History of Breakdance
B-boying or
breaking, often called "
breakdancing", is a style of
street dance that originated as a part of
hip hop culture among African American and
Latino youths in New York City during the early 1970s.
[2]:125, 141, 153[3] Fast to gain popularity in the media, the dance style also gained popularity worldwide especially in
South Korea, France,
Russia, Japan. While diverse in the amount of variation available in the dance, b-boying consists of four primary elements:
toprock,
downrock,
power moves, and
freezes. B-boying is typically danced to
hip-hop and especially
breakbeats, although modern trends allow for much wider varieties of music along certain ranges of tempo and beat patterns.
A practitioner of this dance is called a b-boy, b-girl, or breaker.
Although the term "breakdance" is frequently used to refer to the dance,
"b-boying" and "breaking" are the original terms. These terms are
preferred by the majority of the pioneers and most notable
practitioners.
[4][5]
Terminology
The terminology used to refer to b-boying (break-boying) changed
after promotion by the mainstream media. Although widespread, the term
"break-dancing" is looked down upon by those immersed in hip-hop
culture. Purists consider "breakdancing" an ignorant term invented by
the media
[2]:58[4] that connotes exploitation of the art
[2]:60[4] and is used to sensationalize breaking. The term "breakdancing" is also problematic because it has become a diluted
umbrella term that incorrectly includes
popping,
locking, and
electric boogaloo,
[2]:60[6] which are not styles of "breakdance", but are
funk styles that were developed separately from breaking in California.
[7] The dance itself is properly called "breaking" according to rappers such as
KRS-One,
Talib Kweli,
Mos Def, and
Darryl McDaniels of
Run-DMC.
[8]
The terms "b-boy" (break-boy), "b-girl" (break-girl), and "breaker"
are the original terms used to describe the dancers. The original terms
arose to describe the dancers who performed to
DJ Kool Herc's breakbeats. DJ Kool Herc is a
Jamaican-American
DJ who is responsible for developing the foundational aspects of
hip-hop music. The obvious connection of the term "breaking" is to the
word "
breakbeat",
but DJ Kool Herc has commented that the term "breaking" was slang at
the time for "getting excited", "acting energetically" or "causing a
disturbance".
[9]
Most b-boying pioneers and practitioners prefer the terms "b-boy",
"b-girl", and/or "breaker" when referring to these dancers. For those
immersed in hip-hop culture, the term "breakdancer" may be used to
disparage those who learn the dance for personal gain rather than for
commitment to the culture.
[2]:61 B-boy London of the New York City Breakers and filmmaker Michael Holman refer to these dancers as "breakers".
[4] Frosty Freeze of the Rock Steady Crew says, "we were known as b-boys", and hip-hop pioneer
Afrika Bambaataa says, "b-boys, [are] what you call break boys... or b-girls, what you call break girls."
[4] In addition, co-founder of
Rock Steady Crew Santiago "Jo Jo" Torres, Rock Steady Crew member Mr. Freeze, and hip-hop historian
Fab 5 Freddy use the term "b-boy",
[4] as do rappers
Big Daddy Kane[10] and
Tech N9ne.
