The gang truce in New York gave birth to a different kind of dance. And a man who was years ahead of his time, Michael Holman, managed to go as far as to dance even become an Olympic sport.

The American producer, artist and businessman certainly does not claim to be the father. hip-hop. It could not be, since it was “born” on the streets of New York and in battles between gangs. But it was he who made him famous all over the world and after almost 40 years sent him to the 2024 Olympic Games, which will be held in Paris.

Holman had nothing to do with the music scene, and certainly not with hip-hop, when he first came to New York in 1978 from San Francisco. There he studied economics and went to the Big Apple to get a job on Wall Street. His image and clothes in expensive Brooks Brothers suits were a far cry from what he later did as he dived into the deep waters of the cultural life of a city that never sleeps.

His base was an attic at the corner of Hudson and Chambers streets. There he first met the imposing Joey Ramone, founder and vocalist of the Ramones. “I would go to the office and he would come back from parties with a girl in each hand. It was crazy,” Holman once said, saying that one night, while waiting to return to base after a party, he noticed the first signs of a new culture emerging around him.

“I was half asleep waiting for the subway. When he arrived, all the train cars were covered in logos and graffiti. I have never seen anything like this before, on the one hand it was vandalism, and on the other hand, it was also art, it was a message sent by the new generation to see its existence and understand its problems.”

Day after day, the artistic side of the city captivated Holman, who befriended the pioneering graffiti artist Fab 5 Freddy and frequented clubs such as Max’s Kansas City, Mudd Club, and CBGBs. He managed to communicate with musicians, poets and other emerging artists. .

At some point, walking through the streets of the Bronx, he will see something that will change his life – break dancing. A ghetto dance that originated as a form of dance combat between gangs that have dominated New York City since the 1970s.

“There were Ghetto Brothers and Black Peaks and Wild Nomads and Wild Skulls. And they bled the city for years: headbutting, killing, stabbing each other,” Holman says, and continues: “Then, in 1971, Yellow Benji, the leader of the Ghetto Brothers, came up with the idea of ​​a truce that could for members of rival gangs to gather in one place and at a party where this dance has come to dominate. Hip-hop and breakdancing have replaced violence and become an outlet for even the coolest of these bands.” Holman continued: “The dancers were watching others and trying to find ways to get even wilder and more impressive. Along the way, they included moves from kung fu or dances from Africa, Puerto Rico and Jamaica.”

Thus, an economics graduate leaves the world of Wall Street and enters the world of ghettos and gangs. From the late 1970s and early 1980s, he began promoting hip hop with weekly performances in Manhattan clubs. One group succeeded another, the crowd applauded, the evening was over, but that wasn’t enough for Holman. “New York is all about competition and trying to be the best,” he says, and so he decides to bring bands and dancers on stage in twos, creating a kind of artistic battle with the audience deciding who is the best. At Holman’s nights, the Rock Steady Crew is formed under his direction, and although they were initially reluctant to share the stage, they eventually succumbed to his desire. He discovers the “masters of the floor” at a historic moment, as he would say, then recruits the best dancers from the five boroughs, creates the “New York Breakers” and raises the bar.

While Holman was composing music, making films and enjoying the energy of New York, he wondered if a bit of hip-hop could become a breakout trend like punk had emerged in London and New York in the previous decade.

“A friend of mine went to school with Malcolm McLaren back in the 1960s,” Holman notes, adding: “When McLaren visited New York, he hooked me up and I invited him to a party in the Bronx. I took him to the park, where the DJs had their own sound systems, where the b-boys were walking and the b-girls were dancing. McLaren had a good eye for revolutionary cultural movements. He ran the Sex Pistols, who became the spokesmen for punk after releasing their anti-monarchist single “God Save the Queen”.

This introduction opens other doors for him in the city as the New York City Breakers begin to spend their time on US national television programs. The world is now turning its attention to hip-hop emerging from the ghettos and parks of New York and attracting interest from European channels such as the BBC, Canal Plus, Rai TV and ZDF. Hip-hop documentaries are entering every home in Europe, and the movement is now spreading to the big cities of the Old Continent. At the same time, Holman creates his own television show dedicated to hip-hop. Graffiti Rock debuts in 1984 and includes names such as Run-DMC, Kool Moe Dee and Special K, as well as the New York City Breakers.

In the late 1990s, Holman performed at hip-hop conventions around the world, in Australia, Asia, Europe, and South America. He has organized panel discussions and lectures on movement, written film scores and has been a judge in dance workshops where young dancers tried their first breakdancing tricks.

Until it was promoted as an Olympic sport by the French organizers of the 2024 Games in 2019, Holman was accused of treating it as an art-killing sport, but he replies that: “The movement had its mind and life. The culture itself is sensitive. Hip hop is currently a multi-billion dollar industry that has impacted the world. There was the same talk about skateboarding and extreme sports. The idea that an art form is “judged” with grades and scores has sparked protest. I’m sure that figure skating was exactly the same in the 1930s, but just consider the fact that this movement originated in New York, the capital of commerce, the belly of the beast of capitalism. Questioning its path to competition and commercialization is naïve at best.”

In terms of gameplay, breakdancing will be different from other judged sports, as athletes will not queue up but will compete in pairs, as they did at Holman’s nights, to qualify for distinction and a medal.

Regardless of the objection that breakdancing is a sport or an art form worthy of the Olympics, for Michael Holman, this is a personal justification for his decision to introduce the whole world to the dance that he saw on the streets of the Bronx almost four decades ago.