When breakdancing makes debut in Paris Olympics, this Broad Ripple grad could be there

FISHERS – Carmarry Hall never loved sports. She loved dance.

Lived and breathed it. At age 7 or 8, she found herself dancing at night in the small space between twin beds in her room. Anything to outdo her cousins. She was listening to music from pop singer Aaliyah’s album, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, before her mother made her turn it off and go to bed.

“I just remember sitting on my bed and thinking, ‘That was so much fun. I can’t wait until tomorrow,’ “ she said.

Now she has a nickname, Pep-C, and perhaps an unexpected tomorrow: Representing Indiana and Team USA on sport’s biggest stage: the Olympic Games.

Hall, 26, a Broad Ripple High School graduate, has become one of the nation’s top breakdancers. And “breaking,” as it is called, makes its Olympic debut in 2024.

In an attempt to lure young viewers, the International Olympic Committee included skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Breaking, which was part of the 2018 Youth Olympics at Buenos Aires, continues the trend.

And here’s breaking news: Pep-C is on a pathway to Paris.

Sixteen men and 16 women — b-boys and b-girls — qualify for the Olympics, featuring no more than two per gender per country. Judges award scores on six criteria: creativity, personality, technique, versatility, performance, musicality.

Pep-C is coming off a second-place finish Aug. 13 at the national championships in Philadelphia, allowing entry into events scoring points toward the Olympics. She added to a resume that includes a recent victory in a Red Bull BC One regional competition, also in Philadelphia. She thus made those national finals, as she did in 2019 and 2021.

Red Bull BC One, the biggest one-on-one breaking competition, and Olympic qualification are separate and unrelated. It can be hard to navigate it all. There is “a space for everybody,” Pep-C said.

Like other artists and Olympic athletes, she has part-time employment and seeks sponsors so she can pursue her passion. Supporters can contribute money through her website, bgirlpepc.com.

She said she is still building a reputation.

“Breaking isn’t huge like gymnastics or swimming or something like that,” Pep-C said. “It’s fairly underground.”

She lives in Indianapolis, across from Ben Davis High School, where she practices on outdoor tennis courts. On other days, she is on a racquetball court, in a fitness center or at 31Svn Street Dance Academy in Fishers. Pep-C said she does video chats with coaches but is largely on her own.

Improvisation is a hallmark of breaking, after all. The street dance originated in the 1970s in New York City among Black and Puerto Rican youths. Dance academy owner Keegan Loye said the Olympics bring more respect to breaking.

“I’m all for where it goes,” he said. “Because I do believe the trajectory of breaking and hip-hop since its birth — from 50 years that started in the Bronx and now it’s a worldwide phenomenon — speaks to something.”

If breaking is not a conventional sport, there’s no denying the athleticism required. The four elements include:

>> Toprock: String of steps performed from a standing position.

>> Downrock, or footwork: Movements on the floor with hands supporting the dancer as much as the feet.

>> Power moves: Acrobatic actions in which the breaker is supported by upper body while the rest of the body spins.

>> Freezes: Stylish poses emphasizing strong beats in the music or to signal end of a set.

Pep-C, born in Muncie, moved to Indianapolis as a child. She tried sports — volleyball, basketball, track and field — but did not stick with any of them. She enrolled at Broad Ripple for the arts program.

That allowed her to earn a scholarship to Columbia College in Chicago, where she studied a range of dance styles — ballet, modern, hip-hop, west African. She was attracted to breaking, she said, because it makes her feel strong.

“If I’m into a song I really like, I have those moments where it feels kind of like I’m blacking out,” Pep-C said. “It’s just a flow. It’s almost like a meditation. You enter a different realm.

“You’ve got a whole other experience in a different dimension.”

And competition — one-on-one battles — has long been a part of breaking.

“There’s legendary battles online where these two b-boys are battling in a hotel hallway,” Pep-C said.

Judging is not new to the Olympics, either, considering sports such as figure skating, boxing, diving and gymnastics. Yet to call breaking a sport, she said, is to measure creativity.

“You can’t tell me if my dance is bad or good. It’s art,” Pep-C said.

It is art. Now, 2,800 years after the Olympic Games were introduced in ancient Greece, it is sport.

Contact IndyStar reporter David Woods at david.woods@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy's Carmarry Hall could be part of breakdancing Olympic 2024 debut