Breaking
Phil Wizard sat down with Red Bull to give an inside look into how he got his start in breaking, sacrifices he's made along the way, the importance of family, next summer in Paris, and more.
Vancouver-based breaking champion Phil Wizard is locked in as the final stretch of the calendar is slowly coming to a close. Phil competed at the Red Bull BC One World Final in Paris, France in October where he finished in 2nd place, narrowly losing in the final to friend and fellow B-Boy Hong 10, and most recently won the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. His win in Santiago means he earned an automatic qualification to the world's biggest sporting stage next summer in Paris, France.
Phil recently visited Toronto and hung out with the Red Bull team, taking some time from his busy schedule to sit down and reflect on his career so far, breaking as a subculture and an art form, why he’s still so passionate about the sport after all these years, and much more.
What's your origin story and how you did you get into the subculture of breaking in Vancouver?
Now or Never was my introduction to breaking. Jheric from the Now or Never Crew came to my elementary school at the time and they were teaching hip-hop choreography. At around the same time, I saw a live breaking performance for the first time in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
The Now or Never Crew was performing there at the time and it just blew my mind, so I went to Jheric and asked if he taught breaking. He gave me his business card and started teaching me lessons.
They were the first people who introduced me to dance and I started taking studio classes with them. After two to three years of training, I started going to Robson Square, which is a very popular community spot for breaking in downtown Vancouver, where people go to practice.
I started hanging out with people from the Soul Felons Crew, the Hood’s Crew, people like JBugz, Virn, and Now or Never and started training with them.
That was an interesting turning point for me because Now or Never and this new community I was with were on opposite sides. I got the broad spectrum of approaches to dancing. The Robson Square crew was a lot more creative and about originality, whereas Now or Never was more performative and did a lot of showcases which were full of energy. They showed me how to present myself as a character on stage. I felt like I got the best of both worlds.
Fast forward to 2018, that was when I started training more on my own. I also started my first crew, which was called the Wizards, with Samson, Dylan, Siah, and myself. They became my core people in this space. Over time, I started doing more solo events which is what my main focus is these days.
Growing up were you into breakdancing or hip-hop? Did you consider yourself to be a creative person?
I wasn't into hip hop growing up at all, music in general wasn't a forefront of my life. I was drawn to the incredible physical feats, it reminded me of anime, of superheroes doing incredible things. And when I started doing it I was then further drawn to the creativity.
I was an imaginative kid growing up, playing pretend, running around in my underwear at home being a superhero, or anime character. And I think I harnessed that into the creative aspect of breaking, and also admired the greats in breaking the same way I did with my shows.
What advice would you give someone who is aspiring to get into breaking like you have?
The easiest way is to take lessons from a studio. That would teach you the cultural aspect of breaking, but you will learn about movements and I don’t think that’s a bad way to start.
Once you get more into it, you’ll find where the community is and where the people go to train, and you can start joining them at local practice spots weekly. They’re pretty easy to find on the internet. I was able to find spots just being on Facebook groups or asking my teachers at the studio where they were.
What would you say is the best and worst advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve had a lot of people tell me to have a back-up plan, to get a job, to go to school, and it pushed the doubts that I already had in my head to the forefront. In retrospect, I think it’s not the advice you want to give to a kid who is trying to pursue his dream. It made it a lot more difficult for me early on because I was so scared of failing because of it.
To be honest, I think it was other people putting their insecurities on me. They were like, “I’ve never made it, I’ve never seen anyone around me make it, so you’re not going to make it either.”
I’m here now and I’m living the dream and that’s thanks to a lot of people who told me I could do it.
Off the top of my head, I don’t have anything particular that stands out when it comes to best advice. But as cheesy as it is, I would say the best advice I’ve gotten is people telling me to follow my dream, to just go for it. Because I’m here now and I’m living the dream and that’s thanks to a lot of people who told me I could do it.
Are there a lot of sacrifices that come with your career?
I’ve had to sacrifice a lot more than I expected. There’s just a significant amount of dedication that’s needed for anything you want to pursue. With breaking, I’ve had to sacrifice my social life. I never went out much in Vancouver. I sacrificed a lot in terms of not seeing my family. I had to skip out on a lot of holidays and also time spent in a relationship with my partner.
You skip out on a lot of these things because you’re always on the road pursuing this. It’s very mentally draining because of the financial instability when you’re starting out and not knowing if you can make it.
How is your relationship with your family? Was it a bit of a shock to them when you told them about pursuing breaking as a career?
They were hesitant in the beginning because they wanted the best for me. My parents are immigrants who came to this country. They wanted us to grow up in Canada, go to school, and get a stable job.
When I told them I wanted to break, it was definitely an out-of-left-field thing for them. It was difficult at first, but they’ve always been supportive. My parents don’t come from a lot of money but my mom helped pay for my first few trips which helped put my name on the map and allowed me to ride that momentum to where I am today. I’m super thankful for my family and their support.
Check out this Round of 16 battle between Phil Wizard and B-Boy Kazuki at the Red Bull BC One World Final India:
You said it was difficult at first with them. How about now?
They love it. My parents are so funny. Sometimes I think they know more about breaking than me. We’ll talk about the Olympics and they’ll be explaining to me what events I should hit up when I’m there. It’s really cute.
Speaking of next summer in Paris, there are people who don’t look at breaking as a sport. What’s your response to that?
I think people who are questioning why breaking is an Olympic sport are those who don’t watch our competitions. They’ve got this image in their heads of people dancing on cardboards in the ‘80s. Or they used to break dance as a kid and don't think it is a sport.
But I think people will fall in love with the sport if they just make the time to watch one of the competitions. It’s very athletic and what the people in the breaking space are doing is incredible. What we have to achieve takes an incredible amount of training. I would more than anything tell these people to give it a chance.
Watch a competition and you’ll fall in love with it.
You’re considered to be the best in your sport. How do you think you’ve gotten to this point?
Everything comes down to the most simple things, but they’re also the most difficult things to maintain. It’s consistency, passion, and a little bit of obsession. I’m obsessed with breaking and I’ll always put in the time to train regardless of how I’m feeling.
Now, it doesn’t mean I always have a good training session. I’ve had a lot of bad days and I still have a lot of bad days. But I always show up and I’m always consistent in my craft and I love it. I think you have to be borderline obsessed to be really good at what you love.
What still keeps you going day-to-day?
The same things that have kept me going since the beginning. I still love this thing. I'm very passionate about what I do. There are more driving factors now.
I think my family is another driving factor. To be able to support my family a little bit from a financial standpoint now is so rewarding. It’s something I never thought I would be able to do, especially while doing what I love to do.
I still love this thing. I'm very passionate about what I do.
The possibilities to see where I can take this also excites me. I’m at a place in my life where I’m very lucky to have the opportunities I have now, but I didn’t think I would make it this far, and it’s crazy to see how much more I can do. That excites me.
But at the heart of it all, it’s about the art of breaking. It’s the love of my craft and the love of movement. My love for breaking makes me want to improve every day.
What's Phil up to for the rest of 2023?
Phil has had a thrilling 2023 season so far and is showing no signs of slowing down with a few more big stops on the calendar. He recently competed at the Red Bull BC One World Final in Paris, where he finished in 2nd place after taking on B-Boy Hong 10 in the final. This marked Phil's fourth appearance at a Red Bull BC One World Final.
With 2023 coming to a close, Phil was looking to finish his year on a high note at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. And that he did. He beat American B-Boy Jeffro 3-0 in the final battle to win the gold medal. But maybe most importantly, Phil secured his spot at the world's biggest sporting stage next summer in Paris, France, where breaking will make its official debut.
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