INDIANAPOLIS — Carmarry Hall can't remember a time in her life when she wasn't dancing. It wasn't until she was a 19-year-old college student that she was introduced to breakdancing.
“It's the perfect combination of dance culture and sport," said Hall, who's known as "Pep-C" in the breakdancing world. “You think that you're learning a dance, you think that you're learning a move, but you’re really learning that you can do anything.”
It was the freedom of movement this style of dance encourages that appealed to Pep-C.
“Everybody has their own approach," she said. "It's not strictly regulated where you can't do this, you have to point your toe like this, you can't look like this, you can't come from this. It's not like that. Everybody can pretty much see themselves in breaking because it's so worldwide.”
Since 2015, Pep-C has traveled internationally to compete in breakdancing. Most recently she won the Red Bull BC One Cypher, a regional competition that advanced her to the Red Bull BC One National finals in Los Angeles next month. From there, she could move on to the World Championships in New York in November.
Pep-C is also working to qualify for the USA Olympic breakdancing team. Breakdancing will be added to the Olympics for the 2024 games in Paris.
As polished as she looks, Pep-C has only been practicing for about seven years.
“You keep trying and you see yourself getting better and now you're like, 'OK, I’ve got to get even better,'" she said. "It just kind of snowballs until you look up seven years later and you're trying to be in the Olympics.”
This weekend Pep-C will dance in the Breaking for Gold competition in Philadelphia for a shot at Team USA's roster. They will only send two male and two female breakdancers to Paris in 2024.
“I am very close, I'm more than close to being one of the girls who can represent the USA in the Olympics," she said.
It's turned into Pep-C's mission to represent her country, city and the culture of the sport.
“What motivates me to continue working hard for it is that there’s not very many women that break and there's even less Black women that break," she said. "A little bit of it is about representation, because breaking comes from the USA, it comes from Black and brown people, and me being a part of that is kind of bringing tradition to the big stage.”
To follow along with Pep-C's competitions and watch them live, visit her website at this link.