Breakdancing in the context of "Olympic sport"

Olympic sports are sports that are contested in the Summer Olympic Games and Winter Olympic Games. The 2024 Summer Olympics included 32 sports; the 2022 Winter Olympics included seven sports. Each Olympic sport is represented at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by an international governing body called an International Federation (IF).

The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo saw the introduction of four new sports, with karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing making their Olympic debuts. Breakdancing made its debut at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, and ski mountaineering will make its debut at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. Flag football and squash will make their debuts at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, while cricket and lacrosse will return after long absences.

Hip-hop (also known as rap music or simply rap) is a genre of popular music that emerged in the early 1970s alongside an associated subculture in the African-American and Latino communities of New York City. The musical style is characterized by the synthesis of a wide range of techniques, but rapping is frequent enough that it has become a defining characteristic. Other key markers of the genre are the disc jockey (DJ), turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks. Cultural interchange has always been central to the hip-hop genre; it simultaneously borrows from its social environment while commenting on it.

The hip-hop genre and culture emerged from block parties in ethnic minority neighborhoods of New York City, particularly the Bronx. DJs began expanding the instrumental breaks of popular records when they noticed how excited it would make the crowds. The extended breaks provided a platform for break dancers and rappers. These breakbeats enabled the subsequent evolution of the hip-hop style. Many of the records used were disco due to its popularity at the time. This disco-inflected music was originally known as disco-rap and later described as "old-school hip-hop".

Hip-hop culture is an art movement that emerged in New York City, in the borough of The Bronx, primarily within the black community. Hip Hop as an art form and culture has been heavily influenced by both male and female artists. It is characterized by the key elements of rapping, DJing and turntablism, and breakdancing; other elements include graffiti, beatboxing, street entrepreneurship, hip hop language, and hip-hop fashion.Many cite hip-hop's emergence as beginning in August 1973 when brother–sister duo DJ Kool Herc and Cindy Campbell hosted the first documented indoor hip hop party and culture event in the Bronx; Helping to spark the rise of the genre. However many hiphop pioneers and historians contend that Hip Hop did not have just one founding father. The black Spades street gang and Disco King Mario of the Bronxdale Houses are also considered vital in the early origins of hip-hop culture and music. Disco King Mario hosted and organized outdoor hip-hop culture events, and park jams that predated DJ Kool Herc's 1973 indoor hip-hop party. DJ Kool Herc was also among the attendees at Disco King Mario's hip-hop events. Since then hip-hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the United States and subsequently the world. These elements were adapted and developed considerably, particularly as the art forms spread to new continents and merged with local styles in the 1990s and subsequent decades. Even as the movement continues to expand globally and explore myriad styles and art forms, including hip-hop theater and hip hop film, the four foundational elements provide coherence and a strong foundation for hip hop culture.

Hip hop is simultaneously a new and old phenomenon; the importance of sampling tracks, beats, and basslines from old records to the art form means that much of the culture has revolved around the idea of updating classic recordings, attitudes, and experiences for modern audiences. Sampling older culture and reusing it in a new context or a new format is called "flipping" in hip hop culture. Hip hop music follows in the footsteps of earlier African-American-rooted and Latino musical genres such as blues, jazz, rag-time, funk, salsa, and disco to become one of the most practiced genres worldwide.

Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, locking, house dance, waacking, voguing, etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created organically from a culture, a moment in time, a way of life, influenced by natural social interaction. A street dance is a vernacular dance in an urban context. Vernacular dances are often improvisational and social in nature, encouraging interaction and contact with spectators and other dancers. These dances are a part of the vernacular culture of the geographical area that they come from.

In breakdancing, toprock is foot movement performed while standing, serving as the opening display of style, and as a warm-up for transitions into the more acrobatic maneuvers of downrock. It allows the dancer to demonstrate coordination, flexibility, rhythm, and style. Breakers may devote considerable time to developing their toprock, which may include elements of salsa, Lindy Hop, Liquid dancing and the Robot. Common toprock steps include the Indian step, Bronx step, Charlie rock, hip twist, kick step and side step.

In dance, floorwork refers to movements performed on the floor. Floorwork is used extensively in modern dance, particularly Graham technique, Hawkins technique, and breakdancing. Some dance training practices, notably Floor-Barre, consist entirely of floorwork.

Floorwork changes the body's relationship with gravity, and requires dancers to navigate between higher and lower levels ("going in and out of the floor"). These features are central to the use of floorwork in choreography, and also affect its role in technique classes. Executing floorwork smoothly requires flexible joints, a relaxed body, and attention to the kinesthetic feedback provided by the floor.