Check Out This Dancer Who Is A Kindergarten Teacher By Day and B-Girl At Night

Ayumi Fukushima is one of the best b-girls in the world. The 33-year-old from Kyoto, Japan, recently won the 2v2 (with B-boy Thesis) at Outbreak Europe, a major breaking event. She is also the first woman to be invited to competed in the 1v1 battle at Battle of the Year. And she is one of the coaches for breaking’s foray into the world of organized sports, the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

She also has an unexpected day job—teaching kindergarten. This mini-doc by filmmakers Daniel Zhu and Jennifer Whalen of Stance follows Fukushima as she moves between the worlds of breaking and early childhood education.

“It it amazing seeing her transform from her day job of a school teacher into a b-girl at night,” Zhu wrote to me via Facebook. Zhu also noted that despite getting a late start—she only began dancing at 21—Fukushima has been incredibly successful, advancing against and defeating b-boys, which is no small feat in the breaking world that skews heavily male.

Here’s Ayumi battling with her sister.

And with her crew, Body Carnival.