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This summer, Breaking was displayed in front of the world at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. But the competition went viral for all of the wrong reasons, especially the performance of Rachel “Raygun” Gunn.
Many argued that her performance was a mockery of an art form that was created and popularized by young people of color in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.
With that in mind, let’s look at some classic examples of breaking while also revisiting the history of the art, and how it became a worldwide sensation long before the Olympics.