Denver breaking competition puts new spin on dancing | Arts & Entertainment

As hip-hop music blared through the Temple Nightclub Denver, 24 regional breakers (the preferred title for break dancers) took the stage, spinning and slipping their way to a potential worldwide competition.

The one-on-one battles involved the intense stare downs, flips and crowd cheers that one could expect from a high-level breaking competition. 

Red Bull held their annual BC One breakdancing competition at the Denver nightclub on Friday, with the West Cypher leg of the three-event tour. Sixteen b-boys and eight b-girls from the western part of the country —  including Denver, Minneapolis and Detroit — began battling in one-on-one competitions.

Following the competition, one of each gender will move on to the U.S. National Final in Los Angeles, where the finalists will battle against the winners of the Eastern competition held in Philadelphia earlier this month.

The winners will then head to Rio de Janeiro for the World Finals in December.

The high-flying action of the competition, with its flashy and acrobatic moves, showed that the scene is still alive and well in Denver, despite being around for over 50 years.

There’s breakdancing in Denver?

The inclusion of breaking for the first time in the 2024 Summer Olympics showed the world that the once underground, then aboveground, then back underground form of dancing has once again reared its rhythmic head to mainstream culture.

The dance form — with its athletic spins, flips and handstands — started in New York City during the early 1970s, right in step with the dawn of hip-hop.

The “break” in breakdancing doesn’t come from the possible injuries that can result from, say, attempting to spin on your head, but the breaks in music as DJs were switching records. 

DJ Kool Herc, a DJ from the Bronx, created the “break” by looping two copies of the same record, creating a prolonged beat of percussion for people to dance to. 

Breaking spiked in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise in hip-hop, before falling out of popular culture in the early 2000s. 

But, breakers from the Denver region say it never left.

Nancy “Asia One” Yu, a legendary breaker and one of the judges of Friday’s competition, began her world-stretching career right in Park Hill. 

Yu opened up a hip-hop clothing and record store on 21st Avenue and Larimer Street called La Casa del Fonk in the early 1990s, well before the area became the River North Art District we know today.

“When I had my hip-hop shop, Denver was kind of segregated based on what side of town you lived on. You didn’t really go to different sides of town because of the gang situations,” Yu said. “People could come to my shop without feeling like they weren’t supposed to be there. A lot of people met each other from different sides of town. All of this synergy started happening.”

The rising love of hip-hop, street art and breaking began to burst, sparking new dancers throughout the state.

Yu then moved to Los Angeles to continue her career, eventually starring in films and commercials and competing for years. She also started No Easy Props, a non-profit in Los Angeles that provides education and entertainment to communities through the lens of hip-hop.

In the mid 1990s, breaking in Denver was inescapable, according to Jacob “Data” Flesher, who competed at the event Friday.

“If you were in Colorado, you were seeing breaking happening at raves,” Flesher said of growing up in Colorado. Flesher fell in love with the craft through the raves, eventually getting his start in Colorado Springs.

Through the scene, he met his partner, Rose “B-Girl Rose” Kiernan. The two fell in love through their love of the competition.

Kiernan, a gymnast from Denver that eventually needed something new to train, started breaking at 29 years old. She also competed Friday.

“We’re the oldest here today. We’re old for competitors, probably the oldest in Colorado,” Flesher said, inadvertently proving that the breaking scene is still going strong amongst Colorado youth.

“Even right now, there’re people breaking everywhere. In every small city worldwide,” Yu said. But still, the community remains underground.

“A lot of it is through underground events and events like Red Bull BC One. These type of events have made it more accessible for people to get into breaking,” she said. “There are also a lot of underground events that happen in cities, like Denver, where a crew will hold their own event and people will come from outside of the city.”

More than dance

To those attending and performing at the competition, breaking is more than just a dance. A collection of warm handshakes, cheers and local crew t-shirts showed that it’s a culture, a community.

“It’s a great scene. Lots of young kids all the way up through adults,” Kiernan said.

“There’s always a way to make a contribution in great culture. Whether it’s throwing events, teaching classes, being a fan,” Flesher said. 

Nearly everyone in attendance at the packed nightclub cheered Flesher’s name, Data, as he entered the stage, showing the support behind the Denver breakers.

And with the Olympics, that culture can continue to grow.

“The Olympics were incredible. I love to see more people getting involved or just having an interest and asking questions,” Flesher said.

The couple were actually at the Olympics, with Flesher training a breaker who competed in the qualifiers in Budapest.

“There is something to learn from every community and every break scene because they have their own history,” Flesher said. “If you go to New York, it’s really aggressive. Colorado isn’t as aggressive, but there’s a different flavor to every state that you’re at.” 

“It being in the Olympics is great, but at the same time, it doesn’t really matter because hip-hop and breaking are going to be here, regardless,” Yu concluded.

“But we want to have young kids and teens affected by this like we were. Breaking and different forms of hip-hop dance has saved people’s lives, especially people of color.”