The future of Filipino breaking: A tale of two kuyas

Abstract

With world champions breakers like Canada’s Karl ‘Dyzee’ Alba and the United Kingdom’s Ereson ‘Mouse’ Catipon, Filipino diaspora have been a global force in breaking; however the domestic Filipino dance scene has remained relatively understudied. In this article, I argue that breaking in the Philippines has been stymied by an ongoing ideological battle between professionalization and tradition. This juxtaposition is aptly distilled in the legacies of Dyzee and Mouse, in which the former mentored local dance professionals and the latter made the country a mecca for hip hop humanitarianism. These highly regarded thought-leaders each garnered local followings that are often at odds with each other. Despite these differences however, on the issue of the Olympics, the two camps have joined together in unprecedented fashion. In 2021, Filipino dance community leaders formed the B-boy & B-girl Association of the Philippines (BBAP) in order to unite the local scene and take ownership of the country’s Olympic endeavours. With Dyzee as president and Mouse as vice president, BBAP combines community-building and enterprise in order to enhance the Philippines’s global competitiveness and visibility in the world of breaking. This research aims to historicize Filipino breaking culture in light of the Olympic moment. To do so, it employs an ethnography among BBAP supported by personal and archival interviews from the 2011 documentary, Pinoy B-boy (Bitanga 2011).