Mexican immigrant dreams of leading
first U.S. breakdancing team to Olympic gold
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[January 17, 2020]
By Vanessa Johnston
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Antonio Castillo
discovered the joyful athleticism of breakdancing as a child in
Mexico in the 1980s. Now a new generation of young people comes to
his Washington studio to learn the finer points of a dance style
that has evolved into a sport, hoping one day to bring home Olympic
gold.
Castillo wants his mostly teenaged students to know that the art
form that he prefers to call "breakin'," which was born on the
streets of New York City in the 1970s, is not an exercise in
nostalgia.
"It's been evolving ever since," said the 38-year-old coach. "They
saw it in movies, spinning on their head or doing footwork or
whatever the case may be. But they didn't think about it as a
sport."
Now the International Olympic Committee is on the verge of making it
one.
Breakdancing was among four sports, along with skateboarding, sports
climbing and surfing, that the IOC provisionally agreed last year to
add to the Paris Games in 2024 in an effort to attract a younger,
more urban audience. A final decision is expected in December.
Castillo has had a hand in giving the sport a framework.
In the Competitive Breakin' League, which he launched almost seven
years ago, breakdancing has as a point system for judging,
belt-rankings similar to those used in martial arts, and a confined
performance space as used in sumo wrestling.
As a member of the USA Breakin' Committee, he is working to field
the first U.S. national team by the end of the year.
It is a far cry for a kid from a ranch in Mexico, whose first
exposure to breakdancing was seeing his cousins do it when they
visited and who started trying to emulate the dance moves of Michael
Jackson when he was 5 or 6.
After coming to the United States when he was 9, Castillo began
dancing hip hop to the likes of rappers MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice.
But it was seeing the movie "Breakin'" when he was 13 that set him
on his life's breakdancing course.
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Giant Olympic Rings are installed at the waterfront area, with the
Rainbow Bridge in the background, ahead of an official inauguration
ceremony, six months before the opening of the Tokyo 2020 Summer
Olympic Games, at Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo, Japan January 17,
2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato
He began teaching the sport at a Washington gym he managed and in
2011 he opened The Lab Breakin' School, one of a handful of schools
in the country dedicated to the sport. A year later, he made the
school his full-time occupation.
"If it wasn't for breakin', I don't know where I would be," said
Castillo, who also teaches after-school classes and does
motivational talks for young people.
The prospect of breakdancing as an Olympic sport opens a world of
opportunity for the most talented of Castillo's "b-boys" and
"b-girls," many of whom come from underprivileged backgrounds.
Some of his 700 students are already dreaming of Olympic glory.
"I've always been like ... can this be what I do, like, forever?"
said Isaac Witte, 13, between practice rounds on the dance floor.
"Now it kind of can because of the Olympics ... it's super
exciting."
Witte and his friend, Evan Sletten, 14, recently won a national
competition and train together nearly every day.
But, Castillo said, the prospect of Olympic glory also brings with
it a unique pressure on the athletes who represent breakdancing's
home country to bring home gold.
"It's the birthplace of hip hop culture, right?" he added. "The
United States - we created this."
(Writing by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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