♪♪ The first rule of breaking -- don't call it breakdancing.

♪♪ Breaking is a form of dance that is known for having stylized footwork and acrobatic moves and is one of the four pillars of hip hop.

♪♪ The sport originated in the 1970s at a neighborhood party in the Bronx in New York City as hip hop was coming to life.

The dancers, known as B-Boys and B-Girls, would dance at parties, clubs and in parks and eventually became mainstream in the 1980s.

The sport has come a long way in 50 years and will make its Olympic debut at the 2024 Paris games.

♪♪ We want the same recognition as like snowboarders and skateboarders.

We want that type of recognition too.

♪♪ Tami Swartwood: Welcome to my garage.

This is where Des Moines Breakerz, which we're now DSM Breakerz, first came about.

♪♪ DSM Breakerz is a non-profit that aims to offer a safe environment for people to practice the art of breaking through classes, performances or competitions.

♪♪ Tami Swartwood: It's more than just being physically fit.

Breaking comes with a culture and there's experiences along with that.

The new athletes now are artists.

♪♪ Like gymnastics, breaking is a judged sport, except there's no rigid point system.

Instead, B-Boys and B-Girls are scored on their creativity, personality and technique.

♪♪ B-Boy Homie Sky is one of the young talents working to raise the profile of the sport.

♪♪ He placed 9th in the teen division at the Breaking for Gold Tour in 2022, just shy of qualifying for the national team.

♪♪ Now, Sky is focused on passing his knowledge and skills to the next generation of breakers.

♪♪ Skyler Fongdaro: In breaking there's four fundamental categories.

One is top rocks, the first one.

It's the way you introduce yourself.

Cross, crossing your body, back, cross, back, cross.

And then your second element of your set is footwork.

And footwork is kind of just more floor oriented.

You're kind of instead of just on your feet you're mostly using other parts of your body as well.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

Number three, power moves.

Power moves are the more acrobatic moves and the more aerialesque type of moves.

They're kind of flashy.

And then four would be freezes.

Freezes are kind of like punctuation.

Skyler Fongdaro: Creativity and expression goes a long way, especially everybody is their own person, and I think being an individual you should have some uniqueness to yourself.

And so, my uniqueness is I find breaking as a really expressive outlet.

♪♪ Long before there were organized competitions, B-Boys and B-Girls performed in cyphers, which refers to the circle that breakers enter into to take turns dancing.

♪♪ Skyler Fongdaro: The music is really, really loud.

You can feel it in your chest, like the bass is just boom, boom, boom.

And you're kind of just in the zone.

You're just like looking around, you're seeing people younger than you, older than you, same age as you and you guys all just kind of come together and under one roof you share yourself, you share the love and you share the floor.

♪♪ Skyler Fongdaro: I think my biggest inspiration is just the Des Moines area full of all the breakers because we're just a small city, but we're trying to make it big.

♪♪ Tami Swartwood: So, when you think hip hop, you don't think Iowa.

So, when we're out traveling to these places, we're making them know that we are more than just farmland here in Iowa and that we have a culture here that we embrace it and we're teaching it to that next generation.

We have made a name in the last two years and that we are on the map and we're staying on the map.

♪♪ All right, let's give it up for this next generation!

♪♪