Marina Karalekas, 14, is a b-girl who has been "breaking" since she was 9 years old.

"I'm moving on every part of my body, my head, my back. It's really cool," Karalekas said.

Karalekas' mentors in breaking are Anthony "Trix" Pacheco and Stephen Difede, who is known as B-Boy Rampage. They run the dance company Dynasty Breaking NYC. Both are accomplished breakers from a successful crew called 5 Crew Dynasty.

Pacheco was among the founders at Long Island City High School in the early 2000s. Difede is from Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, and as fate would have it, the two met at a rehearsal spot at a church in Sunset Park.

"He wasn't in our crew at first because you just don't get down with 5 Crew Dynasty like that, you know what I mean? You have to hang out with us, we've got to like you, and you have to show us that you are willing to work hard towards our common goal," Pacheco said. "And at that time, it is to destroy every battle, right?"

Eventually, Difede became a member, and the crew went on to win competitions and battles, locally here in town, then regionally, nationally, and then traveling the world, practicing this dance that was born in New York City in the 1970s. Hip-hop grew from the streets, block parties and park jams in the Bronx to a worldwide phenomenon.

"It's the first dance in hip-hop. That's where we are at. We have all different forms of hip-hop dance. We have crumping, and popping and locking, but breaking is the first dance in hip-hop and it came from New York City," Pacheco said. "So it's pretty cool that we get to do that and we get to really be the root of where hip-hop came from."

After traveling the planet breaking, the duo started to think about teaching others, sharing what they learned from dancing on the streets and the parks of the city.

"Originally it was just to continue our crew, you know, 5 Crew Dynasty. I didn't look at it as a business or didn't look at it as a way to push a new generation to be bigger or better," Difede said. "I mean, the goal of all of our students is to be better and take it further than we did. That's the goal. That's what every teacher strives for, for their students to be better than them."

The sky's the limit for students like Karalekas. After all, breaking will be an event at the Olympics in Paris in 2024. She has high hopes to make it to the next Olympics in 2028.

"I need to train hard and believe," Karalekas said.

Pacheco and Difede hope to open their own place one day teaching all aspects of hip-hop, from music production to DJing to street art, and of course breaking. They say the dancing, the travel, the battles and the crew made them who they are today, and can be just as transformative for their young students.

"I was always very athletic, but I never could be really creative. So when I found breaking, I was like, well, I could be athletic and creative with this," Difede said.

"It really teaches you how to attack your goals, formulate a plan, stick to the plan and do it with your best friends," Pacheco added.

Pacheco said his personal goal is to travel internationally with his students and watch them compete in a battle somewhere around the world.

Difede said just passing it down means a lot, because his crew meant a lot.