Many people often turn their noses up a bit at the sight of new sports being added to the Olympic Games every four years. The likes of golf, rugby sevens, skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing (including bouldering) have all been added to the bill for the last three Olympics in Rio (2016), Tokyo (2021) and Paris (2024) but perhaps the most controversial new sport to be included at the last Olympics was breaking.

Admittedly, I didn’t actually see too much of the sport at Paris 2024 but a couple of months ago I saw there was a breaking (more commonly known in the media as breakdancing back in the 80s!) event coming up in Tokyo thanks to targeted advertising on social media. The algorithm must think I’m a very cool guy or maybe it’s just because I’ve lapped up so many different sports in the last few years!! As it was a reasonable price and on a Friday afternoon when I’m off work, I decided to get a ticket without really doing any research about the event or whatever.

Only as I was cycling down to the venue in Shibuya on November 7th did I realise that I may be well above the average age of the other attendees at this Red Bull BC One Last Chance Cypher 2025 event. As it was, the majority of the crowd were also foreigners with many around my age, and some were even older! I guess wearing a cap made me instantly look younger and cooler, especially when I wore it backwards for a while!!

Not surprisingly, the smell of Red Bull energy drinks was very apparent as soon as I entered Spotify O-East; the venue in Shibuya hosting the event. Usually, I’d lap it up too but am currently taking a break from such drinks for a couple of months. The place is more commonly used as a live music venue and as is annoyingly common at such events in Japan I still had to pay 600 yen for a drinks ticket on entry. I exchanged it for a can of energy drink which I took home to consume at a later date!

A total of 52 top dancers (26 B-Boys & 26 B-Girls) gathered from 24 countries and two regions around the world.

It all began at 3:00 pm and was fairly relentless without much pause for breath between acts. Four people clashed each time taking it in turns to perform for about a minute each whilst the other three watched on which did mean one of them was usually in the way of some of the crowd.

The hip-hop beats and MCing (as well as the energy drinks being consumed!) had the place bouncing with excitement and anticipation each time the four competitors took to the floor.

The names of some of the b-boys and girls were very cool such as Harry Blackrock, Lookout, Hijack, Sprite, Flying Machine, Jester, Cocoa, Solid, Nutella, Logistx, Bar-B, Jazzy and erm Billy!!

Something was on the line for all the breakers (I think that’s the term used for a person doing breaking!) involved by way of qualification for the World Finals a couple of days later.

The other three competitors could usually be seen feeling the rhythm of the beats whilst they waited their turn and there was great camaraderie between them all, but one guy seemingly refused to even watch his rival’s moves on the floor!

Despite my initial reservations I ended up enjoying it more than expected and felt like I was an exciting underground event. The atmosphere in the place was good and the performances to the hip-hop beats (other genres of music are used as long as the tempo and beat pattern conditions are met) were mostly impressive, and I could really enjoy and appreciate the gymnastic style moves without a pommel horse in sight!

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