The East Coast’s best b-boys and b-girls are coming to Philly’s Dilworth Park this Sunday to try and earn a spot in the national final of the Red Bull BC One global breakdancing competition.
This weekend’s competition, one of three regional events happening across the country, is part of the world’s largest breaking competition. The outdoor event was originally slated for Saturday, but got pushed back a day due to weather forecasts. The preliminary cypher — where b-boys and b-girls form a dance circle and take turns competing — kicks off at 2 p.m. and the main event, 1v1 battling is at 4 p.m. The event is free, but you have to register beforehand. Philly hosted the national final last year at the Fillmore.
“That was an amazing event,” said event emcee Steve Lunger, also known as Steve Believe. “We had a really great turnout, a lot of different participants came as well as an audience. I gotta say, for myself — bucket list item — I got to introduce Raekwon ‘the Chef’ from Wu-Tang.”
Lunger, a Temple grad and co-founder of Hip Hop Fundamentals in Center City, has been a part of Philly’s breaking scene for 25 years. He said that while Philly’s place in the breaking and hip-hop scene has often been in the shadow of New York City, where the culture was born, it has provided its fair share of influence.
“We have a process for making really good artists, and that process is living in the pressure cooker that is Philadelphia, where you have a lot of eyes and ears on whatever you do,” Lunger said. “That critical feedback process is really raw here, and I think that has a big factor into why so many talented artists are developed in this city.”
Lunger said that Philly’s contributions have been as major as as the first graffiti artist, Darryl McCray, better known as “Cornbread,” and as subtle as the contributions breakers like Ben “BoxWon” Barnes McGee, Anthony “YNOT” Denaro, and Brian “B Boy Hannibal” Newby made to top rock, the standing part of the dancing.
“When it comes to the way that Philadelphians represent themselves, dance being funky is just a part of who we are, so you’re going to see a lot of very funky dancers from Philadelphia,” Luger said.
Along with the established names expected to be competing, there’s a chance for up-and-coming breakers to emerge in the open prelims. The top three b-boys and b-girls from the early cypher will advance to the one-on one main event. Lunger said that this is also a major component of the sport’s culture.
“That also kind of speaks to the heart of what hip-hop is, which is inclusivity, involving folks from any skill level anywhere in the world, you can come and take part,” he said. “It does require that you hopefully practice beforehand, because practice makes progress.”
Breaking has been in the global spotlight this year with its inclusion in the Paris Summer Olympics. Much of that has been clouded by the viral, leftfield performance of Australian competitor Rachael Gunn — or Raygun — who recently apologized to the breaking community for the negative attention her performance at the Games received.
Lunger said that Raygun’s performance wasn’t surprising to him though.
“You go to any jam and you’re gonna see 90% of people being very serious and you’re gonna see 10% of people having a lot of fun and being goofy and silly. That’s just a part of the process.” he said.
Like most adaptive and competitive mediums, there’s plenty of room for innovation. Sometimes that innovation falls flat, but Lunger said the breaking community welcomes that space to try and the ability to “be critical with each other, not of each other.”
“We have what’s called a ‘call out’ culture, which is if I disagree with you, I’m going to call you out in that cypher, battle you, et cetera,” Lunger said. “While that’s a very important competitive component to hip-hop, calling each other in as a community to discuss what it is that we need to work on is the larger takeaway for me.”
At the end of it all, any publicity is good publicity.
“More people than ever are talking about breaking as an art form, as a dance, and getting involved,” Lunger said. “Even if folks want to get involved for the wrong reason, that doesn’t bother me because then we have their eyes and ears.”
Breaking will not be part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Even so, Lunger said that the breaking community can keep the momentum going by convincing more schools, universities, community centers, corporations, and local governments to invest in hip-hop for dance and the arts for children.
“I think the largest thing that we need to do is organize ourselves to be a stronger block of artists and to advocate for more arts education in schools and outside of schools,” he said.
The winners of Sunday’s east regional will move to the National Final in Los Angeles from Sept. 26 to 28. The World Final is in Rio De Janeiro on Dec. 7.
