In 2017, while watching the breaking battles at the Silverback Open in suburban Philadelphia, a B-boy performed a handstand. It’s a staple, to be sure, but this dancer modified it by balancing on the backs of his wrists, an innovation that thrilled the crowd around him. code.
As I settled in, I remember thinking, “How the hell do you rate that, an unexpected flick of the wrist or any other spontaneous manifestation of creativity?” The matter seemed urgent given the events that were taking place at the time.
Just a year earlier, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had announced that breaking would be added to the list of disciplines for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (YOG), an event often used as a testing ground for new Olympic disciplines such as 3-on-3 basketball. If breaking performed well in Buenos Aires, there was a good chance it would make it onto the list of disciplines for all age groups. And it did well, which is why breaking is making its debut in Paris.
The IOC selected the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF) to guide the dance through its Olympic journey, an interesting choice given that it had no prior connection to breaking or the community that created it. The WDSF, best known for running the world ballroom dance competition, had around two years to prepare breaking for its debut at the Youth Olympic Games. This meant they also had two years to develop and implement an IOC-approved judging system.
In most battles, especially smaller ones, judging is a low-tech affair. There are an odd number of judges, and once everyone finishes their rounds (the number usually depends on the stage of the battle), the judges vote for the person they think won, usually by pointing. Sometimes, one of the judges will cross their arms in an X to indicate that they think the two dancers have tied. This means they have to do another round, expending more energy (and maybe some moves they might have been saving for a later fight) so that the undecided judge can choose a side.
These votes aren’t based on hard and fast rules—in fact, there traditionally haven’t been any rules at all. While there’s a general consensus on some things, like biting another B-boy’s moves (don’t do that) or touching your opponent (don’t do that either) or dancing to the beat (definitely do that if you can), the judges generally evaluate the dancers according to the values of the breaking tradition: creativity, style, character, and musicality. It’s up to each individual judge—usually dancers or former dancers—how to weigh the different values in their decision.
This probably wouldn’t be enough at the Olympics.
Fortunately for the WDSF, several years before the IOC’s foray into breaking, members of the community had already begun building a judging system to be used at major events like Battle of the Year. B-boy Niels “Storm” Robitsky, Kevin “Renegade” Gopie, and Dominik Fahr, founder of and8.dance, along with a handful of others, had spent years developing a unified and consistent approach to judging breaking, with Fahr developing the platform and technology to put it into practice. After the YOG announcement, they partnered with the WDSF to fine-tune their approach, which was used at the 2018 YOG. In 2022, Gopie, Robitsky, and Fahr have ceased working with the WDSF. Since their departure, the WDSF has developed what they’ve called the Olympic judging system, but they haven’t reinvented the wheel. The system that will be used in Paris is an alternative version of what Gopie, Robitsky, and Fahr had created.