[11]
| Source |
Quote |
Citation |
Richard "Crazy Legs" Colon;
Rock Steady Crew |
"When I first learned about the dance in ’77 it was called
b-boying... by the time the media got a hold of it in like ’81, ’82, it
became ‘break-dancing’ and I even got caught up calling it break-dancing
too." |
[4] |
Action;
New York City Breakers |
"You know what, that’s our fault kind of... we started dancing and
going on tours and all that and people would say, oh you guys are
breakdancers – we never corrected them." |
[4] |
Santiago "Jo Jo" Torres;
Rock Steady Crew |
"B-boy... that’s what it is, that’s why when the public changed it
to ‘break-dancing’ they were just giving a professional name to it, but
b-boy was the original name for it and whoever wants to keep it real
would keep calling it b-boy." |
[4] |
| NPR |
"Breakdancing may have died, but the b-boy, one of four original
elements of hip hop (also included: the MC, the DJ, and the graffiti
artist) lives on. To those who knew it before it was tagged with the
name breakdancing, to those still involved in the scene that they will
always know as b-boying, the tradition is alive and, well, spinning." |
[12] |
| The Boston Globe |
"Lesson one: Don't call it breakdancing. Hip-hop's dance tradition,
the kinetic counterpart to the sound scape of rap music and the visuals
of graffiti art, is properly known as b-boying." |
[5] |
| The Electric Boogaloos |
"In the 80's when streetdancing [sic] blew up, the media often
incorrectly used the term 'breakdancing' as an umbrella term for most
the streetdancing [sic] styles that they saw. What many people didn't
know was [that] within these styles, other sub-cultures existed, each
with their own identities. Breakdancing, or b-boying as it is more
appropriately known as, is known to have its roots in the east coast and
was heavily influenced by break beats and hip hop." |
[13] |
| Jorge "Popmaster Fabel" Pabon |
"Break dancing is a term created by the media! Once hip-hop dancers
gained the media’s attention, some journalists and reporters produced
inaccurate terminology in an effort to present these urban dance forms
to the masses. The term break dancing is a prime example of this
misnomer. Most pioneers and architects of dance forms associated with
hip-hop reject this term and hold fast to the original vernacular
created in their places of origin. In the case of break dancing, it was
initially called b-boying or b-girling." |
[14] |
Benjamin "B-Tek" Chung;
JabbaWockeeZ |
"When someone says break dancing, we correct them and say it’s b-boying." |
[15] |
Timothy "Popin' Pete" Solomon;
Electric Boogaloos |
"An important thing to clarify is that the term 'Break dancing' is
wrong, I read that in many magazines but that is a media term. The
correct term is 'Breakin', people who do it are B-Boys and B-Girls. The
term 'Break dancing' has to be thrown out of the dance vocabulary." |
[16] |
| Excerpt from the book New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone |
"With the barrage of media attention [breaking] received, even
terminology started changing. 'Breakdancing' became the catch-all term
to describe what originally had been referred to as 'burning', 'going
off', 'breaking', 'b-boying', and 'b-girling'... Even though many of hip
hop's pioneers accepted the term for a while in the 1980s, they have
since reclaimed the original terminology and rejected 'breakdance' as a
media-fabricated word that symbolizes the bastardization and co-optation
of the art form." |
[6] |
| Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory |
"Breaking or b-boying is generally misconstrued or incorrectly
termed as 'breakdancing.' Breakdancing is a term spawned from the loins
of the media's philistinism,
sciolism, and naïveté at that time. With no true knowledge of the
hip-hop diaspora but with an ineradicable need to define it for the nescient masses, the term breakdancing was born. Most breakers take great offense to the term." |
[17] |
| Jeff Chang |
"During the 1970s, an array of dances practiced by black and Latino
kids sprang up in the inner cities of New York and California. The
styles had a dizzying list of names: 'uprock' in Brooklyn, 'locking' in
Los Angeles, 'boogaloo' and 'popping' in Fresno, and 'strutting' in San
Francisco and Oakland. When these dances gained notice in the mid-'80s
outside of their geographic contexts, the diverse styles were lumped
together under the tag 'break dancing.' |
[18] |
| American Heritage Dictionary |
*"b-boy (bē′boi′) n. A man or boy who engages in b-boying.
[b-, probably short for BREAK (from the danceable breaks in funk
recordings from which turntablists make breakbeat music to which
b-boying is done ) + BOY.]" |
[19] |
History
B-boying at its inception borrowed from other performance styles, as
many elements of b-boying may be seen in other antecedent cultures prior
to the 1970s. Concerning martial arts, b-boying looks very similar to
the movement found in the Brazilian martial art
capoeira which came about in the 1500s;
[20]
however, b-boy pioneers Richard "Crazy Legs" Colon and Kenneth "Ken
Swift" Gabbert, both of Rock Steady Crew, said they never witnessed
capoeira when they were young; they cite
James Brown and Kung-Fu films as influences instead.
