Dance

Meet the wildcard's battling at the Red Bull BC One National Finals in LA

Get to know a few of the B-Boy and B-Girl wildcards competing at the Red Bull BC One USA National Finals in Los Angeles on September 17.

By Tracy Kawalik

9 min readPublished on 09/16/2022 · 2:54 PM UTC

At this year's Red Bull BC One USA National Finals in Los Angeles, 32 contenders will tear apart the stage: 16 winners and runner-ups from the regional qualifiers and 16 wildcard B-Boys and B-Girls. We sat down with 10 of the competitors to learn more about their breaking journey, the obstacles they’ve battled and what these B-Boys and B-Girls are bringing to the stage.

B-Boy Jose

B-Boy Jose was born and raised in Houston, Texas. This is his first time competing in Red Bull BC One. B-Boy Jose’s future goal is to combine breaking with his full-time job at the local youth organization that first inspired him to dance. “I started breaking when I was 16 years old. I don’t have a definite answer for what made me want to start apart from the feeling of forgetting everything else that was going on at home. It wasn’t always easy for me to stick to it. What kept me breaking was the fact that I had to do a lot of community service for all the trouble I was getting in. They allowed us to dance as well. I did it more and more and decided I wouldn’t stop. Breaking helps me focus, stay in shape and manage stress. I don’t share much about my dance journey because it’s still changing and evolving.”

B-Girl Kate

B-Girl Kate was born in and raised in Kharkiv, Ukraine and is currently based in LA. As a kid, she studied ballet and hip-hop. She started breaking in 2009 at 14 years old and has since found fame on the worldwide scene as a top-tier B-Girl, having won Outbreak Europe three times. Ahead of the National Finals, she is focusing on building her stamina.

“My goal with my dance is to expand the number of women involved in breaking and show how beautiful and difficult this art form is. This year taught me a lot about getting through difficult situations and how important it is to not be hard on myself, take my time with breaking and push any stress and anxiety to the side.”

B-Girl Rascal Randi

Rascal Randi after winning the 2021 Red Bull BC One Cypher in Boston, MA
© Kien Quan

B-Girl Rascal Randi was born in Santa Rosa, California and now lives in LA. She started breaking seriously at 20 years old after being inspired by a group of B-Boys breaking at a Roots concert. She was transfixed, found out where they practiced and started jamming with them a couple of weeks later. Since then, Rascal has clocked breaking titles, jumped on stage with artists, appeared in music videos and recently danced in a movie with Ryan Reynolds.

“I'm really honored to be a wildcard, it's a huge year to be invited. What struck me the most is the journey that I’ve had with Red Bull to get here. There was a time when I paused and wasn’t too deep in the scene because I felt left out of it. But when Red Bull started holding B-Girl cyphers, I flew myself to Orlando and started battling again in 2019. In 2021, instead of flying myself, I was invited to battle in the Red Bull BC One USA regional finals and wound up making it all the way to the National Finals. So, when this year came around, and it was an invite straight to the Nationals, that just felt full circle for me and like all the work I’ve put in was paying off.”

B-Boy Run

B-Boy Run was born in Fort Collins, Colorado. He started breaking at 12 years old in 2012. A decade later, he’s based in Seattle, racking up titles and a member of the Renegade Rockers crew.

“I’m honored to be invited as a wildcard and excited about going into the battles. The thing I’m looking forward to the most at the Red Bull BC One World Finals is connecting with the scene. Exchanging with everyone. Having good battles myself and watching good battles.”

B-Girl Meelisa

Meelisa competes at the 2021 Red Bull BC One National Finals in Orlando, FL
© Daniel Zuliani

B-Girl Meelisa was born in the capital city of Belarus, but moved to the US in 2016. She started out breaking when she was 23 years old when her regular hip-hop class was cancelled and replaced with breaking. A few of her first and biggest inspirations are B-Boy Machine and B-Boy Junior because of the way they mix power moves with musicality, and B-Girl Nadia, Ayumi and Narumi. In 2022, she's now been breaking for 13 years and is a teacher and a mom.

“The main thing I want to represent is musicality. I did hip-hop for two years before breaking. The first time I saw breaking, I was inspired to try it because it looked so hard, but I also wanted to really 'dance' with my breaking and fuse the freestyle element, individuality and musicality of hip-hop.”

