machine’ for his flips, explains. His initiation happened in 2009 during his summer break from school that gave Chaudhary plenty of time to research the moves at cyber cafes and practise at parks near his house with music playing from his mobile phone.

Meanwhile, bunking school while he was in the seventh grade introduced Tiwari to breaking when he caught B-Boy Ninja doing flips on Juhu Beach in 2010. “B-Boy Ninja is one of the first ones to pursue breaking in India and watching him that day made me very curious about those moves,” recalled Tiwari. Encouraged by his mother, he went on to explain to his conservative family how different breaking was from ‘dancing’ so that he could take it up seriously, especially when he realised that that was where his true calling lay.

Twenty-eight-year-old Mugdha Mangaonkar was introduced to breaking during her college festival in 2013. “Though there were no girls in that event, my friend who organised it helped me learn some of the moves. Wildchild, Sonic and my crew also helped me learn a lot and later I came to know that there were a few other girls who were also part of the scene,” said Mangaonkar, who became one of the first few B-Girls to become competition-ready in the local circuit by 2016. She took up the moniker of ‘B-Girl MGK’ as a shorter version of her last name.

In the meantime, Siddhi Tambe aka B-Girl Bar-B’s introduction to breaking happened through her dance-loving mother when she was enrolled by her in Bollywood dancing classes at the age of 10, but she happened to watch a group of boys perform breaking. “I used to copy their steps and did my first battle when I was quite young,” shares the now-18-year-old Tambe. Since then, Tambe has also participated in reality dance competitions and national-level ones, as she balances her college with breaking.

A culture of expression and an athlete’s mindset

Chaudhary is introverted by nature but B-Boy Flying Machine is known for his confidence as he does his gravity-defying moves and it is this form of expression that he holds close to his heart. “Breaking is my comfort zone and I felt like I connected with something deep inside me–it was second nature to me,” explains Chaudhary.

Tambe has a similar story. “As Siddhi, I am a very under-confident person but as Bar-B, I am very different. I always loved dancing but wanted to do something very different that would give me power. Breaking makes me feel very powerful,” she explains. Since taking up her course in Bachelors of Science, balancing breaking with her studies has become difficult for her as she recounted how she had exams during a recent competition. “Since I have chosen this stream, I intend to balance both,” she says. Tambe now trains a minimum of three hours every day in the studio and studies for at least an hour daily–and more during her exams.

In fact, three-four hours of daily practice on an average, travelling long distances to train with crews, learning what sets are, polishing stunts and being creative with freestyle moves are just a few of the things that a B-Boy or B-G needs to do. Breaking, like any other sport, requires gruelling training and an athlete’s mindset. For example, Tiwari recounts how he had to get on a more streamlined regime after he put on some weight during a moment of personal crisis that saw him lose his father and grandfather in quick succession. While most breakers start out in India with a crew, they eventually venture out solo, which often requires more training and attention to detail. Like Tambe says, “Breaking is not just about learning stunts. It is an expression of creativity and it’s about how you move.”

Career and commerce

Though Chaudhary started catching everyone’s eye in the local breaking circuit, he had to answer his parents’ questions about what he wanted to do with his career. “After completing my 12th in 2015, I asked my mother to allow me to take a break of one year so that I could compete in the first Indian edition of Red Bull BC One,” he recalls. Though he went on to win this competition four times eventually, winning it in 2015 meant that his parents would allow him to pursue breaking as his career. Since then, there has been no looking back for Chaudhary, as he became a sponsored athlete by Red Bull, participated in different national and international competitions and learnt how to pitch to brands for collaborations. “It took me eight years to get to a place where I could see myself sustain in this career. Until then, I would just practise in parks or closed shops. There were no studios,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Tiwari got one month from his mother to show her how he could make a living out of breaking. “I joined a couple of crews and participated in a number of local competitions, winning 16 back-to-back ones. That is when my family started to take my breaking career seriously,” shares Tiwari, recalling his days of hustle in 2014-2015. Since then, Tiwari also went solo and now practises for five-six hours every day, outside of working on his own fashion brand. “Ten years of breaking has helped me form my own style. It was my dream to make it to the Red Bull BC One world finals and I am going to New York for that in November,” adds Tiwari, who counts B-Boy Victor, (American breaker Victor Montalvo) and B-Boy Menno (Menno van Gorp from the Netherlands) as his international favourites. His Wildchild avatar has also won gold at the first national breaking championships in the B-Boy category, along with Tambe’s Bar-B in the B-Girl category.

However, things have been a tad harder for Mangaonkar. She was consistent with competitions since 2013 though she struggled with a shoulder injury in 2016. Not being able to make a steady income from breaking led her to work as a gym trainer for a bit, while she continued practising breaking on the side. “Though my parents eventually became supportive, they have been under pressure from other relatives to get me married. I have asked them for two more years to do what I can in breaking,” said Mangaonkar, who travels from Vashi every day to train. “You get very few gigs and performances in a year so now, I am looking for another profession on the side to make money from, so that I can train in breaking alongside to perfect my style, participate in competitions more and become better,” she shares.

Meanwhile Tambe–the youngest of this lot–plans to continue with her B.Sc degree, even though she is training to make it to Paris in 2024. “My mother really encourages me but my parents are also from a very humble background and they value education,” she added.

Eyes on the prize

While competitions, gigs and collaborations are all lucrative, representing the country in Paris in 2024 for the Olympics is the real deal for most. This is being looked into by the Breakdance Federation of India under the aegis of the All India Dancesport Federation of India (that is recognised by the International Olympic Committee and is affiliated to the World Dancesport Federation of India). The first national championship that was held in Mumbai last year with international judges saw six winners, out of which four were supposed to compete at the international championships in Paris that did not happen as the Indian contingent was barred from participating due to COVID-19. However, as the federation prepares for the second edition, Gaggun Bedi, chief technical director of All India Dancesport Federation of India, expresses his optimism.“Things are looking very bright and there are a lot of breakers in India. The ones who win at the national, international championships and the qualifiers will be the ones to represent India in the Olympics,” he explains.

As for B-Boys and B-Girls who embraced breaking not just as a form of expression but also as something that they dedicate their blood and tears to, they are optimistic that India’s participation in the Olympics could finally change perspectives about breaking in India and invite more into their fold. “If that uncle who thought I was looking for money that I dropped in the park sees me at the Olympics, he will now understand what I was doing that day. And maybe younger generations will not have to explain what breaking is to their families anymore,” signs off Tiwari.

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