Local B-boy vies for spot in 2018 Youth Olympics
B-boy from S.F. vies for chance compete in ’18 Youth Olympics
Martin “Lil’ T” Gonzales Sherwood’s head was spinning — and so was the rest of his body. The Santa Fe teen, a student at the Mandela International Magnet School, was break-dancing his way around the painted concrete floor of a dance hall at Warehouse 21 on a recent afternoon, prepping for the first big international challenge of his life: the 2018 Youth Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee made headlines in December when it announced it was adding the U.S.-born athletic style of street dancing to next year’s youth games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, along with two other medal sports — karate and sport climbing — to help build more interest among young people.
Initiated out of concerns about childhood obesity worldwide, the Youth Olympics began with summer events in August 2010. Like the official Olympic Games, the youth events are held every two years, with winter and summer events staggered every four years.
“It’s really crazy,” 15-year-old Lil’ T said of his chance to be one of the youth games’ first break dancers. “I never thought I would get selected. To know that I’m in the competition for the first junior Olympic team for dancing is unexpected. It’s crazy.”
Lil’ T and some 400 other B-boys and B-girls, as break dancers are known, are competing for 24 slots in the Youth Olympics’ battle-format break-dancing competitions in Buenos Aires in October 2018. A dozen boys and a dozen girls will participate in individual and team contests — the equal split a nod to the youth games’ efforts to promote gender equality.
Only eight of the remaining break-danc-
ing competitors, ages 14 to 18, are from the U.S., and “Lil’ T” is the only dancer from New Mexico vying for a slot in the games. He will be heading to Philadelphia this week to perform in the second stage of the Youth Olympics qualifying process.
To reach the second round, break-dancing applicants had to submit a short video, no more than 45 seconds, earlier this year. There were about 1,000 submissions from teens from around the world.
Lil’ T has been dancing since he was 9. He began taking jazz dance and ballet classes, and then developed an interest in acrobatics, which he incorporates into his break-dance style — flipping and somersaulting and rolling off his back during a routine.
“You have to develop your own style to stand out,” he said. “They call it break dancing for a reason. You have to dance, not just do tricks.”
Break dancing, heavily rooted in the African-American and Latino hip-hop culture of New York City in the early 1970s, has evolved over the last four decades from a mock-combat art form performed by youth on the streets of the Bronx in the 1970s to a media craze in the ’80s to its current status as an integral aspect of hip-hop culture and a widely appreciated performing art taught in professional dance studios.
Classes are taught in Santa Fe at the nonprofit youth center Warehouse 21.
Break-dancing traditionalists call it B-boying or B-girling.
Some historians trace the dance style back hundreds of years and say it originated in Brazil. Others credit James Brown and his high-energy stage performances for inspiring fans to develop the dance style.
Lil’ T’s coach, Christopher “Check It,” owner of the Dancing Turtle Studio in Albuquerque, said break dancing is still a relatively young style of dancing, and one of the fastest-growing in the world.
“And it’s now being put on a platform where it is being forced to be seen as an international dance form,” he said.
Coach Check-It said Lil’ T’s approach is “very unique in the way he throws his body into it. You don’t see as many dancers move as fluid and explosive as he does.”
Lil’ T’s Youth Olympics video shows off his individual style, with his jazz and ballet background evident as he performs moves reminiscent of Gene Kelly or Mikhail Baryshnikov. At other times, he moves around the floor like a guy who swallowed an extra-heavy dose of Love Potion No. 9.
It’s unfortunate that many people still see break dancing only as a pasttime of inner-city minority kids, Lil’ T said. And the powerful hip-hop music that underscores the dancing is often overlooked, he added. He hopes to draw on that music during his competition this week.
“If you go out and listen to music,” he said, “and let the power move you, you can win.”
He couldn’t think of too many drawbacks to break dance, though he sports a few floor burns and often finds paint marks and chips on his clothes after a dance.
Break dancing has built up his selfesteem, Lil’ T said, and paid off in every aspect of his life.
“It got me to the junior Olympics,” he said.