Back in 2017, when I was watching the breaking battles at the Silverback Open in the suburbs of Philadelphia, a B-boy drew up into a handstand. It’s a basic element, to be sure, but this dancer tweaked it by balancing on the back of his wrists, an innovation that excited the crowd surrounding the cypher.
As I settled back down, I remember thinking, how the hell do you score that, an unexpected flip of the wrist, or any of the other spontaneous displays of creativity? The matter felt pressing because of then-recent developments.
Just a year earlier, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had announced that breaking was being added to the