You probably caught at least some of the RayGun Breakdancing drama at this year's Olympics....
The Kangaroo bouncing is what everyone is going to remember. However besides that she seemed to do some reasonable moves, if only up to an amateur standard, but then again, you can only do what you can do!
So as I understand it she was selected fair and square by the appropriate authorities in Australia, there was some drama around the fact that it may have a been a stitch up but that was all just fake news....
However when she got the Olympics she decided she was just going to be creative and enjoying herself, knowing that she had no chance of winning against superior competition.
The judges gave her big fat zeros for efforts based on the fact that, in their opinion, what she did wasn't actually dancing.
She got a lot of online hate for her efforts, for not taking Breakdancing seriously enough, for making a mockery of the scene, basically a lot of people thought she was being disrepecful.
Probably around 10% of the comments were from people with a legitimate interest in breaking, and the majority of trolling just from nasty idiots.
Taking themselves too seriously...?
I'm not a breakdancer, but I do appreciate the amount of skill involved and the effort that goes into getting up a level where it looks good, which is way below Olympic standard.
However we all know that Breaking has a broader culture too. It's one of those styles from the margins, fashion is part of it, attitude, respect, a certain level of cool as well.
It's not one of those subcultures where 'having a laugh' is part of it, it's actually quite serious, I mean one might say fair play too, there's a chance you could injure yourself pretty seriously if you get some of the moves wrong.
I guess it's fair enough that some of the breakdancing community in Aus are upset that she's representing them and making them look like a bunch of idiots, basically.
Should have done juggling or skateboarding instead...?
OK so fair play being embarrassed by your representatives performance, but you can only be embarrassed if you take something seriously, right?
I mean compare this to juggling, it's an activity that's similar to Breakdancing in that it looks shit unless you're really very good at it.
But if juggling was an olympic sport I can't imagine any juggling subcultures getting upset if their 'representative' just rocked up and had a play around with 3 balls rather than the 5-7 that everyone else would be doing.
That's because juggling is inherently uncool, I mean even the professionals can't take themselves that seriously because it's inherently ridiculous, even though it takes several hours of practice a day to master it at the highest level, just like breakdancing.
Even with Skateboarding, I can't imagine Skaters getting that upset if they'd have been 'Raygunned' they just seem a little more chill than breakdancers.
So I dunno, maybe a little less attitude would help all around...?!?
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
