Breaking (when it means dance, not news): Links

Years ago when I worked at Ballet Hispanico I saw a dancer rehearsing wearing a t-shirt that read "I'm not a tomboy, I'm an athlete". The phrase stuck with me. I remember thinking that a variation of the shirt could easily be "I’m an athlete because I’m a dancer."

Since Breaking was announced as the latest addition to the Olympics that phrase has been on my mind. I've been pleased to see so much conversation on my feeds with Breaking being about joyful, curious, exciting subjects instead of the latest in news mayhem.

• B-Girl Ami Yuasa wins first-ever breaking Olympic gold medal. (YouTube)

• B-Boy Phil Wizard claims inaugural men's breaking gold at Paris Olympics. (YouTube)

• How Breaking Went From a Street Dance to an Olympic Sport. This summer, 32 athletes will compete in what's commonly known as breakdancing, a dance sport that combines athleticism and artistry. (Smithsonian Magazine)

• Dance Leads the Way as Art Meets Sport at the Cultural Olympiad. A program of arts events shown in conjunction with the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games looks at the relationship between art and sport. (New York Times)

• Fantastic feature explaining Breaking: More than 50 years since its inception, BREAKING will debut as an Olympic sport in Paris, where B-boys and B-girls will vie for gold and glory. (New York Times)

• How Will Breaking Be Scored at the Olympics? A panel of nine judges will apply Olympic rules to the dance form that originated as a free-flowing expression of hip-hop culture. (New York Times)

• What if All Dance Forms Were Considered Equal? At the Palais Garnier, ballet met hip-hop and beyond in a glittering Cultural Olympiad presentation of Saïdo Lehlouh's ever-evolving "Apaches." (New York Times)

• Once Sidelined, Breaking's B-Girls Now Throw Down at Center Stage. Women are competing in breaking in greater numbers and, thanks to better training and more opportunities, with more dynamic moves. (New York Times)

• The Surprise of the Olympics: Breakers' Delight. Breaking was invented by Black and brown kids, mostly male, in the Bronx in the 1970s. That it made Olympic history by opening with B-girls was everything. The logic of introducing breaking as a new competitive event aside, these female competitors, with their B-girl spirit and ethos, pulled the Olympic Games into the global here and now. (New York Times)

• A Viewer's Guide to Breaking at the Olympics. (Dance Magazine)

• Judging Breaking at the Olympics Is an Art, Not a Science. Breaking debuts as an Olympic sport at the Paris Games. To get there, the breaking community had to figure a way to objectively judge the subjective, while letting the dance remain a dance. (Wired)

• Don't Think Breakdancing Is a 'Real' Olympic Sport? The World Champ Agrees (Kinda) Phil Wizard, the current favorite for Olympic Gold, says it's an art and culture first. But if you're gonna hate, he'd like you to at least learn the proper terminology. (Wired)

• Poetry Was an Official Olympic Event for Nearly 40 Years. What Happened? Pierre de Coubertin hoped the modern Games would encourage the ancient Greek notion of harmony between "muscle and mind." (Smithsonian Magazine)

The Arts Contribute More Than $760 Billion to the U.S. Economy

The National Endowment for the Arts: 

Produced by the BEA and NEA, the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACSPA) tracks the annual economic impact of arts and cultural production from 35 industries, both commercial and nonprofit. The ACPSA reports on economic measures—value-added to gross domestic product (GDP) as well as employment and compensation. For the first time, the report also includes the arts impact on state economies as contributions to gross state product (GSP). The numbers in this report are from 2015, the most recent reporting year. 

The arts contributed $763.6 billion to the U.S. economy in 2015, 4.2 percent of GDP and counted 4.9 million workers, who earned $372 billion in total compensation.

• The arts added four times more to the U.S. economy than the agricultural sector and $200 billion more than transportation or warehousing.

• The arts saw a $20 billion trade surplus, leading with movies and TV programs and jewelry.

• The arts trended positively between 2012 and 2015 with an average growth rate of 2.6 percent, slightly higher than 2.4 percent for the nation’s overall economy. Between 2014 and 2015, the growth rate was 4.9 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars.

How much is 'smarter' worth?

Seth Godin: 

Smarter about the process, about the effects, about planning. Smarter about leadership, about management, about measurement.

How much is smarter worth?

In my experience, smarter is almost always a bargain, something you can buy for a lot less than it's worth.

Stephen Fry Hates Dancing

Stephen Fry Hates Dancing turns a monologue on the myriad ways in which the British comedian and actor hates rhythmic human movement into a strange celebration of the art through a spirited interpretive-dance reenactment/rebuttal. Directed, choreographed and performed by the US dancer and filmmaker Jo Roy, the result is a delightfully charged piece of performance art that’s utterly engaging, whichever side of the dance divide you tap your feet.

My Mutant Brain

I've been somewhat obsessed with this short film by Spike Jonze since the moment I saw it first making its way through social networks. From the music and dance, to the filmmaking behind it, to the fact that it is an ad for perfume in the most non-traditional way possible. Mostly I keep re-watching trying to recapture the moments of surprise I experienced the first few times I saw it. That moment when your brain registers what is actually happening as she runs up those steps and there are reflections everywhere, was, is, so satisfying. 

The film is a creative relative to Jonze's music video for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice." Both of those films make me wish for a collaboration between Jonze, Qualley and Walken.   

Client: Kenzo
Kenzo CD/EPs: Carol Lim and Humberto Leon
Written & Directed by: Spike Jonze
Actress: Margaret Qualley
VFX: Digital Domain
VFX supervisor: Janelle Croshaw
Costumes: Heidi Bivens
Song: Mutant Brain (feat. Assassin) by Sam Spiegel & Ape Drums
Production Design: KK Barrett
Director of Photography: Hoyte van Hoytema
Choreographer: Ryan Heffington