In this Q&A we speak with Dr Rachael Gunn, also known within breaking circles as Raygun, about her research impact in breaking and her upcoming debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

What is your background and what brought you to Macquarie?

I’ve been at Macquarie since my undergraduate degree where I studied popular music studies, cultural studies, media, and dance. I’ve always been really interested in subcultures/scenes and their associated practices, hierarchies, and alternative modes of identity construction.

How did you originally become interested in your area of research and what keeps you interested in it?

I’ve always been a dancer, and when I met my partner in my early 20s he introduced me to breaking. There was very little research on breaking culture at the time, and much of the research on Australian hip hop was focused on rap music. I thought breaking was such a productive site to explore the politics of gender within the Australian context due to the way gender is both (re)learned and embodied. Specifically, I was interested in how the performance of hyper masculinity in breaking would draw on the practices and aesthetics of hip hop culture and sport in Australia, and how the way women could learn breaking would change their body composition and way of moving which then challenged normative performances of femininity. Not only did I see breaking as a space to show how gender is performed and naturalised, but that breaking also offers the space for moments of creativity – new movements and expressions that aren’t already associated with normative gender performance. It was a space to challenge the binary and develop new expressions and artistic connections.

Tell us a bit about your current research and what makes it so important?

My current practice-based research is an extension of my previous work – in developing new vocabularies and ways of moving in breaking that challenge and expand the gender binary – but it is taking it to the high-stakes environment of the Olympics. The intense sportification of this environment has led me to a much greater engagement with strength and conditioning programs, and working on difficult and dynamic moves for the big stage. However, I am also trying to use this platform to say something artistically – about movement, about creativity, about the possibilities of the body. This is particularly important as this may be the only time breaking is in the Olympics, as it’s not included in the LA28 program. With the breaking judging not requiring the performance of set moves, the Olympics stage offers a global platform to challenge not only what we think bodies can do, but how bodies can move.

Is there something you would like staff to know about?

Breaking was created by African-American and Puerto-Rican kids in the Bronx in the 1970s. After its global success in the early 1980s, many thought breaking had died out, but breakers around the world kept the dance and culture alive by holding events and continuing to innovate with the vocabulary. Australia has had a breaking scene since the late 1970s.

What do you need to do your best work?

My laptop with a coffee or cup of tea next to it or a 4x4 smooth hard floor.

What do people always ask you when they find out what you do for a living?

You can do that for a living?

What is your definition of success?

People I respect respecting me.

A personal quality you value in others?

Open-mindedness.

What is on your agenda for 2024?

Preparing to represent Australia in Breaking’s debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics. I will be one of 16 women from around the world competing in this event on August 9 2024.