Miami – London-based Moroccan Youness El Mouaffaq has been nominated to represent the Kingdom of Morocco in the first-ever segment of breakdancing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Born and raised in Fez, Morocco, El Mouaffaq started breakdancing during his early teenage years, promptly getting recruited by the city’s well-established breakdancing club.
As he performed in local dance offs, the young talented dancer’s moves gradually caught the attention of international spectators. Then came the litany of invitations to take part in a plethora of international dance competitions.
El Mouaffaq went on to perform in a variety of international dance competitions, including Red Bull BC One World Final, World BBoy Series, The Notorious IBE, BBIC Korea, and B.I.S China.
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The Moroccan won the silver medal in the Hip-hop dance category in the 2017 Jeux de la Francophonie in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where he performed alongside “04 Lkarwa,” the Moroccan national break-dancing team.
This was a watershed achievement that shed light on El Mouaffaq’s talent and success beyond Morocco’s borders. But success and the expectation of even greater achievements to come do not seem to have gotten the best of El Mouaffaq’s rapport with Morocco and what it represents.
Mindful of his humble beginnings and discernibly grateful to the people – family, friends, and all the others in-between – who have made his journey possible, the young dancer seems profoundly attached to Morocco.
One illustration of how El Mouaffak passionately relates to Morocco was his enthusiastic waving of the Moroccan flag in the skies of Abidjan when he and the Moroccan team won the Francophonie prize.
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At once humbled and motivated by the Abidjan contest, the Moroccan dancer continued to mature, to become a more accomplished performer. In june 2019, Youness El Mouaffak ranked 18th globally at the WDSF World Breaking Championship in Nanjing, China.
Predominantly competing under the stage name “Bboy Cri6,” Youness El Mouaffak has consistently featured among the top performers on the global scene for the past few years. He has most recently solidified this growing reputation with his nomination to partake in the much-coveted Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
In early December 2020, organizers of the Paris Olympics announced that competitive dance forms will be among the new sports to premiere during the 2024 games. The Moroccan Athletic Federation chose El Mouaffak to represent Morocco in the Olympics’ breakdancing segment, where he will be competing in one-on-one dance-offs with representatives from across the globe.
In an interview with Morocco World News, Youness expressed his enormous gratitude toward the organizers of the 2024 Olympics. He spoke emphatically of not only his own joy, but also of the elation of the whole discipline of breakdancing that has traditionally been dismissed, marginalized as “street,” and deprived of performing on a stage as epic and career-defining as the Olympics.
“This is a milestone, frankly; not only about the fact that breakdancing was added to the Olympics but that we have our Kingdom represented in such fields. I think this sheds a unique light on breakdancing and will encourage so many amateur dancers in my country to pursue their talent now that the competitive form is in a sense legitimized through the Olympics,” said a beaming El Mouaffaq.