[21][22] Many of b-boying's more acrobatic moves, such as the
flare,
show clear connections to gymnastics. An Arab street dancer performing
acrobatic headspins was recorded by Thomas Edison in 1898.
[23] However, it was not until the 1970s that b-boying developed as a defined dance style.
Beginning with DJ Kool Herc, Bronx-based DJs would take the rhythmic
breakdown sections (also known as the "breaks") of dance records and
prolong them by looping them successively. The breakbeat provided a
rhythmic base that allowed dancers to display their improvisational
skills during the duration of the break. This led to the first
battles
– turn-based dance competitions between two individuals or dance crews
judged with respect to creativity, skill, and musicality. These battles
occurred in
cyphers – circles of people gathered around the
breakers. Though at its inception the earliest b-boys were "close to 90
percent African-American", dance crews such as "SalSoul" and "Rockwell
Association" were populated almost entirely by Latino Americans.
Uprock
A separate but related dance form which influenced breaking is
uprock also called
rocking or
Brooklyn rock.
Uprock is an aggressive dance that involves two dancers who mimic ways
of fighting each other using mimed weaponry in rhythm with the music.
[14] Uprock
as a dance style of its own never gained the same widespread popularity
as breaking, except for some very specific moves adopted by breakers
who use it as a variation for their toprock.
[24]:138
When used in a b-boy battle, opponents often respond by performing
similar uprock moves, supposedly creating a short uprock battle. Some
dancers argue that because uprock was originally a separate dance style
it should never be mixed with breaking and that the uprock moves
performed by breakers today are not the original moves but imitations
that only show a small part of the original uprock style.
[25]
It has been stated that breaking replaced fighting between street gangs.
[12]
On the contrary, some believe it a misconception that b-boying ever
played a part in mediating gang rivalry. Both viewpoints have some
truth. Uprock has its roots in
gangs.
[24]:116, 138
Whenever there was an issue over turf, the two warlords of the feuding
gangs would uprock. Whoever won this preliminary battle would decide
where the real fight would be.
[26]
Worldwide expansion
Brazil
Ismael Toledo was one of the first b-boys in Brazil.
[27] In 1984, he moved to the United States to study dance.
[27]
While in the U.S. he discovered breaking and ended up meeting b-boy
Crazy Legs who personally mentored him for the four years that followed.
[27]
After becoming proficient in breaking, he moved back to São Paulo and
started to organize b-boys crews and enter international competitions.
[27] He eventually opened a hip-hop dance studio called the Hip-Hop Street College.
[27]
South Korea
B-boying was first introduced to
South Korea
by American soldiers shortly after its surge of popularity in the U.S.
during the 1980s, but it was not until the late 1990s that the culture
and dance really took hold.
[28] 1997 is known as the "Year Zero of Korean breaking".
[18] A
Korean-American hip hop promoter named John Jay Chon was visiting his family in Seoul and while he was there, he met a crew named
Expression Crew
in a club. He gave them a VHS of a Los Angeles b-boying competition
called Radiotron. A year later when he returned, Chon found that his
video and others like his had been copied and dubbed numerous times, and
were feeding an ever-growing b-boy community.
In 2002, Korea's Expression Crew won the prestigious international b-boying competition
Battle of the Year,
exposing the skill of the country's b-boys to the rest of the world.
Since then, the Korean government has capitalized on the popularity of
the dance and has promoted it alongside Korean culture.
R-16 Korea
is the most well-known government-sponsored b-boy event, and is hosted
by the Korean Tourism Organization and supported by the Ministry of
Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
Japan
Shortly after the Rock Steady Crew came to Japan, b-boying within
Japan began to thrive. Each Sunday b-boys would perform breaking in
Tokyo's Yoyogi Park.
