MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Tomorrow in Paris, the Olympics welcomes a new competition to the Summer Games - breaking, once known as breakdancing. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has been documenting this phenomenon since the early 1980s. She reports on how far it's come.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FUNKY PRESIDENT (PEOPLE IT'S BAD)")
JAMES BROWN: (Singing) People, people...
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: At a small studio in LA's mid-Wilshire neighborhood, Frankie Nunez - Frankie Flave - is teaching a free breaking workshop.
FRANKIE NUNEZ: Now, shift your right to the left.
DEL BARCO: The 45-year-old Nunez started his fancy footwork and sweeps as a teen in East LA. He's traveled to international dance battles, and he'll be in Paris to watch B-boys and B-girls, as they're known, at the Olympics.
NUNEZ: The Japanese are strong. The U.S. is strong. The Ukrainians are strong. Some have strong freezes. Some have strong spins.
DEL BARCO: Another trainer, Nancy Yu, a 53-year-old B-girl who goes by the name Asia One, says she's excited the world spotlight will be on a true American innovation.
NANCY YU: An art form that's part of hip-hop culture, which is a culture that's rooted with artistic elements that were created by Black and Afro-Caribbean people, actually, in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAMES BROWN SONG, "GET ON THE GOOD FOOT")
DEL BARCO: It all started back in the day in the 1970s, in the South Bronx. The impoverished Black and Puerto Rican neighborhoods were filled with burned-out buildings, crowded housing projects and street gangs. At house parties and street jams, young people competed for bragging rights on the dance floor.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
LUIS ANGEL MATEO: They would have a get-together between the rival gangs for a specific turf. And the two war lords would go at it.
DEL BARCO: Luis Angel Mateo is an old-school B-boy who goes by the alias Trac 2. Years ago, he reminisced with me about how the old-school dancers were surrounded by onlookers who egged them on as they took turns showing off with dance moves like fighters.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
MATEO: You know, it's a lot of motion, a lot of gestures - the stabbing or the punching or the hitting with a stick and a chain swinging.
DEL BARCO: During breaks in the music, the dancers also copied moves from James Brown and kung fu movies. They borrowed from West African and Jamaican dance styles and Brazilian capoeira. More than 20 years ago, I met up with Puerto Rican B-boy Santiago Torres, nicknamed JoJo, and his friend Eric Lockett, a funkmaster nicknamed Wizard Wiz. They took me to revisit their old schoolyard in the boogie-down Bronx.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
SANTIAGO TORRES: See just spot right here on the floor here? We used to battle right here.
ERIC LOCKETT: Some people were good in gymnastics. They would flip. They would do, you know, if - some guys were double-jointed, so they could bend they bodies and...
TORRES: Remember Jimmy Lee? Jimmy had a different swipe that nobody else could get at.
LOCKETT: Yeah, that side.
TORRES: That...
LOCKETT: Yeah.
TORRES: It was like...
LOCKETT: Laid down...
TORRES: Boom - it looked like the - you know how you have a Slinky, the way it goes down the steps? Uh, uh. And it was like that. Uh, uh, uh.
LOCKETT: You had to be creative in this game.
DEL BARCO: JoJo and his friend Jimmy Dee formed the Rock Steady Crew, which remains the most famous B-boy troupe in the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEWCLEUS SONG, "JAM ON IT")
DEL BARCO: By the early 1980s, New Yorkers created a sidewalk sensation the media dubbed breakdancing. And soon, all that street bragging made its way to Hollywood.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE JIMMY CASTOR BUNCH SONG, "IT'S JUST BEGUN")
DEL BARCO: The 1983 movie "Flashdance" featured Rock Steady Crew members like Richie Colon, also known as Crazy Legs, and Ken Swift, who told me those were exciting times - on worldwide tours, performing for the Queen of England and at the White House, dancing on TV and in the movies.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Rapping) Breakdance spinner, contest winner, just like the rest, lookin' for a break on Beat Street. Beat Street.
KEN SWIFT: We were superheroes after that. Like, New York City, you know, being in a film, coming from the hood - that was a big deal.
DEL BARCO: In 1984, breakdancers also performed at the closing ceremony of the Olympics in Los Angeles.
SWIFT: It was very radical at the time, you know? Like, people didn't really understand this was an actual dance. They thought it was just, you know, a lot of Black and Latino kids with a lot of energy, but it stood the test of time.
DEL BARCO: Ken Swift now teaches dance at UCLA and around the world. He says it's an exciting moment for breakers at the Paris Olympics. But...
SWIFT: As far as breaking being a sport - in my opinion, it's not a sport. It's a dance. It's an art form, and it's a way of life. It's part of a culture, with its languages and traditions and heritage. And it's a culture of unity - you know what I'm saying? - and bringing people together worldwide.
DEL BARCO: And he's a bit skeptical of how the Olympics' judges will score the dancers' performances.
SWIFT: Judging on an iPad is not my thing.
DEL BARCO: And Swift says, beyond body gyrations, breaking has always been about creativity, spontaneity, style and especially uniquely responding to music.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF JAMES BROWN SONG, "GIVE IT UP OR TURNIT A LOOSE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
