Breakdancing is now an official sport at the Olympic Games and South African B-girl Courtnae Paul is excited to be representing the green and gold at next year’s event.
The summer Olympic games will take place in Paris, France.
According to Courtnae, her qualifying journey to represent her country started three years ago during the pandemic.
“The qualifying process to get into the Olympics is a complete movie, the process started for me about three years ago.
“We were still in lockdown so the first qualifiers happened online.
“Last year was the first time that I did physical events so I had to do my regionals in Johannesburg and make it through to the nationals in Cape Town,” she explains.
Courtnae, who is considered breaker royalty in South Africa as a female pioneer of the sport, says dancers were over the moon when the Olympic committee decided to include breakdancing as an official sport.
“Breaking being added as an official sport to the Olympics is completely nuts,” she says.
“I didn’t see it coming but I know that this is going to push dance, the art form and the culture (to higher levels).”
However, she says that there are several challenges for dancers in South Africa.
One of them was that most big dance competitions take place in Europe and Japan, almost on a weekly basis, making it easier for those dancers to keep up with the latest trends and remain sharp on the dance floor.
In addition, those dancers also get lots of support from their governments and the corporate world.
“Being a breaker in South Africa is such a two-edged sword. There is a very unique way of how we read music and connect to music. It’s just this spiritual thing.
“But we are so far from everything which makes it so difficult to travel to make sure that you are on the same level globally.”
Courtnae previously competed in Red Bull’s BC One competition and made it to the finals in Japan.
Later this month, she will be competing in the national finals of the competition, taking place in Cape Town on April 22, with hopes of making it to the Paris Final in October.