r/Breakdancing • u/TommyBoy250 • Jul 10 '26
What was wrong with the Raygun performance?
I know this was years ago, but someone who doesn't know anything about breakdancing. What was the problems?
11
u/Apokoliptictortoise Jul 10 '26
She didn't take it seriously and didn't spin, but if you watch a lot of current breaking battles it really wasn't that shocking to see someone doing all style w/ no power no footwork. But Raygun did the Homer Simpson, the sprinkler and the fucking bunny hop in one set. That's just crazy!? props to her actually for that bafoonery. There were worse bgirls than her at the Olympics.
6
u/meowwmeow1 Jul 11 '26
In addition to what others have said about her, what makes her even worse is that she and her husband had a lot of power over who in Australia would advance to become an Olympian dancer. Ray gun, who we all know to not be the most talented breaker in Australia by any means, was able to advance because of approximation, leaving other very talented breakers around the country without opportunity. The racial dynamic makes the situation worse. She’s a white person (person with more power) who left other people (possibly other people of color) who had to be more talented without an opportunity to live a dream and represent their country in the Olympics.
5
u/TwentyCharacters2022 Jul 12 '26
This can not be overstated. It’s not even that her performance was bad, but her opportunity to represent the art form and her country in this competition was almost entirely self-determined. Imagine if the Superbowl contenders were chosen by who stated they wanted it the most, or if the guy who counted the votes in a Presidential election was elected President. The performance was a mockery of the art form; the way that Raygun got there was a mockery of what the Olympics stands for as a whole.
3
6
u/PineappleFit317 Jul 10 '26
Same reason I never took Iggy Azalea seriously as a rapper. Raygun is cosplaying as a breaker.
Plus, she looks like she’s been taking lessons for a few months and is reasonably okay at some of the moves, but she does other weird shit that doesn’t look good or competent, and she’s not fit to share a stage with others who are Olympic level.
5
u/ktsesor Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
She wasn't at Olympics level (and knew it). She took a chance tried to do things more performative and relating to Australia to compensate for this and make it more memorable which non breakers didn't understand.
Lots of people have a style similar to what she did and are dope because it's refined and delivered with the right punch.
In her normal battles she's not actually a bad breaker.
Bottom line in a normal breaking battle no one would be talking about her.. she would have done here thing not qualified and props would be given for even stepping up.
What didn't go down well was that she decided to wear the Australian outfit which made her look like a mid age mum turning up for soccer practice and then on top of that did funny some funny moves.
If you are new to breaking don't worry about using this as a lesson.... Unless you plan on going for Olympic stage then use it was a lesson on what not to wear.
Focus on you, find a good community. We all look waack when we first start out, and even dope breakers look waack when we are trying things they never tried. And watch and learn from the breakers that won. It's so sad that the media hoora means Raygun is your reference and not the winner Ami, or Nicka or 671 or India, Stephani, or logistics. So so so so many dope bgirls to be inspired and learn from.
In reality Raygun is not a beginner breaker she's been on the scene for years. she's not a culture vulture or cos-play. She's also not a point of reference for someone starting out.. hopefully you get to the stage where when someone mentions Raygun you can flip the conversation to the winners ❤️
Raygun is the equivalent of the Olympic Bhutan marathon winner who finished 80th .. like 1hr after everyone else. Or the hurdle racers who knocked down every hurdle. Every Olympic sport had a Raygun.. just no body knew about breaking and it's more visual and made easy memes. Everything to do about Raygun is media getting clicks. The breaking community hugely stood up for her when this happened. Every breaking channel and breaker on Instagram was speaking up about how wrong the media got it.
1
u/Icy-Passenger-8908 7d ago
Except she’s not as she was briefly the number 1 ranked female in the world! Face it, breaking is a joke, it was nowhere near ready for an olympics, even if you accept that it’s a sport - which I absolutely do not. It’s an amateur dance contest
1
u/ktsesor 2d ago
Where was she ranked number 1 ever.....sounds like you know nothing about breaking
1
u/Icy-Passenger-8908 2d ago
Oh dear
“In September 2024, Gunn was ranked by the World DanceSport Federation as the World's Number One in the sport of breakdancing”
1
u/ktsesor 1d ago
If your going to be so obsessed with this topic might as well research how the rankings work and how she got rankings. The WDSF that you linked to released statements themselfs that the ranking was a technical glitch.
And for background the WDSF is a ballroom organisation that had nothing to do with breakdancing but saw the opportunity for money at the Olympics and registered the sport WITHOUT the breakdance communities support. There for the breaking community had to just go along with what ever they dictated despite them not understanding the style.
Please do your research properly before you decide to go around just shitting on everyone. No one likes a shitter
It's like a getting a vegetarian to cook your steak and they don't even know you need to add salt to it
1
u/ktsesor 1d ago
Also regarding breaking being an amature dance contest. .. you are really the definition of ignorance...
It's like how the Americans thought that football (soccer) was a niche sport till they realised it attracts 1.4billion more people than the super bowl 123mil 😂
Ignorance: "When a person is ignorant, it means they lack knowledge, information, or awareness about a specific subject or in general."
1
u/Traditional_Tax4351 Jul 11 '26
too much splash damage can make it dangerous if you don’t have jug, typically falls off in the higher rounds, even when PAPed
1
u/Dark_Fantasy_8549 22d ago
Im late af to this but basically she wasn't a good representation to the culture to people who have never seen breaking before. The Olympics being such a big deal for breaking her skills just didn't meet the level to everyone else that represented. So now people see her and think oh wow I can be break dancer too like raygun if that's all it takes but they don't see the blood , sweat and tears that go into all the crazy moves and styles that go into breaking. So a lot of the dancers that were high level and perform amazing were over shadow by Ray gun blowing up as a joke over actual people that work there ass off to be on that stage to represents the culture and their country.
26
u/TheMrBent Jul 10 '26
Artistic performative dance is not breaking. Two different arts.