Meet Sunny Choi, NYC- based B-Girl making waves in the world of breaking

In The Know by Yahoo
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Sunny Choi is a top-ranked breakdancer who's won titles in major competitions like the World Games, Red Bull BC One and many more. Now, she has her eyes on the 2024 Olympics

Video Transcript

- Sunny!

- Sunny! Oh!

SUNNY CHOI: It's really been a journey of learning who I am and learning how I express myself and learning about what it is that really drives me. My name is Sunny. I am a breaker living in New York City.

[CHEERING, APPLAUSE]

I was a gymnast for 15 years. I had a knee injury, so I ended up quitting. So I get to college in Philly, totally lost, looking for something to do. And there were some people who are dancing late at night. I stopped to watch, and I was kind of interested. And they were like, oh, come take a class. So I basically was hooked from that day.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

From the very beginning, I had a love-hate relationship with breaking, because I am naturally a little bit more timid, coming from a more conservative background. I'd never done that before. So I used to just sit in the corner of practice and watch everyone else dance. It's been a very slow journey to get to where I am today, where I really love the dance and also love me.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

I've been told basically my whole entire career "you need to be more aggressive. You need to go out there and smoke people, not smile at them." But you know what? This is who I am. And there is a competitive side inside of me, but it's really an internal kind of thing. It's a drive to be perfect. A drive to be the best. But best version of me.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[CHEERING]

What I would say to the scared and very timid girl who I used to be in the corner is basically just, be you. Don't be so hard on yourself, because nobody is judging you like you judge yourself. Just go out there and do what you love to do.

[MUSIC PLAYING]