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Gunn’s doctoral thesis, titled “Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney’s Breakdancing Scene: a B-girl’s Experience of B-boying,” examines breaking from the lens of gender dynamics.

The four foundational elements of hip-hop — DJing or turntablism, MCing or rapping, B-boying or break dancing and graffiti “writing” — emerged from the Bronx as a “cultural response to a community that was institutionally abandoned,” said Rodrigo Venegas, also known as “Rodstarz” of the hip-hop duo Rebel Diaz, made up of two Chilean brothers in the Bronx.

The vocabulary is likewise not strikingly new: a blend of moves from house, b-boying and Campbell locking — the bouncy articulation of arms, elbows and fingers that point every which way.

The gangs express their rivalry through dance, Rome’s Monster Q’s doing hip-hop and Tybalt’s Caps B-boying.

But in general, the choreography, borrowing from b-boying and house, is unremarkable, and the execution too often slack.