Paris, France, August 9, 2024: It was the day the break dance movement had been waiting for.
The first day of competition in the Olympic Games.
The first chance to show the energy of breaking.
The day when the likes of 671 (China), Logistx (United States) and Raygun (Australia) found themselves on an official Olympic Games start list for the first time.
Fittingly, the two-day breaking competition is being staged in the urban park setting of La Concorde 1, and the women’s competition – Breaking B-Girls - had the honour of being first up.
Not that the spectators needed any help to locate the correct venue within the busy park, as the hip-hop music and yells of the two over-the-top hosts let everyone know they were in the right place.
The arena was a circle under a roof – the only part of the venue that was covered, as intermittent rain in between the bursts of sunshine had some spectators dashing for cover down the steep, metal steps of the temporary stand.
As for the performances, the competition began with a series of one-vs.-one round-robin, after which the top eight would progress to the quarter-finals in the evening.
The break dancers delighted the audience with their moves, spins and gymnastics, showing their physical strength as well as their rhythm.
There was also a touch of humour as the two dancers posed and gestured in front of their rival before and after – and sometimes during – their dance-offs. It was all in good jest, though, as an embrace always followed the announcement of the result.
Each match consisted of two sets, with the nine judges indicating who had won by simply signalling their prefernce – red or blue. Frequently it was 9-0, but sometimes it was 5-4 as the level of the participants fluctuated from match to match.
If both players won one set each for one point, there would be a countback of the judges’ 18 scores to produce the winner.
The judges were looking for, among other things, musicality, originality, technique and execution, and they were quick to show their verdict on the big screen.
Mostly the results were quite predictable and warmly cheered by the big crowd, but on one occasion at least there were loud jeers of disagreement from the home spectators when a French competitor, Carlota, was beaten by Kate (Ukraine).
Chinese competitor 671 (Liu Qingyi) said she had been training for this day for five years, and her preparation included gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
“It is not easy,” 671, 18, said. “Just push hard….it has taken a long time so I feel happy. This is the dream stage because everyone wants to be in the Olympic Games. I hope the people can see the energy of breaking.”