B-Boying in B-Town

As the church clock strikes six in Charlottenburg, the sidewalk in front of the Deutsche Oper  Berlin is briefly overrun with opera-goers: heels clicking, overcoats billowing, tickets for “Tannhäuser“ in hand. At the rear of the opera house, in what looks like the building‘s poorer cousin, another scene is gathering. Kids in baggy clothing and sneakers mill around the community centre. They‘re hanging out, waiting for things to happen.

B-Boying, better known as break dancing, has long since migrated from its birthplace on the streets of American ghettos to commu­nity centres and dance studios across the world. Alongside graffiti, MCing, and DJing, B-Boying is one of the four pillars of hip hop culture. “A lot of people think break dancing happens on the streets, ‘just for fun,‘“ says Vartan, unofficial supervisor of the open training session that takes place at the community centre two evenings a week. “B-Boying is dance. Training is everything. This,“ he says, nodding to the twenty or so youth gathering in the large hall, “is how the tradition gets passed on.“
Vartan wears a Nike training jacket, baseball cap and jeans. At 30, he is something of a grandfather in the Berlin B-Boying ...