Breakdancing, or breaking, is officially an Olympic sport, but its roots run deep through hip-hop and New York culture, dating back to the Bronx over 50 years ago.
Tony “Mr. Wave” Wesley was part of that start.
“I was introduced to the culture of hip-hop, the elements of hip-hop, one being breaking, bugging, you know, locking, popping, it all fits under the word breaking,” Mr. Wave told Scripps News.
Mr. Wave was crowned with the name after becoming a member of the New York City Breakers crew.
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“I think that we all had that in our soul,” he said. “If you go back to Africa, you go back to Latin America, it’s just music that drives you to the dance.”
Despite being on the big stage now, the craft was really perfected in the projects, Mr. Wave says.
“When you go into the projects and you see thousands of people literally just dancing, having fun, congregating, meeting each other, no violence, and it was intoxicating,” he told Scripps News. “The beat pumping off that concrete, and your heart just pumping out of your chest because the system was so dope, you know, you just couldn’t get enough.”
The dance was then introduced to a wider, mainstream audience in 1984 with the premiere of “Beat Street,” a dance drama about New York City hip-hop culture. It also gave Mr. Wave more notoriety.
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“When I did ‘Beat Street,’ it actually changed my life because it made me realize that, not that I’m a star, but that I’m an inspiration,” Mr. Wave said. “I could not walk down any block. The kids were engulfing me, and I would show them. I would dance for them.”
It was the film, Mr. Wave says, that allowed the genre to explode on an international stage — and now, an Olympic stage.
“It gives you strength, power. It gives you the ability to listen, teamwork,” Mr. Wave said. “Breakdancing is a dance, but it’s also part gymnastics… We were the Olympians of the 80s. We danced for presidents, kings and queens. So now you have real Olympians, 40 years later. How could you be mad at that?”
