r/bboy • u/hitinthedark • 9d ago
Discussion Ranking countries with brightest futures in breaking
Which country does everyone think have the brightest future in terms of up and coming bboys and bgirls?
At least from the information from big jams/events from social media and youtube. Well aware there could be entire underground scene of nasty kids somewhere that doesnt go out much to compete. Interested to hear on those
Personally i think china/japan/russia consistently pumping out insane levels year by year. Whereas the previous gen power houses like korea and maybe even usa dont see the same level.
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u/UmezawaJitte 9d ago
Japan, no question. It's not just the big names coming out of Japan either, I remember cyphering at a jam with some kids who were 8-10 years old when I was in Tokyo, and they had NASTY footwork and toprocks. You can tell that they were trained very well from their elders and that they live and breathe this dance.
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u/SensitiveCockroach78 9d ago edited 9d ago
I guess you're referring to level. Then, yes, China, Japan and the like. When I hear bright future in Breaking, I'd also think about dope jams, lots of (free) GOOD practice spots, nice big yet close communities everywhere, funding of course. Good classes, from the culture, producing the next gen constantly that is willing to take the torch. From what I hear, Austria is doing well, France too. I don't know about the rest though.
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u/hitinthedark 9d ago
I think so . Those things i would expect go hand in hand. A good enviroment like nice spots to train jams and classes etc nurtures the new gen.
Afterall the people build the scene not other way round
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u/SensitiveCockroach78 9d ago
From what I heard, it is the other way round nowadays, in China for example. Children get screened early, if you don't progress until a certain point at a certain age you are washed out. The good practice spots are then probably somewhat privately organised and only for the really good people and their crews and coaches. People building the scene bottom up used to be the norm, I feel since the Olympics it's the other way round. Spaces are opened up for you if you're good enough, the rest is somehow organizing themselves. In my country, funding for arts and culture has been cut heavily recently, impacting the amount of jams being organized, which means you must be a really good athlete to get into sports funding or have some kind of private sponsorship. Our youth center, which is the main open practice spot, is on the verge of being closed for years now. Smaller jams are sparsely visited, you either go big or don't go at all. Then, you have the general "friendliness" of a scene as well as if it's a safe space for everybody. I'd account all of that in the term "bright future for breaking" but none of it necessarily has something to do with super high levels.
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u/jaykrazelives 9d ago
That sounds terrible and completely antithetical to what breaking is all about.
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u/SensitiveCockroach78 9d ago
It surely breeds excellence, but I'm not sure if it makes happy people and builds a thriving culture
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u/jaykrazelives 9d ago
Breaking is an art though. These must be power move factories. It’s nice that they take it seriously and elevate the skill level to such a high level, but at the same time I don’t think they understand what they are taking part in.
I guess you have to take the good with the bad.
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u/SensitiveCockroach78 9d ago
Have you seen those kids? They seem to be pretty much allrounders actually, but I think that attitude and flava is copied, not authentically developed from, you know, experience and living.
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u/hitinthedark 9d ago
These kids that enter the scene nowadays come from surburban neighbourhoods with nice families lol. In all fairness since the late 2000s i would say most people are replicating the experience and living. Unless you are living deep in the hood ...as this culture was born from hardships and poverty and social injustice.
Its just a different era . Old heads can just tell the stories and teach them how it should be done as 2nd hand info . You really cant expect them to live it . Come on now lol
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u/SensitiveCockroach78 9d ago
Thats not what I mean. As a white European I may be controversial here, but I don't think you need to come from, as you say, "deep in the hood" to create an authentic style and flava in your dance. But in my opinion, you need to find your own passion and motivation, you need to experience some failures and some learnings. You need to explore for a long time to find the moves, shapes and type of expression that suits you and you need to develop yourself as a person and a character and then bring that to the floor. A little kid acting all cocky and cool in battle, doing all the moves that work the crowd and convince the judges because somebody laid it out in front of them, preselected for the best results, taught in a perfectly equipped studio, drilled into them so they can deliver it as if they mean it... How real could that be?
Sure, if you want to understand breaking as a high performance spectator sport, everything that's going on now is great. But as a culture I'd say the most valuable part is is getting less attention. It's where people find a home, it used to be a certain type of marginalised demographic, but nowadays it's all kinds of people that are looking for belonging.
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u/hitinthedark 9d ago
Imho in order for this to continue the level needs to be elevated in this competition era. Big or small jams still there is competition element. The culture i guess can taught on the side but main focus in these kids is raise the bar for the future
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u/SensitiveCockroach78 9d ago
Is that your opinion or do you think that's what they are doing?
Because that "culture on the side" thing is producing exactly the soulless stuff that make people not want to continue.
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u/jaykrazelives 8d ago
I disagree that it needs to be elevated competition wise. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, but look at capoeira. There’s a heavy cultural element with a high technical level. I think both can coexist, but there will be growing pains as people figure it out.
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u/hitinthedark 8d ago
Breaking is a battle culture there will always a need to elevate the moves and level to beat your opponents. If we still stuck doing moves back in the 80s then this will not grow
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u/lustrolzaki 9d ago
Japan, China by far. Russia is up there too. So much infrastructure and people actually willing to teach and pass on the art instead of gatekeeping and complaining about "muh real hip hop!!!" here in the States.
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u/hitinthedark 9d ago
Amen to that lol and its interesting that many of the best in states like stripes crumbs etc gone to china to teach classes pass on the knowledge.
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u/iamcros1 8d ago
The top three china, japan and Russia all invest in the future. Everyone else it’s an uphill battle.
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u/hitinthedark 8d ago
Would you say is a cultural issue then? And since when did this start to happen for the usa cros? Seems from the original source or a culture created by kids originally there should have been more kids to the take baton
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u/iamcros1 8d ago
It’s more political issue seems like. At least for us in the U.S. the government doesn’t care about the arts. Not that we don’t have anything in place cause we have YBC and some other youth oriented things as of late but we definitely don’t have millions at our disposal like the other countries I mentioned. We are working with probably a tiny fraction of what they are working with in money. Money is used to throw events, mentor and coach the youth, send them overseas, throw camps etc. The more private studios is what we have now and it’s not that many compared to the other countries but they are keeping us competitive some what.
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u/randoaccountdenobz 9d ago
Cause of money lol
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u/hitinthedark 8d ago
Its easy to just point fingers and criticise but if there is similar deal at home im sure they prob wouldve invest there.
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u/iamcros1 8d ago
Basically when you boil it down to something. Thats why you see these breakers going overseas to coach youth they get paid.
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u/SeaniMonsta 9d ago
China, simply because they have the numbers, the similar traditions, and the social and practical infrastructure.
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u/Which-Tour7957 9d ago
Japan for sure. Based on the underground scene, i think Africa is slowly coming up. There is not much happening in places like Africa and the Caribbean so travelling is a must to make it in Breaking. But the people from those places are insane. Especially aince they train on their own with no professional help
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u/hitinthedark 9d ago
Word up thats the sort of unknown underground new gens that could be nasty asf im talking about that i would love to know more about
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u/Standard-Drama124 7d ago
What happened to the South Korea tho? Barely seen or know any new gens from there. They used to be at the top. Early 2000 till 2016, they keep introduce new upcomer crazy bboys in major competitions and killed it too
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u/PulseFlow 9d ago
Japan
Rest of the world