Breaking at the Olympics

Something fun that came up for this Summer was an analysis of Breaking at the Paris Summer Olympics…

In our circles there were strong opinions (many polarizing), but they led to some really cool discussions.

So here are some ideas for your Intermediate/Secondary classroom using dance to open up some bigger ideas pertaining to cultures and media literacy:

In your opinion, is dance a sport?

Breaking is usually done in a battle format with judges, but does placing it in the Olympics remove it from its Cultural Context?

Why was there so much backlash against the Australian Breaker, Raygun?

Does the media coverage seem properly informed and who are their sources?

Historically Breaking has been represented negatively by White media sources; do you think that is still true?