[29]
One of the first and most influential Japanese breakers was Crazy-A,
who is now the leader of the Tokyo chapter of Rock Steady Crew.
[29]
He also organizes the yearly B-Boy Park which draws upwards of 10,000
fans a year and attempts to expose a wider audience to the culture.
[30]
Cambodia
Born in Thailand and raised in the United States, Tuy "KK" Sobil started a community center called Tiny Toones in
Phnom Penh
in 2005 where he uses b-boying, hip-hop music, and art to teach
Cambodian youth language skills, computer skills, and life skills
(hygiene, sex education, counseling). His orgranization helps roughly
5,000 youth a year. One of these youth include Diamond, who is regarded
as Cambodia's first b-girl.
[31][32]
Dance elements
There are four primary elements that form breaking. These include toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes/suicides.
Toprock generally refers to any string of steps performed from
a standing position. It is usually the first and foremost opening
display of style, though dancers often transition from other aspects of
breaking to toprock and back. Toprock has a variety of steps which can
each be varied according to the dancer's expression (ie. aggressive,
calm, excited). A great deal of freedom is allowed in the definition of
toprock: as long as the dancer maintains cleanness, form and the b-boy
attitude, theoretically anything can be toprock. Toprock can draw upon
many other dance styles such as
popping,
locking,
tap dance, or
house dance. Transitions from toprock to downrock and power moves are called "drops".
[33]
Downrock (also known as "footwork" or "floorwork") is used to
describe any movement on the floor with the hands supporting the dancer
as much as the feet. Downrock includes moves such as the foundational
6-step,
and its variants such as the 3-step. The most basic of downrock is done
entirely on feet and hands but more complex variations can involve the
knees when
threading limbs through each other.
Power moves are acrobatic moves that require
momentum,
speed, endurance, strength, and control to execute. The breaker is
generally supported by his upper body while the rest of his body creates
circular momentum. Some examples are the
windmill,
swipe,
and head spin. Some power moves are borrowed from gymnastics and
martial arts. An example of a power move taken from gymnastics is the
Thomas Flair which is shortened and spelled
flare in b-boying.
Freezes are stylish poses, and the more difficult require the
breaker to suspend himself or herself off the ground using upper body
strength in poses such as the
pike. They are used to emphasize strong beats in the music and often signal the end of a b-boy set.
Freezes
can be linked into chains or "stacks" where breakers go from freeze to
freeze to the music to display musicality and physical strength.
Suicides, like freezes, are used to emphasize a strong beat in
the music and signal the end to a routine. In contrast to freezes,
suicides draw attention to the motion of falling or losing control,
while freezes draw attention to a controlled final position. Breakers
will make it appear that they have lost control and fall onto their
backs, stomachs, etc. The more painful the suicide appears, the more
impressive it is, but breakers execute them in a way to minimize pain.
B-boy styles
B-boy Timon doing a baby freeze
There are many different individual styles used in b-boying.
Individual styles often stem from a dancer's region of origin and
influences. However, some people such as b-boy Jacob "Kujo" Lyons feel
that the Internet inhibits individual style. In an 2012 interview with
B-Boy Magazine he expressed his frustration:
... because everybody watches the same videos online, everybody ends
up looking very similar. The differences between individual b-boys,
between crews, between cities/states/countries/continents, have largely
disappeared. It used to be that you could tell what city a b-boy was
from by the way he danced. Not anymore. But I've been saying these
things for almost a decade, and most people don't listen, but continue
watching the same videos and dancing the same way. It's what I call the
"international style," or the "Youtube style."[34]
B-boy Luis "Alien Ness" Martinez, the president of Mighty Zulu Kings,
expressed a similar frustration in a separate interview three years
earlier with "The Super B-Beat Show" about the top five things he hates
in b-boying:
Oh yeah, the last thing I hate in breakin'... Yo, all y'all mother
f*ckin' Internet b-boys... I'm an Internet b-boy too, but I'm real about
my sh*t. Everybody knows who I am, I'm out at every f*cking jam, I'm in
a different country every week. I tell my story dancing... I've been
all around the world, y'all been all around the world wide web... [my
friend] Bebe once said that sh*t, and I co-sign that, Bebe said that.
