On Friday, breaking makes its Olympics debut at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. This form of dance, created by Black youths in the Bronx in the early 1970s, has traveled far from its birthplace. Support for hip-hop education in the States typically comes from nonprofit organizations, after-school programs and for-profit dance schools. Despite breaking’s American roots, it has never been institutionally supported in public schools as part of a coordinated national policy. The Lycée Turgot, a public high school housed in a majestic 19th-century building, has for the past seven years been home to France’s premier national hip-hop dance program.

---

Organizations: Concorde Locations: Paris, Bronx, Canada, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, France