Breaking Through: B-Girl Bonita Saldaña Leads Team USA to Paris!

Story and Interview by Christy Sandmaier

Photography by Alexander Catedral of Catedral Collective
On location at The Studance Lab, Avondale, AZ

Fueled by tremendous passion for her art and a deep desire to inspire the next generation, B-girl Bonita Saldaña – also known across industry circles and convention stages as “B-girl Bonita” – has crafted a career that has transcended the breaking game. It sounds cliché, but it’s true – Saldaña is living her dream and breaking barriers she never thought possible. She’s an innovative performer and highly driven educator with a phenomenal approach to dance and life, never losing sight of her family and the coaching moments that are most important to her. They’re her lifeblood and bring her perspective during the toughest moments, keeping her grounded, and ultimately ready to take on the world.

This summer she’ll not only be inspiring the next generation, but leading them into the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as the head coach for Team USA, recognized as Breaking for Gold USA – the official breaking division of USA Dance, Inc. With a who’s who in the breaking industry supporting and guiding each step, the team is primed to perform and create history as breaking takes the floor for the very first time at an Olympic Games. It’s monumental for the sport, the athletes, and the industry, and for Saldaña, it comes with a great deal of pressure, yes, but also the incredible knowledge the team will be making history simply by punching their tickets to Paris.

Saldaña’s unique background has helped pave the way on this journey, as has her pure love for what she does. Combining her unique flavor, dynamic performance, and stacked resume, her influence is recognized from the streets to the stage to her own studio. Hailing from Phoenix, Arizona, where she was studio trained growing up, her professional career originated as a member of the Phoenix Mercury Hip-Hop Squad and the Phoenix Suns Dance Team. She’s performed with artists such as Jason Derulo, P. Diddy, Black Eyed Peas, Sean Kingston, Fergie, and Jamiroquai just to name a few. And she’s also a former member of three of the most legendary, world-famous and credible names in Hip-Hop dance: Rock Steady Crew, Groovaloos and Beat Freaks.

As a female breaker, “breaking in” to the industry was of course tough at first with countless roadblocks, but Saldaña took it as a great challenge, channeled her faith and never looked back. Breaking and its freedom of movement and edge of the unknown keeps dance itself fresh, and that’s just one piece of what she loves about it so much.

“It’s really different from performance dance, where you learn material, you perform it on a stage, it’s very controlled – you know what to do and what people expect of you,” she said of what sets breaking apart. “With breaking, you don’t know what song is going to play, so you have no idea how you’re going to respond. But you’ve practiced a series of moves and hopefully your body’s strong enough and you’ve done everything to then go out and give the best conversation and representation of your dance.”

The circular trajectory of Saldaña’s career has taken her from performer to studio owner at The Studance Lab in her hometown, to her role with Team USA. Taking on her sister-in-law’s school after relocating from LA to Phoenix with her husband, Saldaña believes the whirlwind it all was, was meant to be.

“God’s timing is amazing and I just knew that was the mission,” Saldaña said. “We built the studio from about 25 kids at the time to now over 400 kids in the past eight years. My passion has always been education, teaching, and performing. My husband and I co-own it. He’s heavy in the operation space and all about the numbers and the logistics, and I’m all about the creative and the art. It just makes perfect sense.”

Donning a Team USA hat, Saldaña was glowing and animated during our interview, and excited to share the latest on the Road to Paris and so much more. It was beautifully evident she’s creating a truly transformative community through her work. Whether inside her Phoenix studio or on a global platform, seeing her students thrive is what drives Saldaña the most. As a career woman and entrepreneur, Saldaña has made the absolute most of every opportunity at every stage. She’ll write a new chapter this summer in Paris, but each step along the way has been important. It’s what drives her and sets her up for success no matter where the journey takes her!

“The athletes’ success is our success” she says. “The passion and the love and the submission to the mission I have is there.”

A perfect sentiment and a symbolic theme – here’s Bonita in her own words as the curtain rises on 2024 and a new chapter is written.

Breaking Barriers

You have such a unique background leading up to your life in the professional setting of Los Angeles and in Hollywood! Tell us first how you broke down barriers as a female breaker to begin to make a name for yourself in the industry…

Exactly as you said, my first introduction to breaking was all through men. It was some time until I actually saw females performing. When I was first introduced to it, it was at my dance studio. I had a teacher subbing a class, and he was spinning on his head. He was sliding on his head. Right away, I was like, ‘This is so cool. What is this!?’ It was in my comfort zone, right? The studio was my comfort zone — I was comfortable and confident there. There was one very specific time, circa 2002, 2003 my teacher took me to an all B-girl event called Queen B. It was three on three and crews from Seattle, Vegas, Florida and California all competing, all representing females. At the time of course, there’s no social media so to see this happen, you had to go. I remember going to that event, seeing all of these females, and then just being blown away, like, ‘I want to do that, and I’m going to do that.’ For me that was a massive inspiration.

