Women are competing in breaking in greater numbers and, thanks to better training and more opportunities, with more dynamic moves.
The story is an essential piece of hip-hop canon: DJ Kool Herc set the musical genre in motion at a party thrown in the Bronx in 1973. A detail sometimes left out is that the party was the brainchild of his sister Cindy Campbell, who wanted to collect enough money to buy new school clothes. That night, at their apartment building, he extended the breaks — the popular drum interludes in songs — allowing partygoers a longer period to show their moves and helping to launch breaking (never “break dancing”).
Women have been involved in hip-hop since its inception, though pioneering figures like the rappers MC Sha Rock and Lisa Lee, and B-girls including the Lady Rockers, the Female Break Force and the Mercedes Ladies are sometimes overlooked in the historical account.
As breaking makes its debut at the Paris Olympics, B-girls will be at the forefront, leading off the competition on Aug. 9, with the men’s battles following the next day. Some observers view breaking’s evolution as most apparent in the development of its female athletes, a far cry from the early days when male gatekeepers sidelined women who wanted to throw down.
“It’s easier to find the guys,” said Odylle Beder, a B-girl who goes by Mantis. “It’s so much easier to find history on B-boys and what the B-boys have created. But the women have contributed a lot.”
Though breaking blew up to a wider audience in the 1980s through films like “Beat Street” and “Breakin’,” and international demonstrations conducted by foundational crews, that geographic spread didn’t immediately blast down doors for women who wanted to windmill.
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