Entering B-girl Raygun: A B-girl’s challenge to B-boying

by Dr Rachael Gunn (Creative Practitioner)

Research Background

The male-dominance and hyper-masculinity of the hip-hop culture of breaking (‘breakdancing’/‘b-boying’/’b-girling’) is well established across academic scholarship and the international breaking community. However, there is limited examination of how b-girls experience and challenge these obstacles through their dancing body. Entering B-girl Raygun is the first creative work in this area. It asks how we can more deeply understand the barriers to women’s participation in breaking through embodied dance practice, how women’s breaking can move beyond gendered limitations (of moving ‘like a girl’ or ‘like a dude’), and what modes of performance and ‘battling’ are effective in advancing women through a range of competition formats. The opportunities for women to compete against men in open (mixed) competitions makes breaking a productive site for such research.

Research Contribution

Entering B-girl Raygun contributes insights and new forms of embodied knowledge that not only deepen our understanding of women’s experiences in breaking, but also offer innovations in women’s performances ad facilitates their empowerment. As a series of distinct solo dance performances across a range of opens, women’s, solo, and team competitions, Entering B-girl Raygun features stylistic innovations that disrupt patriarchal evaluative measures that have too long relied on the male dancing body (or ‘b-boy’). The knowledge generated, including new stylisations of the body, repertoire of moves, and enhanced understanding of techniques, enriches and expands the performative repertoire available to women breakers and intervenes into the patriarchal politics of the scene.

Research Impact

Entering B-girl Raygun is a series of performances at 13 foremost state, national, and international breaking competitions in Sydney and Melbourne. These events are organized by leading individuals and organisations in the Australian breaking community, including the Australian Breaking Association (ABA) and DSDA. Each competition includes a series of performances that are judged by a panel of 3 to 5 expert breakers. The impact of each performance is in the success of advancing to the next round and overall achievement for each competition, including winning an open crew competition and solo women’s competition. The impact is also evident in my position as top ranked b-girl in the 2020 and 2021 ABA rankings, and widely attended women’s introduction to breaking workshop and subsequent classes.