LIU QINGYI, a 16-year-old girl from Central China’s Henan Province, won the global break dance competition at the Outbreak Europe 2022 in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia on Sunday, achieving a major breakthrough by becoming the first Chinese B-girl to ever win the first world break dance top-level championship. The event was held from Thursday to Sunday, with more than 600 people from over 30 countries and regions participating in the competition. Other members of the Chinese break dance external training team, such as Shang Xiaoyu, Qi Xiangyu, Rui Fenqi and Zeng Yingying, also joined the competition. Shang made a historical breakthrough for China by entering the semi-finals, which is the best result Chinese male break dancers have ever obtained in the world’s top break dance competition. In the women’s 1 vs. 1 match, Liu successfully advanced to position 16 out of 124 participants in the audition. She defeated the German competitor Jilou to reach the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, Liu continued to exert her strength and won 2-0 against Italian dancer Anti. In the final, Liu competed against the famous Dutch veteran India and reached the top. Liu first saw street dance in her hometown of Huixian County when she was only 10 years old, and was deeply attracted by its cool and dynamic movements. She said her parents have always been supportive of her. Before hip-hop, Liu had also learned guitar, taekwondo and boxing. “I’ve been engaged in many sports and hobbies, but only found hip-hop is my true love after I started learning it,” said Liu. Break dance is a genre of street dance that originated in the United States. The International Olympic Committee added the dance to the medal program of the 2024 Paris Olympics in 2020. It will for the first time be featured in the event program of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 in September. Also called breaking, break dance is more difficult and personalized in terms of moves when compared to other modern dance genres like hip-hop or popping and locking. The dancers are called B-boys, B-girls, or breakers in general. It’s competitive in nature, especially when it comes to 1 vs. 1 battles, in which the conflicting dance moves have an undeniable aesthetic appeal, says Pei Dongguang, or B-boy Kim, 37, who has been a frequent judge of domestic and international breaking competitions. In December, China’s national breaking team made its international competitive debut at the World Dance Sport Federation World Breaking Championship in Paris. The championship saw B-girl Ayumi from Japan and B-boy Victor of the United States claiming world titles. Chinese breakers didn’t make it to the top 8 in either gender category. When Liu won the gold medal at the 14th National Games in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, in September last year, Pei, one of the judges, noticed in the qualification round of the championship that many breakers were wowed by the difficult movements and body strength Liu demonstrated at such a young age. Pei says dancers also need to learn more about the breaking culture, like how a certain move emerges and what signal it carries, to gain a deeper understanding of the dance and the battling form itself. So far, some Chinese breakers have achieved good rankings in international competitions, including R16 Korea, Red Bull BC One and SCAPE Radikal Forze Jam in Singapore, but very rarely have Chinese breakers won top honors, according to Pei, who is also team leader of Dragonstyle Crew, one of China’s most renowned and successful breaking crews. Creativity is priority for Pei as a coach and a judge. He sees it as specially compelling if a breaker comes up with an unexpected freestyle move. “I hope breaking teachers pay more attention to young people’s imagination and the joy of break dance,” Pei says. (Global Times, China Daily) | 