The room is plunged into darkness. Only a central light illuminates a gray lino carpet in the Pablo-Neruda gymnasium, in Les Mureaux (Yvelines). The place turned into a dance floor on Wednesday. But not just any. That of the French breakdance team.
The place is not chosen at random, because we want to make Les Mureaux “the Clairefontaine of the break”, the center of preparation for the next Olympic Games, in 2024 in Paris. “In the station wagon, there is real physical preparation. It’s as much a sport as an art,” underlines Abdel, coach at the French Dance Federation.
If part of the France team is here, it is for an intensive training course, punctuated this Wednesday by a demonstration and an initiation with the hope collective. Before starting, the dancers warm up under the orders of Mathilde Uson, physical trainer. Flexibility and agility exercises follow one another. “We work the whole body, cardio, muscle power and mobility,” she explains.
A training program combining cardio, sheathing and technical movements
Marlène, 29, dancer from the France team, agrees: “We work all the parts of the body and we go from standing to sitting. “The one who started twelve years ago has seen her body evolve. “I gained in tone and dynamism,” she says.
The athletes are followed daily by a medical staff and follow a program combining cardio, sheathing and technical movements. They each train on their own but meet during training courses. Which are only open to the fifty best athletes in France.
Microphone in hand, Abdel harangues the crowd and presents his foals to the public present this Wednesday. To the rhythm of the music, the dancers string together pieces of choreography to give a glimpse of their talent. Abdel, 33, started dancing in 1995. He admits that, since it has been on the program of the Olympic Games, “breaking has been recognized as a high-level discipline”.
Damien Vignier, sports and health assistant at the town hall of Les Mureaux goes in the same direction. However, he admits that the discipline is “still relatively unknown. With this event, we wanted to democratize breakdance. “All the seats in the room are occupied, nearly 400 people are present.
“Knowing how to do such tricks is physical. It is also very beautiful”
When it’s time for the battle, the group of dancers splits into two and opposes “under the conditions of a real competition”, claims Abdel at the microphone. Even if the faces are marked by perspiration and effort, the sequences are fluid.
Ground or aerial techniques, the choreographies are perfectly executed. Bénédicte, 40, and very impressed. “Knowing how to do such tricks is physical,” she admits. It’s a sport like any other, but it’s also very beautiful. His 12-year-old son Lucas has been breaking for three years. For his mother, it was an opportunity to discover a little more about a discipline “not well enough known. »
At the time of the initiation, children present rush on the scene. Abdel teaches them some basic steps which are not always performed successfully. But it’s enough to spark joy. Marlène smiles: “If it can encourage people to register, so much the better. »