What was that transition like for you? Going from a very disciplined studio background into the breaking world?

My biggest struggle as I transitioned from a studio dancer, was really bridging this gap into street dance. I caught a ton of slack for that, right? Because when you’re talking street dance, freestyle, breaking, it’s like you don’t come from the discipline, structured world, right? You don’t really have the respect of anybody when you don’t come from the street freestyle. So for me, that, coupled with being a female, just already were just things that I had to overcome and face for years and years and years. For sure, B-girls are very far and few between. We have to be that much more confident, that much more loud and strong because we’re in a male-dominated space, one hundred percent.

Was the freedom you felt from breaking what drove you most?

Yes and no. Really early on the physical challenge was really attractive because I tumbled. I was a really good tumbler, I was a strong jumper. I really was more of a power dancer. So the dynamics were really attractive. The spinning on your head, the spinning on your back, the sliding – the dynamics really caught my attention first. But the freestyle part really is intimidating to a studio dancer because that’s unfamiliar territory. You’re told how to do, when to do, why to do everything. There’s not a whole lot of thinking for yourself, and breaking challenges all of that. It was very humbling and so I don’t think that was a selling point for me early on. That was a harder part of it. But the dynamics and the music for me is really music that I grew up with in my household. My family listened to a lot of soul music, jazz, funk, and hip hop samples that sound. It was that dynamic that fed me.

Compared to other dance genre, what sets breaking apart as far as skills or technique or even the energy needed

With breaking, specifically, the ability to be up, be down, be around, be turning – that the whole conversation originated in a circle. It’s a social dance, but really a battle dance, which isn’t for everybody. You’re either with that and you like the confrontation and engagement, or you don’t. You can see if someone is into it or not by the dynamics the dance brings.

Do you consider yourself an influencer in the industry now?

I think when you say influencer, that comes with a multitude of responsibilities. We have over 400 students at The Studance Lab, all different varieties of styles. But I’m a teacher here, I’m a coach here, I’m a mentor here. So my direct influence within the current generation is I’m still prominent, active, judging — all the things in the breaking community at large. Now, I’m obviously coaching for Breaking for Gold USA. I think as long as you’re contributing and you’re out there, you’re mentoring, your voice is still being heard, and advocating for the community and the dance at large, then I would say absolutely YES.

Breaking For Gold and Answering the Call

Now you’re inspiring students not just from your own studio or with your own performances, but this first generation of Breaking for Gold USA athletes heading to the Olympic Games! Talk about your journey to becoming a head coach, the pressures, the challenges…

I’ve been working with Breaking for Gold USA for just over two years. In October 2021, I pulled up to the dance studio here at The Studance Lab, and I remember getting a phone call from one of my friends. He’s a fellow B-boy who asked if I could go to Philadelphia in a few weeks to train some breakers that are Olympic hopefuls. And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about!?” It really started with all of us, the collective, the Breaking for Gold USA collective. We didn’t know what we were getting into, to be quite frank, because we’ve never been here, so it was a very interesting beginning. We had our first initial camp and these were the first dancers that were basically at the time being looked at as potential Olympic hopefuls.

It started out as a really challenging situation until we really got things going. About a year later, the USOPC (United States Olympic and ParaOlympic Committee) got involved with the governing body, which is Breaking for Gold USA. They finally got involved with us in the sense of organizing and explaining how Olympic teams function.

Did they provide guidance or direction? What are the particulars of their involvement?

I mean, you’ve got a group of collective high-level breakers all in great regards, but, the Olympics… what?! This is new territory for everybody involved, so we joined them. We joined with a high-performance manager, and we started to get things really going. The past year has been super intense and has led us into the whole qualifying system, which is basically how we landed on a national team. They had to do a series, like any competition, they had to do a series of regional events. Then Nationals, and from there we found our team. Nothing was handpicked. They all had to go through a series of competitions. It’s all about performance, right? How they perform in competitions, lands them in their seed, basically, on Team USA. There’s been a series of national competitions mixed with international competitions.

Currently on Team USA Breaking, we have one B-boy that already directly qualified in September at the World Championship for the Olympics. It’s basically whoever wins this is going direct, and our B-boy, Victor Montalvo took it! It was a huge accomplishment for our team! And then our B-girl, Sunny Choi, while we were in Chile in October and she qualified through the Continental Championship (Pan American Games). We’re the only country right now that has a B-boy and a B-girl qualified for the Olympics. It’s amazing! We also have an additional four that are now planted in the OQS – the Olympic Qualifying Series – to hopefully grab one more USA B-boy and one more USA B-girl sport to fill our quotas of two and two.