B-Boy Gravity

B-Boy Gravity was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He started breaking when he was 16 years old, mainly because he fell in love with the richness of culture and the difficulty of the moves. He says he’s never felt so connected to anything in his life the way he has to breaking. From age 5 to age 18, he had a professional career in gymnastics. Gravity’s proudest accomplishment in breaking is making a name for himself and inspiring the community, which inspired him. When he’s is not breaking, he spends time going on adventures and with his wife, soon-to-be five kids and dog. B-Boy Gravity is also training for the Olympics.

“What I hope for with my future in breaking is to create a legacy. Outside of my breaking career, I have my own studio where we teach breaking, art and music. I have my own clothing line. My goal is to truly become like the Tony Hawk of breaking, where I’ve innovated moves and created a tangible brand that breakers can call their own. I want to build an infrastructure for my business that will be sustainable and remain here, long after I’m gone.”

B-Boy H

B-Boy H was born in South Korea and now lives in LA. He started breaking at 11 years old, inspired by Quest Crew from America’s Best Dance Crew. When he’s not breaking and battling, B-Boy H is a street performer on the famous Santa Monica Pier, performing at gigs and in music videos and producing content on TikTok.

“I feel really nervous because this is my first time competing in a Red Bull event, but also feel really proud of being chosen for the wild card spot. My goal with breaking is to be able to teach kids one day so that I can pass on my knowledge and legacy.”

B-Girl Snap 1

Snap 1 posing in front of an aircraft
© Unknown

B-Girl Snap 1 was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She is the first professional B-Girl to come from Alaska and is known for her power moves. Due to the lack of any other B-Girls in Alaska, she started training with a B-Boy crew but now represents B-Girl crew Flooristas. Snap 1 is looking forward to flexing her skills, is currently training for the 2024 Olympics, and is a full-time student. One of the main things she wants to do with her breaking is to become the people's champion to illustrate that people can overcome adversity and come out on top to accomplish their dreams.

“My dad was a B-Boy in the '80s and a semi-pro hockey player. I played a bunch of different sports growing up, but the music is what really got me into breaking. I loved hip-hop and funk, but never considered myself to be a good dancer or have any natural rhythm. When I saw breaking and realized how athletic it was, I felt like this could be the only way I could actually dance, which was exciting!”

B-Girl Sunny

B-Girl Sunny is from Cookeville, Tennessee, and currently living in Queens, NYC. She was a gymnast for 15 years before she started breaking in 2008. Her first introduction to break happened freshman year when she was 18 after stumbling across the B-Boys on campus and got invited to a popping class. After the popping class, she stayed to try out breaking and has been training and carving out a name for herself on the scene ever since. The battles that Sunny are proudest of are the ones where she's been able to let go of her shyness, get in the zone and simply dance to the music. Outside of breaking, she’s passionate about cooking and has a full-time job as a Global Creative Operations director at Estee Lauder. Sunny has been training and competing in events building up to the Olympics.

“In terms of anything I’m doing differently to prep, I’m actually dialling back my training a bit. I just want to go and really dance, enjoy myself and do my thing this year. I have a lot of battles to be proud of, but my proudest accomplishment today is having the confidence to go out on the dance floor and express myself freely and be me and not worry about what other people think. That was a big goal for me to get to this point [it was] something I really had to fight to overcome.”

B-Boy Hijack

Hijack poses for a photo in front of the Knik Arm in Anchorage, USA
© Marika Tzantarmas

B-Boy Hijack was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. His inspiration to start dancing was sparked by his love for music. He started breaking in 8th grade and since then has been into multiple styles as well as popping. When it comes to training for the National Finals, he’s focusing on implementing more rest and recovery. Outside of dance he’s building a mobile coffee cart with his fiancé and loves the process of making coffee.

“I was super stoked to be invited as a wildcard for the Red Bull BC One National Final and I’m honored to represent Hawaii and let the world know how much soul we have. My proudest accomplishment is every day that I get to share my dance and this art form with the youth. In the future I would love to dance all over the world and share what I know with people who enjoy it as much as I do.”