Sunny found ‘breaking’ when she was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania (note: don’t call it breakdancing or everyone will know you’re a newbie). One night when walking around campus, she saw Freaks of the Beat, a cool-looking breaking troop, and given her gymnastics background, was convinced to give it a go. She fell in love with the “creative elements of breaking,” free flowing reactionary movements that in many ways stood in opposition to her well practiced gymnastics routines. As Sunny shares, when breaking, “you don’t know what music you’re going to get, so you can come in with a plan, and then throw it out the window.”

In this conversation we hear how Sunny has defied stereotypes as an Asian-American woman in a male dominated sport, and also how her smiley-disposition has also challenged norms (breaking is known for its aggression). She shares how she’s breaking has been about “figuring out who I am.”