Breaking
From leaving Ecuador and entering battles across the US to reaching the Red Bull BC One World Final in 2021, this is the fascinating story of B-Girl Isis.
B-Girl Isis has always been driven by a mentality to travel for the things she wants to learn and achieve. Amongst the first B-Girls to take up breaking in her home country of Ecuador, she honed her skills competing across Latin America before moving to America. Having won some major US battles, she earned the right to compete at the Red Bull BC One World Final 2021, but all the opportunities Isis created for herself didn’t come easily.
01
Coming up in Ecuador
From the city of Guayaquil in Ecuador, as a kid, Isis would get up at 4am to catch the bus from the north to the south of her city to go to school. She trained in ballet for 12 years, contemporary dance for two years and took theatre classes, all of which required her to do plenty of travelling. She says: “I was travelling to study the things I wanted to do. I think this gave me the mentality to go for the things I wanted.”
Breaking was a way of rebelling against ballet and my family
In 2013, at the age of 18, Isis discovered and quickly fell in love with breaking. “I think I was always a rebel and breaking was a way of rebelling against ballet and my family.”
Only five months into her first year of breaking she won a battle where the prize was to go to a big competition in Colombia. The trip was her first time travelling for breaking and the high level of the Colombian B-Girls motivated Isis to keep training harder.
Colombian B-Boys also frequently travelled to Ecuador and they advised Isis to compete in more international competitions in order to improve. Taking their advice, Isis decided that she would go to three countries every year to hone her skills.
Travelling to competitions across Latin America, and making frequent trips to enter battles in the US, Isis was heavily motivated by the fact that there were few Ecuadorian breakers known on the global stage. She says: “Ecuadorian breakers were maybe known in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, but not around the world, so I thought that maybe I could be the first to achieve that.”
02
Travelling and searching for opportunities
Isis still struggled to get many of the opportunities other breakers had in their own countries. She couldn’t travel to Europe to compete as she was always hindered by the difficulty of getting a visa. Ecuador also didn’t have a Red Bull BC One Cypher, which would have given her the opportunity to compete at one of the biggest competitions in breaking.
Determined to enter bigger competitions, Isis took part in the Red Bull BC One E-Battle on three occasions – in 2019, 2020 and 2021. She came closest to winning in 2019, making it all the way to the B-Girl finals before losing to her best friend, Luma.
When the global pandemic hit, it made life harder in Ecuador and so Isis decided to move to America. Seeing it as a good opportunity to open doors for her breaking career, she was able to get a visa with the help of her uncle who owns a circus in the US. This turned out to be a crucial and life-changing decision as in the space of a few months her breaking career reached a whole new level.
03
Winning in America
Before moving to America Isis had never won a battle there, but now living in the States that would quickly change. She won the 2021 Temple Rock B-Girl seven to smoke battle, the 2021 Freestyle Session Orlando B-Girl solo battle and the Red Bull BC One Houston City Cypher – which qualified her for the Red Bull BC One USA Cypher finals. Isis then went on to win the Cypher finals becoming the 2021 Red Bull BC One Cypher USA champion.
Isis had finally achieved one of the biggest opportunities on the breaking scene. For the first time, she was granted a visa to go to Europe and compete in the Last Chance Cypher at the 2021 Red Bull BC One World Finals in Poland. Even she couldn’t believe it.
She says: “It’s crazy because I always dreamed of these opportunities, believing that one day I could do it, but I couldn’t believe that it happened so soon after I moved!”
The move to America also gave Isis more self-confidence, as she reveals: “It’s not easy to move by yourself and leave your family, but it made me stronger and gave me more confidence, which I didn’t always have.”
Despite the sudden success, Isis realised that she was only able to achieve big wins in America because of all the years of hard work she had put in before moving to the States.
“I feel like everybody has their own moment. I’ve worked hard for a long time and this is simply mine," states Isis.
At the Red Bull BC One World Finals Isis didn’t manage to win the Last Chance Cypher but she did qualify for the Top-16 knock-out battle. She then made it to the Top-8 before losing to B-Girl Ayumi from Japan, who won the Last Chance Cypher.
04
What’s next for Isis
Succeeding in putting her name and country firmly on the breaking map, Isis is now focused on making a living from breaking. “I don’t want to be forced to have other jobs, save money and work super hard just to be able to break.”
Much like Lil G, who has always been a big inspiration to Isis and helped build the breaking scene in Venezuela, she would also like to ensure there are more opportunities for breakers across Ecuador.
Knowing how tough it can be for B-Girls and B-Boys from countries with fewer competitions and a smaller breaking scene, Isis offers some words of encouragement. "The only difference between us and the people on the bigger scene is the mentality. If you really want to do something then work every day to make small steps towards your goals and believe that the things you want will happen. It’s all about work and belief.”