The magnitude of it has got to be huge. Along with the excitement of being the leader, you have the pressure of ensuring everything’s going to be amazing for the athletes that you’re coaching…

I didn’t come in as head coach in the beginning just to explain the dynamic. Flo Master, who’s actually one of my teachers, and he’s like the OG in the know, basically was brought on as head coach. As we started to work, everything kind of organically happened, right? You start to really land in certain roles. My dynamic was I’m coming in to assist in whatever capacity is needed and asking: ‘What’s going on? What are we doing?’ As we started to figure out our functionality, it was more off of a recommendation where one of the other coaches, Rainen, was like, ‘This is how our coaching team is functioning. Bonita is really the head coach. She’s really the one that has the vision, she has the plan. She’s the one that’s like, ‘Hey, this is how we get from A to B, and then we’re kind of helping her get from A to B.’

I’m very much about communication, accountability, and show up and do this. I approached Team USA in the same way. It’s making sure that people understand this is what we’re trying to achieve and how we get there. We want gold. There’s a team of us for sure. Not only are there breaking coaches, but the team also has a mental health coach, a nutritionist, a strength and conditioning coach. And it’s incredible coming from a dance world.

With creative, artistic sports, such as gymnastics or figure skating where athletes are scored instead of timed, there’s always the huge tendency to regulate artistry, so much so it creates a dynamic that can stifle the art of the actual performance. Obviously, we’re very used to that in the dance competition arena, but have you seen it further regulated now that it’s part of the Olympic movement?

The judging system has changed quite a bit, to be honest. Earlier this year, I was feeling really confident about the judging system in the sense I felt like I understood it. We really understand how to guide our athletes. When you get your feedback, your judges’ feedback, it’s very clear that this athlete isn’t doing well in creativity, or this athlete isn’t doing well in execution, for example. We were really zoned in and learned the judging system. Then it changed. And changed again, and things kept getting changed, taken out again. I think as these small changes have happened so fast, nobody really has a handle on how you really do well in the space on the stage in the competition.

I even sat through a whole judging training in Portugal just a few months ago because I need to know what’s happening. Because it’s just so much. You really have to have a full package of understanding all across the board. If your musicality is going to be great, you have to be so extreme, but you also have to have all of the power and dynamics. And then you’ve got B-boys that are all powerful in dynamics with very little musicality, and they still do well. At this point, whoever comes in and does their craft the best and hits everything the best is typically coming out on top. At our last Continental qualifier in Chile, I told one of our athletes, ‘Don’t worry about any of the judging. You go out and do you the best. Just go and break.

Breaking Through – What Matters Most

What does success look like for you and your athletes in Paris? What are you hoping to walk away with?

The reason that I got into the initiative is because I love this. I’ve devoted my life and everything to the dance. It’s what I do, it’s what I love. It’s what moves me. When the opportunity came about, it was like, ‘Of course, how can I help? How can I contribute my resources and my knowledge and my experience now at this point in my career, to make this a historical moment for the dance, for the culture, for the community?’ I feel like every competition is a success. It’s already historic. It’s all like a moment in time, right?!

For me, I’m on the ride and we’re already going to Paris. So even just thinking about that, and I’ll be honest, earlier this year, right before the shift of me really taking on more of the head coach leadership role, I was about to step away – I’m not kidding – because there was so much pressure. But again, it’s my submission to the mission. I’m going to give one thousand percent. We want to make history for sure. We want gold. It’s coming. It’s massive. I’m ready for it! Coaching Team USA is like working for a whole new company, a whole new organization, a new group of people, learning things, figuring things out, stepping forward, stepping back. I’m learning the dynamics of coaching and what’s needed, when to step back, when to step forward. It’s been crazy. It’s been awesome.

In this amazing balancing act, what inspires you on the hard days or what words of wisdom do you cling to for stay the course?

God, 100%, I can’t sugarcoat that or not speak about that, because I would be lying if I didn’t say that I’m a huge believer. I don’t know how people succeed or can get through a lot of hard times without finding moments of solitude and prayer, because days get crazy even without being an Olympic coach or without owning a business or without being a mom. I’m married, I have children, I run a business. I’m an Olympic coach. And I still want to be healthy. There’s so much to juggle and manage, but for me, for sure, it’s God. And then my family. I can’t imagine doing it alone. These deep conversations with my husband where he’s like, ‘Get it together’ and then just the smiles. For my kids, they don’t know anything, which is so awesome. My older daughter is understanding a little bit, but they just want to read a book with mom! That’s so important right now. That’s so special and you can’t replace that.

Right after that would be my students. My students at The Studance Lab are my inspiration. They’re seeing what’s happening, what you do, what you don’t do. There’s a lot of pressure, but great pressure in being my best every day. Waking up, showing up for myself, showing up for everybody. But it’s deep in there {motions to her heart] to do that, so it becomes easy to do.

Interview lightly edited for length and clarity. Look for additional features with Bonita Saldaña on Team USA’s lead-up to the The Games coming up in Inside Dance magazine and on InsideDance.com

TEAM USA BREAKING BY THE NUMBERS!