Boston’s breaking crew excited for sports debut at Paris Olympics

The sport of breaking, commonly known as break dancing, will make its debut at the Paris Olympics later this week, and local breaking crews are thrilled to see their sport recognized worldwide.

While there are no New England breakers competing in these games in Paris, the president of Boston’s Floor Lords crew, BBoy El Nino, says that he is excited to see Team USA represent the country where it all started.

Floor Lords just celebrated its 43rd anniversary this summer, and some of the founding members showed NBC10 Boston how breaking has evolved over time, but one important aspect that has remained constant is the sense of community that the sport offers.

“At first Hip Hop was considered to be noise so yeah it wasn’t accepted at first but I think the dance and the combination of the dance and the sound together, people started picking up on the vibe,” said Mad Mike, an original member of Boston’s Floor Lords breaking crew.

“Growing up in the 80s with Hip Hop, I think we used the Hip Hop, the dancing, to escape the streets, to escape the violence,” Snow said. “It was an outlet for us.”

Growing up, Sunny Choi always dreamed of going to the Olympics for gymnastics. This year, Choi is heading to the Paris Games as one of Team USA’s first-ever breakers with the help of her performance coach, Carl Paoli.

For more than 40 years, the Floor Lords have offered a space for breakers to learn and compete in Boston. The sport has evolved with more difficult moves, earning its place at the Olympics this year.

“I’ll be honest with you. It’s kind of like a long time coming because to be a BBoy you have to be strong, athletic, stamina has to be high, you have to have a high level of intelligence, but you also gotta have the will the drive and the determination to be great. Not to mention you gotta be able to dance,” Megatron said.

From its roots in Black and Latino communities in New York City to the global stage, breaking is giving dancers a chance to show what they can do.

“After 42 years of us being on the street corner, of us having to listen to the police say, ‘you can’t be here.’ After listening to people say, ‘oh that’s just a fad. That’s just this. That’s going to die out.’ Now, all those people will get to see one of our very own in the Olympics,” Megatron said.