A video of an Australian competitor at the Paris Olympics has gone viral online because of how poor it was. Rachael Gunn, known as RayGun, entered the breakdancing competition and won zero points across three performances, prompting people to assume her performance was a joke. Among her now-famous moves was the “kangaroo dance,” during which she raises her hands, emulating the animal’s upper front paws. Gunn told reporters that her kangaroo dance was a demonstration of her creativity. “I go out there, and I show my artistry. That is what it is about,” she said.
Even though Gunn scored zero points, some judges have spoken out in her defense. Martin Gilian, who led the judging panel, said, “Breaking is all about originality and bringing something new to the table.”
Nevertheless, as subsequent media reports indicate that the Australian has a PhD in “cultural studies” from Macquarie University in Sydney, some commentators suggested her performance was part of an academic exercise. Her online academic profile indicates that she is interested in the “cultural politics” of breakdancing, and as such, observers suggest she took part in the competition to express her opposition to the “commercialization” of the dance moves.
Online commentator Hannah Berrelli said Gunn was “trying to make a subversive point” that she would later use in her academic work.
According to the official site of the Paris Olympics, the dance, recently labeled “breaking,” originated in the US in the 1970s and has its roots in the hip-hop culture of New York City. The first competitions emerged in the 1990s, and this year was its mainstream Olympic Games debut – although it featured in the Youth Olympics in Argentina in 2018. There were two events, one for men and one for women, and competitors are judged on power, steps, and “freezes.”
In Paris, Canadian Philip Kim won the gold medal in the male competition, followed by French competitor Danis Civil in the silver position, while American Victor Montalvo won the bronze. In the women’s contest, Japanese dancer Ami Yuasa won gold, Lithuanian Dominika Banevič took silver, and China’s Liu Qingyi won the bronze medal.
