In December 2020, the International Olympic Committee announced that breaking would be featured in the Olympic Games for the first time in history. By then, Singapore had already won its first medal in breaking at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games — clinched by Jeremy Sim — who was dubbed by the media as Singapore’s “golden boy”. 

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When we first decided on pursuing breaking as our topic, none of us were ever dancers. But we were so excited as journalists, because the Paris 2024 Games would be the first time a dance would be seen by the world as a sport. We were curious about what that would mean, both for Singapore and the world’s dance community. 

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Singapore is one of the smallest countries in the world; our breaking community is but a fraction of the size of those in other countries. Yet so many of us believed the nation could very well stand a chance to compete amongst 15 others at the Games, a dream we explored in From Far East Plaza to Paris — Do Singapore's breakers stand a chance at the Olympics?

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In the process of weighing Jeremy’s chances at being at the Olympics against the odds, we found another group of breakers silently working their way up to the Olympic dream — the b-girls of Singapore — whose stories are hardly heard and seen by the public. Through Girls got power; girls got moves, we were heartened to see how much the breaking community had grown from when it first began in early 1980s. These women fight their way against prejudice and the will of nature with dreams of representing Singapore one day.

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Others believe that breaking can be a vehicle for social change. In “Here, we are winners”: Local breakers empower youth-at-risk through dance, subcultural group Elevate The Streets seeks to provide a safe space for youths to express themselves. 

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The positive influence of breaking trickles further down to an even younger demographic: the children. How children are taking Singapore’s breaking scene up a notch explores the effort of Singapore’s youngest in carving a path through breaking at an unprecedented age — where potential runs limitless. 

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This time and age marks a significant point in Singapore’s history. Once seen as a nuisance in public, breaking has evolved to become a beacon of hope for cultural richness and diversity, lighting the way towards greater acceptance for the arts.