That wasn't me but that's the realist sh*t I ever heard anybody say.
I've been all around the world, you've been all around the world wide
web.[35]
Although there are some generalities in the styles that exist, many
dancers combine elements of different styles with their own ideas and
knowledge in order to create a unique style of their own. B-boys can
therefore be categorized into a broad style which generally showcases
the same types of techniques.
- Power: This style of b-boying is what most members of the general
public associate with the term "breakdancing". Power moves comprise
full-body spins and rotations that give the illusion of defying gravity.
Examples of power moves include headspins, backspins, windmills,
flares, airtracks/airflares, 1990s, 2000s, jackhammers, crickets,
turtles, hand glide, halos, and elbow spins. Those b-boys who use "power
moves" almost exclusively in their sets are referred to as "power
heads" or power movers.
- Abstract: A very broad style of b-boying which may include the
incorporation of "threading" footwork, freestyle movement to hit beats,
house dance, and "circus" styles (tricks, contortion, etc.).
- Blowup: A style of b-boying which focuses on the "wow factor" of
certain power moves, freezes, and circus styles. Blowups consist of
performing a sequence of as many difficult trick combinations in as
quick succession as possible in order to "smack" or exceed the
virtuosity of the other b-boy's performance. This is usually attempted
only after becoming proficient in other styles due to the degree of
control and practice required in this type of dancing. The names of some
of the moves are: airbaby, airchair, hollow backs, solar eclipse,
reverse airbaby, among others. The main goal in blowup-style is the
rapid transition through a sequence of power moves ending in a skillful
freeze.
- Flavor: A style that is based more on elaborate toprock, downrock,
and/or freezes. This style is focused more on the beat and musicality of
the song than having to rely on "power" moves only. B-boys who base
their dance on "flavor" or style are known as "style heads".
Downrock styles
In addition to the styles listed above, certain footwork styles have
been associated with different areas which popularized them.
[36]
- Traditional New York Style: The original style of b-boying from the Bronx, based around the Russian Tropak dance, this style of downrock focuses on kicks called "CCs" and foundational moves such as 6-steps and variations of it.
- Euro Style: Created in the early 90's, this style is very circular,
focusing not on steps but more on glide-type moves such as the pretzel,
deadlegs, undersweeps and fluid sliding moves
- Canadian Style: Created in the late 90's, also known as the 'Toronto
thread' style. Based upon the Euro Style, except also characterized by
elaborate leg threads
Power versus style
Multiple stereotypes have emerged in the breaking community over the
give-and-take relationship between technical footwork and physical
power. Those who focus on dance steps and fundamental sharpness are
labeled as "style-heads." Specialists of more gymnastics-oriented
technique and form—at the cost of charisma and coordinated footwork—are
known as "power-heads." Such terms are used colloquially often to
classify one's skill, however, the subject has been known to disrupt
competitive events where judges tend to favor a certain technique over
the other.
This debate however is somewhat of a misnomer. The classification of
dancing as "style" in b-boying is inaccurate because every b-boy or
b-girl has their own unique style developed both consciously and
subconsciously. Each b-boy or b-girl's style is the certain attitude or
method in which they execute their movements. A breaker's unique style
does not strictly refer to just toprock or downrock. It is a concept
which encompasses how a move is executed rather than what move is done.
Music
The musical selection for breaking is not restricted to
hip-hop music
as long as the tempo and beat pattern conditions are met. Breaking can
be readily adapted to different music genres with the aid of
remixing. The original songs that popularized the dance form borrow significantly from progressive genres of
jazz,
soul,
funk,
electro, and
disco. The most common feature of b-boy music exists in musical
breaks, or compilations formed from
samples
taken from different songs which are then looped and chained together
by the DJ. The tempo generally ranges between 110 and 135 beats per
minute with
shuffled sixteenth and
quarter beats in the percussive pattern. History credits DJ
Kool Herc for the invention of this concept
[24]:79 later termed the
break beat.
