A guide to breaking and how to watch: Presented by b-boy MG 

Breaking, otherwise known as breakdancing, will be making its Olympic debut at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games following its electrifying outing at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

It’s dynamic, athletic, artistic but it’s also highly strategic – pushing breaking athletes, known as b-boys and b-girls, to their limits.

As the journey to Paris 2024 builds, and the excitement for breaking ramps up, Olympics.com caught up with b-boy MG (Martin Gilian) to produce a guide on what you should to know when you’re watching breaking.

Having been on the breaking scene since 2004, as well as working as an MC (master of ceremonies) and event organiser, MG knows the sport inside and out, so we put his knowledge to the test beginning first with the origins of breaking.

WATCH: 2022 WDSF European Breaking Championships live on Olympics.com

What is breaking?

MG: The whole point of breaking coming into existence goes back to the seventies in the Bronx, in New York City, where there were a lot of gangs and a lot of gang fights. Breaking, basically, replaced these street gang fights.

Instead of fighting the breakers were dancing. They were not touching each other; they were respecting each other. They were laying out all their anger on the dance floor.

We have this vocabulary, ‘killing the move’ or you’re ‘killing’ somebody with the moves, but you're not killing them, you're just using your moves, your body, to demonstrate your skills and show that you're better than your opponent.

But after the  the battle, everybody shakes hands and is all about respect and love.

READ MORE: Mounir Biba: "Breaking was born out of peace in the Bronx"

What exactly happens during a breaking battle?

MG: The MC calls you on stage. He says your name or your crew, like what you represent. This is important because the crew element is important. It's like your second family: you represent your crew.

The MC brings you on stage and then the DJ drops the music. And this is where it gets really interesting because the general public think the dancers know what song is going to come on. And the general public think that the dancer has an exact choreography to the song, but it doesn't work like this in breaking.

It's really up to the DJ what kind of songs he drops and then you, as a dancer, you need to be ready to react to the music.

The MC brings you on the stage, DJ drops the music, and now you have 30, 40, 50 seconds to represent your style and show what you got and show that you're better than the other guy.

What is a breaking athlete trying to achieve in a battle?

MG: You need to know how to listen to the music so you need to have the musicality, first of all, and you’re then trying to represent your style. You’re trying to bring something unique to the game.

Breaking, and hip hop culture, is all about being original, being somebody that everybody is looking up to: somebody who is inspiring the world. So, it's not about copying some other people's moves. This is called ‘bites’ and this is strictly prohibited, and during the battles these get penalised.

It's all about bringing something original, something that dancers or the community will remember 30 years from now.

READ: Snap1: Why Alaska’s only B-Girl says it’s all about the journey

What are the judges looking for in a breakdancing battle?

MG: The current judging system is called 'Trivium', and basically, it's a concept of body mind and, soul.

Each category has one third of the entire judging value, so 33 percent.

Body represents the physical part of the dance, mind represents the artistic part of the dance, and the soul represents the interpretative part of the dance.

The physical part is divided into technique and variety. So, the judges are looking to see if it's dynamic, if there are clean moves, what the vocabulary is like. How many different moves are you using? Are you repeating all the time? Because this also gets penalised when you're repeating a lot.

The artistic part consists of creativity, which goes back to originality. You're bringing something unique, your own character. You can have a funny character, you can be a drama queen, you can have aggressive character,. There's so many different characters.

And the last aspect is the soul: interpretation. Is the performance executed at hundred percent? Are you using stage presence? Are you going around or are you just stuck in one place and are you looking like you're shy? Are you really going all out?

Then there is the musicality. As I mentioned, breaking is a dance and you need to know how to listen to the music.

I would say it's really the unique styles, what you bring to the table and and trying to be better than your opponent, because the judging is comparative. So, you're comparing yourself to the other guy. And if you're really excellent in all of these aspects, then you have a higher chance to win the battle.

How do you win a breaking battle?

You need to know your opponent, like what is, what are his or her strengths and this is why breaking gets so exciting. It's not like you're just watching some sport and you are just waiting if they're executing the moves or not. Here it's like a theatre or you're like in a cinema, like eating popcorn. You're just watching what's going to happen because you never know what's going to happen.

It can get really aggressive, it can get really funny, it can get really entertaining. So, you know, and you as a dancer, you need to have a strategy.

Am I going to show my strongest round in the pre-selection? Because if I rank high, then I have a better chance of getting somebody weaker in the next round. But then, let's say, you get the world champion from last year, what are supposed to do now? You really need to show all you got. But if you get somebody weaker, you can think about saving some moves for later because, you know, you have different level of moves with different impact.

It's all about originality and signatures and it's really up to you if you're going to use your signatures or the moves that you're really well known for at the beginning or towards the end. Because sometimes the final battle is not the hardest battle. Sometimes you get somebody really crazy difficult in the top eight, for example. So, this is where you need to do your strongest round.

Sometimes dancers or athletes are ready physically to win the battle, to win the championship, but mentally something happens in a battle. I see so many great dancers, great athletes not winning the battle, even though they're physically way better. Something might happen, a little slip up or an atmosphere change and you can lose the battle. So that's why even if you don't have the skills on the physical level, you should always think that there's always a chance to win the battle.

Are there often upsets in breaking competitions?

MG: This is also the beautiful thing about breaking. Somebody can always surprise you because they're working really hard.

This is also part of the culture. Like some guys, they don't even want to show themselves practising hard. If you put a lot of ground or a lot of your dancing on social media, then the judges might see those looks again and again.

This happened with b-boy Kuzya, for example, from Ukraine, who was fourth in the 2022 World Championship (in Seoul). I think five or six years ago, he came out of nowhere. He won a huge event in Belgium then even in Slovakia with 80 plus countries and then he started winning. You know, he was on a streak. It was unbelievable. And this is why breaking is so beautiful.

Now you know a little bit more about breaking and what's at stake during a contest why not test your knowledge with the upcoming 2022 WDSF European Breaking Championships streaming live on Olympics.com?

MORE: WDSF 2022 European Breaking Championships: Preview, schedule and how to watch live