Via

There are a lot of dance moves many thought ended with the 80s, but there are plenty of people still break-dancing or b-boying. Victoria Murgida is among the hundreds of dancers set to battle it out at the World Bboy Battle.

“It’s pretty exciting. I have never really danced on the stage before,” she says.

The battle will be the first of its kind. Organizers say it will be less of a dance-off and more of a sporting competition.

“We are judging and scoring these athletes on a numerical system. Our system is on a 10 point system which incorporates 10 elements of break-dancing fundamentals which includes degree of difficulty, dance, originality,” says Frank Hernandez, the competition’s creator and founder.

He’s also creating a league that will keep stats and rankings for the dancers, who are not all young people. Many are also professionals.

“Blue collar workers, police officers, EMTs, engineers—they work in retail. They work… they’re professionals you know, and the beautiful thing about them is that their passion for b-boy is so great that they travel on weekends all over the world, all over the nation to complete.

Right now, many dancers compete for a small amount of money or bragging rights.

In this competition, which will be held at Queens Theatre in the Park on January 24 and 25, they will battle for 5$,000 dollars in cash and prizes. The winner will take home $1,500 dollars. Many winners usually take home about $200, according to Hernandez who is former dancer who started on the streets of Washington Heights at the age of 13. By 15 he was traveling the world with artists like Run DMC and Afrika Bambaataa.

Back in the 80’s I made a lot of money performing and I was taking care of my family.

He now wants today’s dancers to be able to do the same.

To find out more about tickets or how to compete go to worldbboybattle.com.