KARACHI: Hip-hop music blared as the contestants took to the stage. Streetwear logos and patterns reflected off the moving spotlights. There were air flares, hand glides, head spins and jackhammers. At last, Pakistan’s breakdancers had the chance to revel in an international competition.

The arrival of Red Bull BC One to Pakistan for the first time here on Saturday was hailed by the country’s breaking community as a watershed moment. Performing largely underground for the last decade, barring for a few events during the year, it offered a chance for the country’s top talents to showcase their skills on a global platform.

One of those talents, Syed Shariq Habib Shah — who goes by the stage-name Masoom, will get a chance to compete at the global level. With his victory in the BC One Pakistan qualifier here at the Arts Council, Shariq secured the ticket to the world final in New York where he will go up against the top breakers in the world.

“It’s a big chance … not only for me but for Pakistan as well,” Shariq told Dawn. “It’s a chance for me to show the world that we have a breaking community in Pakistan and it will only help it grow.”

It comes at an opportune moment too. Just over a year ago, breaking became an Olympic sport and is set to make its debut at the 2024 Games in Paris. The world’s top 16 men and women breakdancers — B-Boys and B-Girls as they are known — will slug it out for an Olympic medal. But for a culture that’s just a decade old in Pakistan, the Games are coming too soon.

Pakistan isn’t yet a member of the World Dance Sport Federation. A dance sport federation doesn’t even exist in the country at this point in time. It’s just a community right now, 400-strong and limited to Karachi. But it’s not that the community hasn’t tried for an Olympic breakthrough.

“Once it was announced that breaking will be part of the Olympics, the community got together and tried to set up a federation,” added Shariq. “We reached out to the Pakistan Olympic Association but there is a long list of criterion that has to be fulfilled to set it up. Right now, it doesn’t look like happening.”

Qualification events for the Olympics are already underway. And Dwayne Griffin Lucas, one of the pioneers of Pakistan’s breakdancing community, says without a federation sending Pakistan’s entries to qualifying events isn’t possible.

“We didn’t get any support in getting the federation up and running,” a rueful Lucas told Dawn on the sidelines of the BC One, where he was the host — the emcee in breaking jargon. “The list of demands to set it up and get it registered with the POA and the Pakistan Sports Board is just too much.”

For now, Lucas, who was behind one of the first professional dance crews in the country, said building the community and spreading the breaking culture was key. The arrival of international breaking stars Gibrahimer Beomont, who goes by the name Lil G, of Venezuela and Fabiano Carvalho Lopes, known as Neguin, of Brazil as judges for BC One Pakistan was inspiring for local breakers. They also held workshops prior to Saturday’s qualifier event.

“What I’ve seen here is that the community exists but it’s just the start,” Beomont, who is taking part in qualifying events for the Olympics, told Dawn. “They just need to keep at it.”

Lopes, who’s now more into mentoring new talent, said Pakistan’s breakers needed to keep performing for that ultimate breakthrough.

“They’re on the right path,” he told Dawn. “It’s only recently that the breaking scene has hit off in Pakistan so they have to keep going. Of course, now with breakdancing going to the Olympics, it’s another platform for new talent to perform.”

It’s a platform that is more relevant to Pakistan. “For a long time, breaking was just dance form to many in Pakistan,” explained Lucas. “Now it offers more ... an Olympic medal.”

But breaking’s spot at the Olympics might not last long. For now, it isn’t guaranteed a spot at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles after not being included in the initial 28 sports for the Games in six years.

WDSF, though, is pushing for its inclusion with a final decision due midway through next year. Pakistan’s breaking community will keep pushing too in its bid to set up a federation.

“We haven’t given up on our plans of setting it up,” vowed Lucas. “It will take time but eventually we will get there. It took us three years just to convince BC One to come to Pakistan. And when Shariq goes to the world final and raises the Pakistan flag, people will sit up and take notice. That is what we hope will help us move forward.”

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2022