On the dance floor: How will scoring work, what do the judges look for

Breaking will be the only sport at Paris Olympics where calling a dancer’s set a “dope move” will not be frowned upon. In B-Girl and B-Boy lingo, ‘Dope’ is superlative degree for crazy, awesome, wowsie, mental, brill and sh*t super cool. But the sport at the urban venue at Concorde, has its own thorough system of judging its competitors.

B-Boy Ronnie Abaldonado, an All Star at Red Bull BC One, helps decipher what judges actually and exactly look for, when they pick gold medallists at the Games’ hippest sport.

What will be the competition format of Breaking at Olympics?

16 B-Girls and 16 B-Boys will be divided into groups of four for a round-robin stage, with top two in each group moving into the quarter-finals over August 9 and 10. Every one-on-one battle has 3 alternating 60-second throw down sets by each breaker, where each competitor takes turns to present their moves.

Break Dance will be making its debut at Paris Olympics (Shao Little / Red Bull Content Pool)

What is the Trivium Judging system?

Nine judges, who have been esteemed breakers themselves, will decide on one-on-one battles where two performances are directly compared. First you see the performance of one person, then you compare it with the opponent’s set. Under the specifically designed Trivium Value System, judging is conducted in real time based on five criterion: Technique, Variety (or vocabulary), Execution (or performativity), Musicality and Originality (or creativity). Judges will move a digital slider to indicate who’s their preference in the 1vs1 battles. Each of the five categories accounts for 20% of the final score. Based on the average of the sliders in these five criteria, one breaker is named the winner of each round. They are judged not only on pure technique but also on musicality (if their dance is on-beat and if music dictates their moves), interpretation, or physical explosiveness. This judging ensures that physicality (body), artistic ability (mind) and interpretative quality (soul) are all considered by judges.

Are Breakers marked on a score of 10 on each criterion?

In Breaking, nothing is codified and breakers do not receive a number of points for performing a certain pre-designated move like a Difficulty-score in gymnastics or figure skating. Two performances are simply compared.

What details do judges look for?

Stage-presence, form, posture, mannerisms and foundation are some of the underpinnings that get gleaned. It’s not just the moves as mental and physical conditioning in terms of endurance, accuracy, strength, speed and control are considered. If two breakers stick a similar freeze, who holds steady longer and pauses stronger is compared. In a duel, breakers perform figures such as the top rock (stand-up dancing), footwork (leg moves with hands on the floor) and the freeze (the dancer pauses for a few seconds, in sync with the stopping beats.) There’s parallel breaking with spinning moves and dynamic power pivots. Greater originality can prove decisive in split decisions.

Why does this dance form qualify as a sport? (Why do haters hate it?)

The Olympics are keen on shattering the misconception that sports only means a ground or stadium. The world wasn’t ready, but Paris might change minds like the Youth Olympics at Buenos Aires Youth Olympics did in 2018. All sport is sophisticated, niche movement. Breaking is essentially highly-evolved, stylised and skilled physical movement, without pretension. Competition duels have been around for 20 years now at Freestyle Battle of the Year and Red Bull BC One besides the World Championships. Most importantly, the air flares (torso is swung, the balance alternating between legs and arms) that are now common to artistic gymnastics’ floor exercises or pommel horse have drawn inspiration from b-boying, extending validation to the newbie sport and proving it belongs.

Judges at the Olympics will score breakers based on the Trivium judging system, which scores breakers on creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality. (Image Courtesy: World DanceSport Federation)

How much emphasis does Olympic Breaking put on creative Originality or are they drill moves?

Head spins drop watching jaws, but are fairly routine. Signature moves defined and deified as originality in 1vs1 battles can prove tie breakers. Korean B-Boy Hongten’s freeze on two fingers is pretty well known, while Japanese B-Boy Hiro10 is known to unleash dynamic moves that become viral clips often. American B-Girl Logistx is tipped to be very innovative in laboratories during preparation, while B-Girls Ayumi of Japan and Nicka of Lithuania can spring new moves. “Year after year I keep thinking we only have this one torso, two arms, two legs and one head and still there is a myriad new moves coming out every week,” B-Boy Storm had said.

How will Breaking look and sound like at Paris? Judges and music?

9 judges will sit in front of the stage facing the audience. Dancers do not choose their own music, but react and adapt to beats in real time. There’s much curiosity over who the DJ could be, and the 32 contenders are busy studying libraries of likely conductors. At the Olympic qualifying series at Budapest, music was mostly edgy.

Who are the favourites at Paris, and the interesting storylines?

Lithuanian B-Girl Nicka and American B-Boy Victor won top honours in 2023, at the world breaking championships. But competition will be tough with contenders, the 2022 world winner Canadian B-Boy Phil Wizard, Japanese B-Boy Shigekix, Kazakh legend Amir, young sensation Japanese Hiro10, and Japan’s B-Girls Ayumi and Ami. Amongst most popular breakers are Ukraine’s B-Boy Kuzya and B-Girl Kate. Japan, Korea, US and Holland are Breaking’s powerhouses, while France has B-girl Syssy, youngest at 16 and B-Boy Dany Dann, older at 36. In fact, two iconic breakers shatter the stereotype of this being a teeny-bopper only sport – Hongten, vividly original, is 39, so is B-Girl Ayumi, a geeky school teacher one year shy of 40, who transforms into a flying flare and boasts of an insane winning streak once she hits the floor.

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