Sunny Choi: I’ve seen Tai Chi a little bit here and there but never in person before. I didn’t realize that you use weapons! My brothers did Taekwondo. I remember going into their closet and sneaking the weapons out. I had no idea what I was doing; I just remember being like, ‘This is so cool.’
Maggie Chen: I had the same feeling when I got my first sword. They were stacked in the corner of our facility, but I’d see them and want to touch them. I was in second grade, so my master was like, ‘Don’t touch them, not yet. You’re not ready.’
SC: That’s so funny. So do you always choreograph when you’re doing it, or is it just for performances that you choreograph?
MC: When we practice, we childishly spar with each other. It’s really slow, but in terms of actual competitions and performance, all of our sparring events are choreographed. What about in breaking?
SC: In breaking, there are elements where we sometimes choreograph if we’re doing a group battle, like a competition. But, most of the time, we don’t know what we’re doing. There are combinations of movements that we’re familiar with, but 80% of the round is just whatever I’m feeling in the moment.
MC: That sounds difficult with all the improv!
SC: I mean, I grew up as a gymnast doing all choreographed stuff, and then I got into breaking, and initially, it was hard. It was really scary because I wasn’t used to being judged in the moment, but it’s become second nature now.
MC: So you’re a very relaxed and go-with-the-flow kind of person then?
SC: No, I’m the total opposite. I’m super structured. I fell in love with breaking because it forced me to break out of structure and do something new. It really pushed me into a zone that I was super uncomfortable with. I used to sit in the corner and watch everyone else dance because I was too scared to do it in front of anyone else.
MC: You learned to adapt, right?
SC: It really took me more than 15 years to start getting comfortable with freestyling and being me.
MC: So, how did you discover the world of breaking?
SC: I quit gymnastics in high school before going to college. That was a really tough conversation to have with a coach. And then even tougher when I got into breaking right after. Freshman year, I just stumbled into some people dancing on campus and I thought it looked cool. Truthfully, I missed being upside down and doing stuff that was really physical. I gave it a shot and then somehow fell into it. I didn’t love it initially. It took me a long time to understand and appreciate it. How did you get into martial arts?
MC: I started martial arts when I was a child, so it’s been 10 years now. As a kid, my parents enrolled me in a whole bunch of activities, but I didn’t think martial arts would be the thing until maybe the summer of fifth grade, going to sixth grade. I got into this training camp with all of the martial arts team. I remember being like, ‘Oh my God, they’re so cool; they can do so many acrobatic jumps, and they’re all super friendly too.’ I wanted to be part of a team like that. Then, as I grew older, I just slowly started narrowing down my activities until I realized martial arts was the only one left.
SC: It sounds like you’re saying the reason you fell in love with it was because you saw other people and wanted to be part of the group. Is community a really big thing for you?
MC: Community is a really big thing for me, especially when I was younger. I wasn’t the most outgoing kid; I was a hide-in-the-corner with my Harry Potter books kind of kid. I discovered the martial arts community to be really welcoming through my first performance. It was just at a local library, but I saw how everybody seemed so in sync with each other. They almost had an unspoken bond where they could communicate on stage and, even if something went wrong, they looked at each other and knew, ‘Let’s do this instead.’ It seemed like a superpower to me as a kid.
SC: I love that. I similarly fell in love with breaking because of that. It was being part of something that was greater than me. Growing up, there weren’t many Asian people around me, so I didn’t really feel like I fit in. When I stumbled into breaking in college, it was such a random group of people that it felt right for me.
MC: I think martial arts and my teammates were really a way to be connected to my culture, because as an Asian American in school, I mainly spoke English. I feel like I wouldn’t have been as connected with my culture and my language if I hadn’t done martial arts.
SC: That’s really nice to have. To be honest, I ran away from my culture for a long time, and it wasn’t until later in my life that I tried to connect back with it. I grew up in Kentucky and because there were so few Asians around me, I didn’t want to be Asian. Now I’m owning my Asian-ness more.
MC: There is definitely a martial arts community inside New York. Even when you drive around Flushing or Queens at 5am, you can see the grandmas and grandpas already doing their Qigong and Tai Chi in the park. I feel like it’s a universal experience for every Asian kid in New York.
SC: Because breaking started in New York, it’s embedded here culturally everywhere. There’s this pressure that anyone who’s dancing in New York has – there’s this history. You’re coming from the birthplace. You better represent, right?
MC: I feel the same because my master is the Prince of Tai Chi. Whenever I go to competitions, I feel like I’ve got to make him proud. But you were at the Olympics, so I’m curious what your reaction was when you found out?
SC: The very first time they announced that breaking was going to be in the Olympics, I thought people were joking because in my head I was like, ‘There’s no way, breaking is too street, too gritty.’ But I ended up going for it. When I qualified, I thought I would be excited, but I just felt relieved. I had felt so much pressure on the way to qualify and was so scared I wasn’t going to. It was just a really heavy burden that had been lifted.
MC: Do you have a core memory from the Olympics specifically?
SC: There was a moment I remember when I was warming up backstage. I looked over and I could barely see my nieces’ heads over the fence. Just seeing their faces light up was so special because that’ll be a core memory for them. Do you have an important lesson you’ve taken away from martial arts?
MC: I don’t think I have crazy luck or anything. I think through Tai Chi, I learned that if I want something, I really have to work for it. Keep your eyes on the goal and continue just running forward. What about you?
SC: That’s super helpful in life, so that’s a good one. I think one of the hardest lessons for me to learn was that I’m good enough already as is. That I’m perfect as I am. I’ve always wanted to be the best, but I’ve also felt like I wasn’t good enough. So, with my Olympic journey, I was working this entire time to be able to show up and say basically, ‘Hey, this is who I am.’ Take it or leave it: I’m worthy and deserve to be here.
