The 16-year-old’s head spins are spectacular. His footwork, elevated by a DJ’s beats, mild and tight. However the standing of Jeff Dunne, AKA J-Assault, as Australia’s finest male breaker depends on his swagger and the odd chilly stare.
Regardless of that, J-Assault additionally has a not-so-secret weapon: his mom, Rhondda. “I’m tremendous glad,” Dunne says. “It’s great to have somebody that helps me in my life, and can proceed to help me till they die.”
Dunne, who will symbolize Australia on the Paris Olympics, was born within the Philippines. He moved right here on the age of 1 when he was adopted by Rhondda and her husband, Tony. Rhondda now travels nearly in every single place with him, performing, as she describes, as his “private baggage provider, mattress lodge maker and organiser”. The pair have been abroad seven occasions previously yr, together with to final yr’s world championships in Belgium.
“He doesn’t really feel comfy occurring his personal, and it’s not like there’s an entourage of Australians, so it’s simply us going over so he can compete and prepare, to get the texture of the massive, huge battles,” Rhondda says.
Breaking could be very a lot an grownup world. Watching J-Assault on the Australian scene, it’s simple to overlook he’s nonetheless a yr 11 highschool pupil in New South Wales’ Northern Rivers area. Though he says he acquired “good marks” in time period one this yr, Dunne’s trajectory is in the direction of a future in breaking. His faculty has allowed him to journey, and he stays updated with a laptop computer and the help of his lecturers.
“They mentioned for those who want any assist, or for those who want any further time on an project or something, simply name us up, as a result of breaking is your precedence and we don’t need to take that away from you,” Dunne says.
Dunne found breaking as a seven-year-old when he joined his older sister’s hip-hop dance lessons. By 12 he was already an elite performer, successful the 2019 Australian Youth Championships, earlier than shortly establishing himself within the open class.
The Australian breaking group has embraced the prodigy. The president of AusBreaking, Lowe Napalan, says native breakers have watched him develop since he was a toddler, and really feel a degree of funding. “He’s like everybody’s little brother,” Napalan says. However from what Dunne has heard, the scene hasn’t all the time been as welcoming.
“Breaking died down,” he says. “Particularly as a result of breakers had been too scared that in the event that they skilled a child they’d turn out to be higher than them, and so they let their ego get to them.”
Lately there’s real camaraderie. After the Breaking Oceania Championship ultimate final October that secured Dunne’s Paris place, the defeated finalist, 15-year-old Benji “BenMX” Cogdell-Baird, celebrated with Dunne as if he had gained himself.
“It’s nowhere close to as heated because it was once,” Dunne says. “There’s no beef with anybody any extra. We’re all fairly chill, we’re all supportive, and we’re attempting to show it right into a supportive group.”
Alongside Australia’s feminine consultant, Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, Dunne has turn out to be one of many faces of the Paris Olympics group. And as breaking is a brand new sport within the 2024 Video games, the pair have been tapped for dozens of interviews and promotions. “It could actually get exhausting,” Dunne says. “Typically I really feel like, ‘nicely, I don’t need to do that interview or this shoot, however you already know, it’s gonna profit my profile, get me on the market extra.’”
after publication promotion
Dunne receives some authorities and Australian Olympic Committee funding, but it surely solely covers coaching bills and flights to Olympic lead-up competitions. The game is way from an expert pursuit in Australia, and though some breakers abroad can eke out an existence by means of sponsors and endorsements, July’s Olympics gives unrivalled publicity.
Dunne has requested for monetary help on social media in current months in a bid to lift cash for journey bills for him and his mom. Dunne is hoping to get to 2 extra worldwide jams earlier than Paris, to check himself in opposition to the world’s finest.
“These previous 18 months, my mum and pa should have been utilizing their cash straight out of their pockets to get me to all these different locations with a view to prepare for battles,” he says. In April Dunne signed with administration company TGI Sport in a bid to safe his first endorsement deal.
Rhondda nonetheless holds out hope for a change of thoughts from Los Angeles 2028 officers, who’ve scrapped breaking from their program, and for the game to return to the Olympics in time for Brisbane 2032, when her son could be 25. “I’m hoping they’re going to place it again on the desk as soon as they see what occurs in Paris,” she says.
The Olympics represents a second of mainstream legitimacy for a mode of dance that emerged within the Nineteen Seventies. The place as soon as improvisation and expression had been paramount in breaking, at the moment athletes tune their routine to maximise their scores, and are judged throughout 5 classes.
Regardless of the shift in emphasis, the format of competitors is basically one-on-one battles, and confrontation stays the game’s defining function. A breaker is perhaps a refined athlete with a well-choreographed routine, however they nonetheless must carry out on the toes of their opponent, typically beneath an avalanche of trash discuss.
Dunne says breakers must “take care of it and depart all of it on the ground” however concedes he’s nonetheless engaged on controlling his feelings.
“When individuals go at me, typically it lights a hearth in me and I like to return at them,” he says. “Mum all the time sees me as a humble child, so each time I do this, she’s like, ‘Oi, knock it off.’”
