On Saturday, July 24th, New York City welcomed the world’s largest breakdancing competition, the Red Bull BC One, kicking off the 18th iteration with its New York Cypher. Breakdancers from near and far gathered on a school rooftop on the Lower East Side for one-on-one b-girl and b-boy battles, all vying for a spot at the U.S. Red Bull BC One National Finals in Orlando, Florida this weekend, the winners of which will go on to compete in the World Finals in Gdańsk, Poland this November 5th and 6th.
Of the competitors was [Frankie Perez](https://www.instagram.com/frankie_sb_/), aka B-Boy Frankie of the Supreme Beingz crew, who would eventually go on to win the b-boy battles and notch a spot at the Orlando finals. The B-Boy, photographer, and filmmaker who recently self-published his first photography book [_See Me Up? ‘Cause I’ve Been Down_](http://www.pompmedia.com/book/see-me-up-its-cause-ive-been-down) on the breaking culture that he’s been immersed in since he was 13, recently teamed up with OBEY, photographing their latest capsule collection, in addition to past collaborations with Converse, Maison Margiela, and Reebok.
_Flaunt_ caught up with Frankie the day before the New York Cyper, fresh off the plane and gearing up for the big day that would follow, to discuss his beginnings in breakdancing, his photo and film work, and what he hopes to see for the promising future of breakdancing—one of the newly added sports that will feature in the 2024 Olympics. Relive the New York Cyper [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWRlQccArO0), watch the film with Frankie above, and get ready for the National B-Boy Cypher below!
**Tell us a little about yourself.**
This is Frankie from Supreme Beingz crew, New York city. I'm a b-boy, photographer, and filmmaker.
**Tell us about documenting the breaking scene through your photography and through your filmmaking.**
What I do is not purely a documentary practice, there's really a big component of me just expressing myself through art with respect to breaking. I kind of see it as an extension of what I already have been doing. As a dancer it's really natural for me to create work centered around that, just because I am around it so much. I grew up around it. I always kind of been shooting dancers here and there. Earlier this year, I self-published what I would consider the first book about just b-boy culture from the perspective of somebody who is actually a dancer.
For me it was really cool and important to do, because, not to say that it's a better way of going about the subject matter, but it is different. I had a couple of different goals with respect to putting together that body of work. That took about two years between 2018 and 2020. I just kind of wanted to give what I felt was a more authentic introduction to the culture to people who might be outside of it. The fact that it's an insider's perspective was also important to me.
I've made progress on it with respect to what I've been able to accomplish with that book, but there's a lot more to go. When it comes to collaborating with organizations like Red Bull, for example, I’m grateful that they're open to the work and acknowledge it, because that's definitely a step in the right direction. Whether I'm collaborating with Red Bull or somebody like Converse or Obey, it's more so what I'm talking about with respect to what we, as dancers, are able to do in terms of success. My goal is to be able to have dancers create a lane for themselves, a new lane outside of what is kind of traditionally considered successful. A lot of what I do is, right now, my initial goals with respect to the creative industry is to create more opportunities within commercial and editorial space on the highest levels.
**Tell us about how you got into photography and filmmaking.**
I didn't want to depend on anybody else to promote myself as a dancer, with respect to video content, so I got into making videos and trailers of myself and my friends first with this DSLR camera. And then I started messing with the still picture function on it. And I'm just teaching myself like foundational stuff by creating street photography.
One thing led to another. From there, I got into shooting people as well, taking portraits, and then incorporating fashion into it. And then all throughout that time, I was always shooting dancers here and there.
**Tell us about how you got started breaking.**
I was just about 13-years-old, in front of my grandma's house. A neighbor of mine came to show me and my cousins that I was living with at the time a move, and we started doing it like on the slanted floor on our block in Queens. I was the only one that stuck with it. One thing led to another, and I'm at the point now where I've been able to do quite a lot with my dance.
**You just had a kid. Do you plan on bringing him into the breaking scene? How do you plan to foster the next generation?**
I’ve thought a lot about this. I definitely plan on exposing him to it. It seems like he likes it so far. I have a studio at home, and when my wife comes in the room to watch me practice, he has like the biggest smile on his face. That’s one of the special experiences of becoming a dad. He’ll definitely be exposed to it, and hopefully he’ll take a liking to it and take it on as a craft, but I’m not going to force anything on him. If he wants to develop it into something more, I’ve got this network of artists that can help him out.
I think about it similarly with photography too. That would be crazy if he got into that. I’ll be there along the way if he wants to get serious about it, for sure.
**What do you see for the future of this scene?**
It’s a really interesting time right now. We’re beginning to be at a crossroads, especially with breaking being one of the newly added sports to the Olympics in 2024. It relates to what I was talking about a little bit earlier with creating more opportunities for dancers in the first place and changing what their standard is for success. One of the things that kind of holds us back right now as a scene, is like a smart infrastructure, and it being kind of like really niche to the outside public.
The Olympics kinda could kind of be a really big catalyst to help the scene take a big leap forward—expanding what we do into the consciousness of people outside of the culture. My prediction is that, out of the newly added sports, it's probably going to be the most successful just because, visually speaking, in terms of like imagery that you can create from it. It’s also a novelty kind of thing. I don't think \[other sports\] visually look as interesting as breaking does.
It's like one of the most standout sports at the Olympics, also it’s connection to youth culture in general. I really see it resonating with a lot of youth through the Olympics. I feel like it could really take us to the next level with respect to what we're able to do as dancers.
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