Rachael Gunn stunned the world with her memorable performance at the Paris Olympics, with fans stunned by the Australian’s unconventional breakdancing moves.
But the 36-year-old, better known as Raygun, had predicted her disastrous routine seven years before she took to the stage in France.
College professor Gunn went viral after her performance, which involved imitating a kangaroo and a snake, among other bizarre moves, earned zero points in the inaugural women’s breakdancing competition.
It has since emerged that Gunn is now fully immersed in all things breaking, having taken up the sport in 2008 and enrolling in a PhD in 2011.
And now, fans have discovered The 36-year-old man’s thesis on the breakupTitled: Deterritorialising gender in Sydney’s breakdance scene: A B-girl’s experience of B-boying.
The summary of the doctoral thesis, published in February 2017, anticipated Raygun’s iconic routine in Paris.
‘I use analytical autoethnography and interviews with members of the scene in collaboration with theoretical frameworks offered by Deleuze and Guttari, Butler, Bourdieu and other feminist and poststructuralist philosophers, to critically examine how the capacities of bodies are constituted and shaped in the Sydney breakdance scene, and also to locate the potentiality of moments of transgression,’ she writes.
‘In other words, I conceptualize the body in rupture not as a ‘body’ constituted through regulations and assumptions, but as an assemblage open to new rhizomatic connections.’
Raygun’s PhD predicted his memorable performance at the Paris Olympics
The Australian breakdancer scored no points in her three performances last week.
In simple terms, Gunn challenges dance norms and believes that breaking should be used as a vehicle for elaborate and unusual dancing.
Fans certainly saw that in France, where Raygun writhed on the ground and performed the spray, much to the bewilderment of viewers watching from home.
Head judge MGbility revealed why Gunn scored a pitiful zero points for all three of his dances.
“Personally, I’m very sorry,” MGbility told News Corp.
‘The breaking and hip hop community definitely supports her. She was just trying to bring something new, something original and something that represents her country.
‘Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new from your country or region, and that’s exactly what Raygun was doing.
‘He was inspired by his surroundings, which in this case, for example, was a kangaroo. The animal.
‘For breaking, when you’re looking for innovation or originality, you always look outside of dance. Martial arts, how animals move, anything.’
But that hasn’t stopped it from becoming an internet meme, with music superstar Adele sharing her thoughts on Raygun during her concert in Munich.
The university professor’s thesis predicted that she would perform an unconventional routine.
“I’m not saying anything, but I think it’s the best thing that’s ever happened at the Olympics,” Adele told her fans.
‘Did anyone see the lady breakdancing?’
‘Now I didn’t even know breakdancing was an Olympic sport these days. It’s fucking fantastic. I really believe it.
“Aaron, my percussionist, is pissing himself laughing just thinking about it.”
Adele went on to reveal that she’s not sure if Raygun was a serious contestant in the competition, with many fans comparing his moves to Mr Gee from Australian comedy Summer Heights High.
‘I can’t understand if it was a joke, but either way it made me very, very happy and my friends and I were dying of laughter for almost 24 hours.
‘I just wanted to know if you’ve seen it. If you haven’t seen it, leave the show and Google it because it’s crazy.
“It’s so fucking fun and it’s my favorite thing about what’s happened at the Olympics over the whole time.”