The breaking scene in Havana, Cuba and Belonging in a global breaking community
What is it about?
In this article i discuss my research about the Havana breaking scene in February 2020. I am asking how the brekaing scene constitutes itself, how dancers learn about breaking and how they stay connected to the global breaking community. I am inspired by ethnomusicologist and hip hop scholar Joseph Schloss’s (2009) ethnographic study of the New York breaking scene, from which I deploy three central aspects from his work: community as social entanglement, music as a creator of belonging, and movement as the connecting elements between dancers. I explore how these aspects are visible in Havana. I found that there are various aspects, for example, heterogeneity, internet access and possibilities to travel, connect and exchange within a global dance community, that define the local breaking scene in Havana. I also explore the idea of a global breaking community and how, why and when we das breakers can feel that we (don't) belong to it. I also question breaking’s ‘normed narratives’ – for example, the assumption that b-boys and b-girls always draw inspiration from the United States, breaking’s country of origin – to interrogate US and Eurocentric/western-nation perspectives. Finally, I explore how I was able to dive in and conduct qualitative research in Havana with relative ease in a short period of time, as a white European b-girl, hip hop, and dance scholar, and as a foreigner to Cuba’s breaking scene.
Why is it important?
This is the first research on the Cuban breaking scene and the first research about the question of Belonging of breakers in the global breaking community.