In the Studio: B-girl Ray Gun

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Known to many as breakdancing, breaking sprung up in the economic and social unrest of 1970s New York, as a form of expressive protest. Today, it is also a globalised and dizzyingly virtuosic competitive dance sport - and now it is making its debut at the Paris Olympics. We follow Australian competitor Rachael Gunn (B-girl Raygun) as she hits pause on her day-job as a university lecturer and prepares for her debut on the Olympics stage. In conversations across the final 100 days, as she practises at home in Sydney, tests out new moves in the UK, and gets settled in Paris, we hear about the challenges of training, experimenting, and honing her performance.

Transcript

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0:00.0	As soon as it's your turn, you know, whether you're starting or whether you're going second,
0:06.0	you've got to be ready to make an impact.
0:08.0	You've flown 30 hours and you get one shot 50 seconds, you know, a minute.
0:19.0	So the pressure is really there. The pressure is really real. This is really there. This is Rachel Gunn, or Doctor Gunn as she's known at work.
0:28.3	The university lecturer Ray Gunn wants to go.
0:31.4	Final, of the go. Last chance.
0:35.0	But in 2024, she's about to step out onto a stage that's rather bigger than a college
0:42.3	lecture theatre and under a different name.
0:45.0	Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service which
0:50.9	uncovers the inner workings of the world's most creative minds.
0:54.8	I'm Amelia Parker, and in this episode we're following Australian dancer Ray Gunn,
0:59.5	as she prepares for the performance of a lifetime.
1:02.1	Ray Gunn, two to one.
1:04.0	In late 2023,
1:09.0	she became one of the first female dancers,
1:11.0	or B girls, to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics in its newest category.
1:20.8	You might have heard of it as break dancingancing. That's the term the media coined in the 80s to describe it.
1:26.0	But breaking is its real name. Rachel should know. She's got a PhD in it.
1:31.0	Breaking is a culture. It's got a PhD in it. Breakinging is a culture.
1:33.3	It's got its own traditions and practices.
1:36.4	It's also a community.
1:38.2	It's a lifestyle.
	...

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