China's dancers get set for their big break

There was still a disparity between Chinese breakers and the world's top competitors, but it was not fundamental, according to Team China and their coaches, who all expressed a shared opinion during a post-championship livestream session.

Many of them say that the young generation of break dancers lack overseas competition experience, but they have great expectations going forward.

B-girl Liu Qingyi and B-boy Qi Xiangyu were both only 16 years old when they attended the championship. Liu won the gold medal at the 14th National Games in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in September.

Pei, one of the judges, noticed in the qualification round of the championship that many breakers were wowed by the difficult power moves and body strength Liu demonstrated at such a young age.

Qi learned kung fu for several years and is very energetic. When the music starts, he is prompted by a desire to express himself, Pei says. He tutored Qi during the 20-day intensive training camp right before the championship.

However, in Pei's perspective, both of the teenage breakers need time to perfect their techniques and cultivate their personal styles, because age matters in breaking. Years of practice forges the breakers' musicality and the ways they battle.

They also need to learn more about the breaking culture-like how a certain move emerges and what signal it carries-to gain a deeper understanding of the dance and the battling form itself, he says.

B-girl Rui Fenqi mentioned that the top dancers are especially good at finding the right moves to score competition points. It is like answering a test correctly. For the winners, it was as if every word was accurate and won points, and there was no redundancy. For her and her teammates, however, it was as if they had used too many adjectives in transition, which blurred their focus.