THEOne of the men behind the music at the Paris Olympic breaking competition, which kicks off at the Place de la Concorde on Friday with the women’s event, wants to resolve a debate that has been raging since breaking’s inclusion in the Olympic Games was announced from Paris. at the end of 2020.
What you’re about to watch at the Olympics is no a sport.
“I consider it an art and a dance,” says New York resident Stephen Fleg, aka DJ Fleg, who along with DJ Plash1 from Poland will be spinning and scratching the records that the breakers will pass to. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s incredible athleticism to it. But that doesn’t make it a sport in itself. The only reason I like to make that distinction is to make sure we maintain the integrity of it. Because if it becomes pure athletics, you will lose one of the biggest elements you have, which is creativity, personality, things that are generally not part of sport in the same way.”
The results-centric nature of sports, Fleg says, can interfere with dance as an art form. “The main thing is just the status and goal-oriented nature of sports, where it’s like, ‘You need to put this ball in this hoop,’” Fleg says. “I love sports, so don’t get me wrong. But at the same time, when breaking becomes goal-oriented in that sense only, you lose the drive to express or create in the same way that built the dance from its founding. It’s a dance. Any other dance would not be considered a sport. Dance is its own category, its own plan of things.”
“That’s pretty much the objective truth, because breaking will die if you start treating it strictly as moves,” says Fleg. “The movements do not cover all of this. I’d like to say that’s my opinion, but I really don’t think it’s an opinion. I think that’s the fact.”
At the Olympics, the break DJ is considered a “technical official”, which understates the role. The person who measures how far someone throws the javelin, or makes sure swimmers stay in their lane… that’s a technical official. The innovative DJ is an integral part of the whole affair. Unlike, say, figure skaters, who carefully choreograph their routines before a competition, breakers don’t know what song the DJ will play.
DJs are like baseball pitchers. Fleg will offer something: it’s up to Olympic athletes to react spontaneously and get it right.
“I don’t want to get too self-aggrandizing here, but the role of what I’m doing has never been something that has existed in the Olympics or major sports,” says Fleg. “I’m not an idle player who sits and watches to see what’s going on, to make a judgement. I have an active role, a very active role, in the way the dancers descend.”
Fleg insists that none of the breakers contacted him with song requests. “They know better,” he says. “Even in regular competition, this is a great way for me to definitely not play that. I don’t want to be blatantly biased.”
Fleg, 38, grew up in the Baltimore suburbs and started going broke when he was 13. He has been a DJ since he was 20, both in competitions and clubs, and is also a music producer and event organizer.
It promises a variety of beats in the break. “You’ll hear African rhythms, Latin rhythms, fun, psychedelic things,” says Fleg. “James Brown, hip-hop. It’s good to go in with an open mind about the music and just enjoy it.”
He hopes to correct misperceptions. “People kind of scoff,” says Fleg. “They do the worm. Look, this dance has been evolving for 40 years. And most people still don’t know what that’s like. They’re about to find out. When you see some of these moves, where the athleticism comes into play, these guys are incredible. They are geniuses, they are physical geniuses.”
Is Fleg nervous?
“People asking me if I’m nervous makes me more nervous than I need to be,” says Fleg. “But in general, I’m fine. I’m just focusing on what I have to do here.”
I point out to him that this will be the first time he will play in front of millions of people around the world.
Am I not helping?
“Again, yes,” says Fleg. “The answer is yes.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
