Australian breaking Olympian Dr Rachael Gunn spoke with ACM before her Olympic debut about the NSW ban on breaking in public schools.
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00:00My name is Dr. Rachel Gunn. I'm a lecturer at Macquarie University, but I also go by
00:11the name Ray Gunn, and I'm a breaker that has qualified for the Paris Olympics and will
00:18be representing Australia.
00:22It's pretty unreal. I'm really excited and honoured to be the first b-girl representing
00:31Australia in the Olympics. I just want to go out there and do my best and really showcase
00:37what Australia has on the world stage and also do Australians proud. But, you know,
00:43I can't help but use this platform that I've been given to try and advocate for this culture
00:48and this scene and dance that has given me so much. It's really, really important to
00:54me that I try and get more support to try and, you know, share the history a bit more
01:00and to try and get people to understand the richness of this culture, of this dance.
01:11I started breaking in my early twenties, so I was much later than most of my peers
01:18who had started, you know, maybe around 16 or 18 even, although a lot of people start
01:25a lot younger these days. So, I mean, it's worth saying, even though it's not in schools,
01:30there are a lot of fantastic studios dedicated to kids learning breaking, learning hip hop,
01:37learning other street dance styles. So, you know, and these are just such fantastic spaces
01:43for kids to develop their skills. And, you know, of course, shout out to Ryugi, who organise
01:51a big kids battle every year and you see all the kids from different studios around, not
01:56only around Sydney, but around the country, come down and compete against each other.
02:00And it's a really, always a fantastic event. So, I came to breaking much later in life,
02:05but I'd always done dance, different styles of dance growing up. So, I kind of wish that
02:12I'd done it younger, you know, done it earlier in life, because I think some things would
02:17have been a bit easier to learn, might be a bit easier to learn some moves when you're
02:22small compared to when you're in your thirties. So, it's, but, you know, it's just such a
02:29fantastic dance form and culture that I just love it.
02:35There's a lot of great dancers around that can help you and support you. Ausbreaking
02:47is a great place to start for finding out about what studios are in your area that you
02:53can start learning some breaking. I actually found that breaking was banned in schools
03:08when I was doing my PhD research. I was looking at the history of breaking in Sydney and New
03:14South Wales and looking at the different ways that it is interacted with, you know, broader
03:23society, be that through competitions, be that through news coverage. And yeah, I found
03:30out that in the late nineties, I believe, breaking was banned in New South Wales schools
03:36because it was deemed too dangerous. And, you know, I was pretty surprised when I found
03:42out because I, because I've never hurt myself seriously. You know, I've been breaking now
03:50for almost 13 years. Everyone that I train with hasn't hurt themselves seriously. It's
03:56just kind of overuse injuries like it is in any other sport. You know, you've got your
04:01ACL injuries, but what sport doesn't? So, I was pretty surprised that it was, you know,
04:07it had this ban in place and I kind of felt like it was more of, more tied up in the kind
04:14of attitudes towards hip hop culture in New South Wales. There is a lot of resistance and
04:23a lot of negativity around hip hop culture in New South Wales. I mean, we can see those
04:27sorts of reactions in, you know, the responses to One Four out of Mount Druitt. And, you know,
04:36last year they tried to ban rap music at the Sydney Royal Easter show. I mean, they lifted
04:43that ban. So, there is a little bit of this kind of reaction against hip hop practices and cultures
04:51in New South Wales. If you look at other countries around the world, particularly Japan,
05:00you know, they've had breaking in school for years. They've got, you know, these school
05:04programs, these camp programs, and you can see that in the level of their breakers, the skills
05:10that they have, the foundation that they have, the knowledge that they have. So, we're really
05:14doing ourselves a disservice by banning it in one whole space.