Breaking Olympic records has new meaning after first dancing competitions of their kind begin

A sport that had its Olympics debut Friday is bringing hope to Shanner Escalanti.

Escalanti opened up Tangled Roots Studio with his family in the early 2000s, but there were not a lot of people who were willing to learn and compete in breaking – break dancing.

“I hope breaking being in the Olympics will bring some value … to move forward, because without the Olympics, I don’t think gymnastics would have survived, or a lot of sports,” said Escalanti, the co-founder of the Spokane dance studio. “A lot of things wouldn’t survive because they need a goal. They need something like the Super Bowl.”

Break dancing started Friday in the Olympics with women’s competition. Men compete on Saturday.

Nwannediya Kalu, a Rogers High School alumna, grew up in dance. She joined a high school senior team at age 12, and eventually went on to become the co-captain of the Rogers dance team her sophomore year and the head captain her final two years.

Kalu said seeing a form of hip-hop in the Olympics has made her emotional, because she considers dance her first love. Growing up, she did not think people cared about it as much as she did.

She was not introduced to the professional dance world until she was older and did not realize she could make a career out of her passion until later on.

“I think it’s really motivating for people who really love dance to see that you can make a career out of it if you truly want to,” she said. “Dancers work really hard. It’s super taxing on the body, so the fact that people will get recognition for that type of art form is so beautiful to see, honestly.”

Breaking typically features several elements, including a DJ who brings different records, and break dancing adds context to each element and ties it all together, Escalanti said. The DJ would take a record and find a break in the song, then combine that break with another from a different song.

“(It’s) kind of progressed to where there’s not a DJ behind the rapper anymore … but ultimately, that’s where it comes from, and during that part, the break dancers will come out,” Escalanti said.

“Then it was up to the people that would go out to just do whatever.”

Break dancing originated in the 1970s, but Escalanti said it was not classified as a sport because there was nothing to sell. Other sports have gear, but participating in break dancing only requires the floor.

Escalanti said he thinks the ultimate reason breaking is in the Olympics is because there is athleticism associated with it.

“When the Olympics really started a long time ago, it was about every country bringing … the best person,” he said. “If there is something physical, there is some kind of competitiveness.”

While other sports in the past have not thrived in the Olympics, he sees breaking going far in the worldwide competition because people enjoy watching others move their body in different ways and push themselves to new boundaries.

“If you step outside and see the greatest, fastest runner, people are drawn to that because it’s the fastest,” he said. “Everyone has a body, so when you see somebody else do something amazing with their body, whatever it is, you know what it takes.”

He added that breaking “is one of the sports that really pushes the body through an extreme.”

There are arguments that breaking is more art than sport , but it is also a physical form of art.

Kalu said she hopes the Olympic breakers can reach people who might be discouraged to pursue dance professionally.

“I hope … they just inspire them and gain a new appreciation for dance if they don’t have it already,” she said.

S-R staffer Mathew Callaghan contributed to this article.

Ami of Team Japan competes in the breaking B-Girls gold medal battle against Nicka of Team Lithuania Friday at the Paris Olympic Games at Place de la Concorde in Paris, France.