＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
On February 21, 2019, the Organizing Committee for the 2024 Paris Olympics proposed the adoption of “breakdancing” (breakin’) as a new Olympic sport.
The committee proposed four events: “surfing,” “sport climbing,” and “skateboarding” along with breakdancing. The three disciplines of surfing, sport climbing, and skateboarding are scheduled to be adopted for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
１．About “Breakdancing
Young people may know what “breakdancing” is, but older people are not so familiar with it.
Break dancing” is a type of street dance classified as ”old school hip-hop. It is a dance in which young people put one hand on the ground and rotate their bodies around it. I have seen it several times on TV.
The Paris Olympics Organizing Committee states on Twitter that it is a universally popular urban sport and that there are more than one million b-boys and b-girls (breakdancers) in France.
Japanese breakdancing is at the top level in the world, and at last year’s “Youth Olympics,” it won 2 gold medals and 1 bronze medal, and is a strong candidate for a medal at the Paris Olympics. The level of the women’s competition is said to be particularly high.
（１）What is “break dance”?
Break dance is a street dance genre with the largest population of dancers in the world. BOYING/B-GIRLING” and many other names.
Dancers who break dance are generally called “break dancers,” “breakers,” “b-boys,” or “b-girls.
As a dance genre of battle culture, it is characterized by provocative gestures, appeals and posing during dance, acrobatics and other flamboyant moves, and dynamic floor moves, as well as impressive fashions that are strongly influenced by hip-hop culture.
（２）History of Breakdancing
Breakdancing” originated in the 1970s in the United States, when a DJ named Kool Herc created ‘breakbeats,’ a style of music in which the interludes between the first and second songs are played repeatedly. The word “break” in breakdance and the “B” in B-boy are said to come from breakbeats.
２．Breakdance “composition”
Breakdancing consists of four main elements: entry, footwork, power moves, and freeze.
It is not necessary to include all of these elements at once, and each dancer will vary in which movements he or she focuses on.
Entry” refers to dancing in a standing position.
Footwork” refers to movements in which the dancers move their feet quickly or provocatively while in a bent-over position.
Power moves” are acrobatic movements that use the whole body (mainly the upper body) to turn and bounce.
Freeze” means to freeze and stop the body and movements in time with the sound from the sequence of footwork and power moves.
3．Diffusion in Japan
The “Rock Steady Crew” came to Japan in 1983 for the movie “Wild Style” and introduced breakdancing to Japan for the first time, which was aired on TV’s “11PM.
In 1984, Shingo Kazami released the song “Tears take a chance” and it became known to the public through television.
Nowadays, more and more people are seeing it in commercials and promotional videos. OCAT, located at JR Namba Station in Osaka, is known as a Mecca for street dance, including break dance.