World championships
- Battle of the Year (BOTY) was founded in 1990 by Thomas Hergenröther in Germany.[37] It is the first and largest international breaking competition for b-boy crews.[38]
BOTY holds regional qualifying tournaments in several countries such as
Zimbabwe, Japan, Israel, Algeria, Indonesia, Italy, and the Balkans. Crews who win these tournaments go on to compete in the final championship in Montpellier, France.[37] BOTY was featured in the independent documentary Planet B-Boy (2007) that filmed five b-boy crews training for the 2005 championship. A 3D film Battle of the Year: The Dream Team is scheduled for commercial release in January 2013. It was directed by Benson Lee who also directed Planet B-Boy.[39]
- B-Boy Summit is an international four-day conference founded in 1994 by b-girl Nancy "Asia One" Yu in San Diego, California.[40][41]
The B-Boy Summit places a lot of emphasis on the history of hip-hop
culture and breakers understanding the roots of where it came from.[40]
For this reason, the conference includes a breaking competition, a
talent showcase for rappers and DJs, and live paintings by graffiti
artists so that "each element of Hip-Hop combine[s] together to make the
cipher complete."[40] There's also competitions for lockers and poppers as part of the "Soul Fest" portion of the conference.[42]
- The Notorious IBE is a Dutch-based breaking competition founded in 1998.[43]
IBE (International Breakdance Event) is not a traditional competition
because there are not any stages or judges. Instead, there are timed
competitive events that take place in large multitiered ciphers—circular
dance spaces surrounded by observers—where the winners are determined
by audience approval.[43]
There are several kinds of events such as the b-girl crew battle, the
Seven 2 Smoke battle (eight top ranked b-boys battle each other to
determine the overall winner), the All vs. All continental battle (all
the American b-boys vs. all the European b-boys vs. the Asian b-boys vs.
Mexican/Brazilian b-boys), and the Circle Prinz IBE.[43]
The Circle Prinz IBE is a b-boy knockout tournament that takes place in
multiple smaller cipher battles until the last standing b-boy is
declared the winner.[43] IBE also hosts the European finals for the UK B-Boy Championships.[44]
- Red Bull BC One was created in 2004 by Red Bull and is hosted in a different country every year.[45] The competition brings together the top 16 b-boys from around the world.[45]
Six spots are earned through six regional qualifying tournaments. The
other 10 spots are reserved for last year's winner, wild card
selections, and recommendations from an international panel of experts. A
past participant of the competition is world record holder Mauro "Cico"
(pronounced CHEE-co) Peruzzi. B-boy Cico holds the world record in
1990s. A 1990 is a move in which a breaker spins continuously on one
hand—a hand spin rather than a head spin. Cico broke the record by
spinning 27 times.[46][47] A documentary based on the competition called Turn It Loose (2009) profiled six b-boys training for the 2007 championship in Johannesburg.[48] Two of these b-boys were Ali "Lilou" Ramdani from Pockémon Crew and Omar "Roxrite" Delgado from Squadron.
- R16 Korea is a South Korean breaking competition founded in 2007 by Asian Americans Charlie Shin and John Jay Chon.[49] Like BOTY and Red Bull BC One put together, Respect16 is a competition for the top 16 ranked b-boy crews in the world.[50]
What sets it apart from other competitions is that it is sponsored by
the government and broadcast live on Korean television and in several
countries in Europe.[49]
In 2011, R16 instituted a new judging system that was created to
eliminate bias and set a unified and fair standard for the way b-boy
battles should be judged.[51]
With the new system, b-boys are judged against five criteria:
foundation, dynamics (power moves), battle, originality, and execution.
There is one judge for each category and the scores are shown on a large
screen during battles so that the audience can see who is winning at
any given moment.[52]
B-Boy Name:Joca
