To celebrate the Francophonie and the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we’re bringing you an unforgettable BREAKING show!

         —     Show

“I have several names. People know me as breaking, breakdance, hip-hop dance, … But in the end, I’m a part of you. For years, people have been trying to analyse and understand me to find out where I’m going and why, without ever finding the answer. I started out as a child on the streets and my journey has been incredible. It hasn’t been easy every day, but with a lot of passion and hard work I’ve climbed the ladder to reach the apotheosis: entering the Olympic Games in 2024.”

This accolade reinforced Pockemon Crew’s desire to tell the story of hip-hop on stage, aimed at those who have always resonated most with this culture: the younger generation. After 23 years of artistic practice, from the street to the theatre, the company’s dancers retrace the great moments of this cultural and artistic movement that emerged in the United States in the early 1970s.

De la rue aux Jeux Olympiques tells the epic story of a culture that mixes styles, shapes and transforms dances and promotes essential, universal values: respect, perseverance, surpassing oneself and open-mindedness.

         —     Project

Based on the incredible career of Pockemon Crew – the most successful breakdance company in the world – Riyad Fghani wants to retrace the path of an entire discipline, forged in and by the street. The company has always sought to combine creation and competition, even though it has long been forced to choose between the two to gain recognition. Naturally, it frees itself from these codes by sharing a unique style for over twenty years, based on a high level of technical skill and driven by the strength and values of the battles. The show is the result of a fusion between the company’s history and the wider history of breakdance, which has found its way into the most prestigious theatres.

         —     Breaking

In the 1970s, in the streets of the South Bronx of New York, driven by a desire to get away from it all, a group of young people got together, invented names for themselves (Kool-Hurc, Phase-2, Grand Mixer D.S.T) and invented a dance: breaking, characterised by the acrobatic nature of the figures on the floor. In a circle, the ‘Bboys’ wait for the DJ, at the controls of two turntables, to set the tempo and start scratching and breaking. One boy breaks away to dance, then another, each in turn. This is breaking, the origin of hip-hop dance.

In the 1980s, the hip-hop movement crossed the Atlantic and had a huge impact in France. It began to take off between 1982 and 1984, thanks to the audiovisual media. People were dancing in the big cities, from Les Halles in Paris to the rubble of the collapsed tower blocks of Les Minguettes in Vénissieux. Groups were formed. Young people danced and invented a street culture, a multidisciplinary language in which dance echoed graffiti and rap. They express themselves through words, gestures and paint. They meet not in gangs but in “possee” to exchange ideas and steps.

Hip-hop gradually blended break and stand-up dancing, with each dancer having their own style: locking, popping, boogaloo, new style, krump, etc. Hip-hop takes its inspiration from whatever it likes. By incorporating a wide range of techniques, hip-hop is enriched and dancers have more and more gestures and movements at their disposal. In hip-hop dance, you can recognise African dance, capoeira (Brazilian dance and sport), Spanish flamenco, Indian dance, acrobatics, contemporary dance, jazz, butô (Japanese dance), etc. It is thanks to all these dances that hip-hop is evolving.

Dancers come together in “battles” or “challenges”, competing in “crews” or solo. Today there are competitions with an international reputation, such as the famous “Battle of the Year”, which brings together thousands of young people every year.