Northampton 'breaking' teacher talks about its debut at the Olympics

MC Swifty has been involved for the last two decades

Author: Trevor ThomasPublished 9th Aug 2024

A Northampton breakdancing teacher has been telling us more about it being a part of this year’s Olympics.

Dancers dance one-on-one with each other where they’re judged on footwork, moves and freeze poses, amongst other things.

"Breaking" is the official name for what we've commonly called 'Breakdancing' since artists like the Rocksteady Crew and Ollie and Jerry scored UK hit singles back in the early 80s.

It all stemmed from New York, but having already featured in the Youth Olympics, Lee Evelyn, otherwise known as MC Swifty in his role as a host of "Breaking" events, is hopeful that inclusion at this year's Paris Games will bring further interest:

"It's going to make people think that they would like to find out more, because not everybody will have seen it that closely before.

"I compare it to the amount of people who watch the World Cup or Euros who wouldn't normally follow football, because the national team are playing.

"The level at the tournament who are at that super high level is about 1%. You know who they are because they really are at the top of their game."

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