Olakunle O. Oladehin

There’s a lot of commotion happening in Studio 74—otherwise known as 74 Mt. Auburn. Crazy beats are piped out at ear-shattering volume as 15 break dancers warm up through shoulder jerks and pushups. Through all the chaos, in the back corner, sits Olakunle O. “Kunle” Oladehin ’07, quietly splicing songs. Before exiting the room, Katalyst—as he’s known in breaker circuts—stops to answer a question from a fellow breaker, demonstrating complicated moves in an unassuming way.

“Kunle’s like a funky turtle,” writes Oludamini D. Ogunnaike ’07 in an e-mail. “He’s slow, cool, deliberate, and meticulous, but the boy can move like nobody’s business.”

Oladehin is one of the co-officers of the Harvard Breakers Organization and he also choreographs and dances with Expressions, a hip-hop dance company. He volunteers with CityStep and is known outside of Harvard as one of Boston’s best break-dancers.

Oladehin specializes in a genre that pre-dates break-dancing called “popping,” which emphasizes muscle and body isolation.

“Usher’s glides…that’s part of popping,” Oladehin says. “The arm wave. The robot. The hit.”

Inspired by repeated viewings of the 1984 film “Breakers,” Oladehin started teaching himself to dance during his junior year in high school.

“I started just watching music videos mostly, Ginuwine, Usher, old Michael Jackson,” Oladehin says. “I’d usually just dance in my room because I didn’t want anyone seeing me. ”

He got his big break during the Freshman Talent Show, where he decided to perform for the first time in public. That was just the beginning. He has placed in the top of the past two Apollo Nights, but he remains modest.

“If you interacted with him, you would just not have any idea of so much of the stuff he’s involved with and he would never tell you,” close friend Alison E. Cohen ’07 says.

Oladehin says he plans on taking a year off to visit his family in Nigeria. Then it’s on to medical school. Although residencies and jams don’t go together, his friends think he’ll always be a breaker.

“He’ll be dancing in front of the wall of mirrors in his house, teaching his daughter 8-counts,” assures Ogunnaike. “Either that or pop-locking while he’s performing surgery.”