Breaking Through
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 10 August 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Breaking, also known as break-dancing, borne in New York City in the 1970s, is set to make its debut at the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
Four-time breaking world champion, BoxWon (Benyaamin Barnes McGee), traces how breaking went from Bronx block parties to NYC’s downtown art scene, to the world.
Speaking to legends of breaking, such as Rock Steady Crew's Ken Swift and B-Boy Glyde from Dynamic Rockers, BoxWon reveals how punk impresario, Malcolm McLaren, helped breaking become a worldwide craze in the 1980s - before it vanished.
But when the mainstream got bored, breaking didn’t die - it just went back underground, only to re-emerge a decade later more extreme than ever.
Breaking is once again a global phenomenon, with pro dancers coming from all corners of the world – Russia, Japan, and South Korea are now home to some of the world’s very best.
But when the International Olympic Committee confirmed breaking as a new sport for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, many people were taken by surprise.
The last time they had heard of breaking was back in the 1980s - a fad which swiftly disappeared with shoulder pads and leg warmers.
Breaking Through tells the fascinating story of how this dance-form survived and evolved outside of the media spotlight, fuelled by the scene’s die-hard devotees.
Now, as it attracts global corporate sponsorship and demands for more stringent rules and regulations, we hear about the breaking world's own internal battle to maintain its integrity.
Presenter: BoxWon (Benyaamin Barnes McGee) Producer: Simona Rata Research: Emmanuel Adelekun
Studio Mix: James Beard Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | All right there, fellow podcast lovers. |
| 0:42.0 | This is seriously from BBC Radio 4 and I'm your host |
| 0:46.3 | Vanessa Casile. If you love unique documentaries this is the podcast for you each week you'll find two new |
| 0:55.0 | episodes to discover here comes something unusual charming and |
| 1:00.2 | seriously fascinating. Back in the 1970s it was common for tourists exiting New York's JFK Airport |
| 1:19.0 | to be handed a flyer featuring the Grim Reaper's grinning face, welcoming them to Fear City. |
| 1:25.0 | Until things change, it said, stay away. |
| 1:30.0 | The 70s mark some of the darkest bleakish years in the city's history. |
| 1:38.4 | It was edgy, run down, dangerous. Violence, unemployment, and poverty blighted its neighborhoods. |
| 1:45.0 | But within the city's most marginalized communities, |
| 1:48.0 | working class African American and Hispanic kids, |
... |
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