Breakdance

Breakdance

B-boying, commonly referred to as breakdancing, is a style of dance that was created, and developed as part of hip-hop culture among African Americans, and later on Latino American youths in New York City. Breaking includes four primary moves: toprock, downrock, power moves and freezes/suicides. It is danced to both hip-hop and other genres of music that are often remixed to prolong the musical breaks. The musical selection for breaking is not restricted to hip-hop music, as long as the tempo and beat pattern conditions are met. One who practices this style of dance is called a b-boy, b-girl, or breaker. These dancers often participate in battles, formal or informal dance competitions between two individuals or two crews. Although "breakdance" is a common term, "b-boying" and "breaking" are preferred by the majority of the art form’s pioneers and most notable practitioners.


Dance Techniques

There are four primary elements that form breaking. These include:

1. Toprock
2. Downrock / Footwork
3. Power Moves
4. Freezes
5. 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, or house dance. Transitions from toprock to downrock and power moves are called drops.

• 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 or other small steps ("techs") that add style. 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 and physical power to execute. The breaker is generally supported by his upper body, while the rest of his body creates circular momentum. Notable examples are the windmill, swipe, head spin, and flare. Numerous moves such as the flare are borrowed from gymnastics while other more uncommon moves are borrowed from martial arts.

• 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 "freeze ladders" where breakers change positions 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.

Power Vs 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.

Uprock

A related dance form which influenced breaking is Uprock also called Rocking or Brooklyn rock. Like toprock, uprock is also performed while standing. The difference is that uprock is a war dance that involves two dancers who mimic ways of fighting each other using mimed weaponry in rhythm with the music. 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. 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 poor imitations that only show a small part of the original uprock style.

Battles

It has been stated that breaking replaced fighting between street gangs. 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. 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. This is where the battle mentality in breaking and hip-hop dance in general comes from. "Sometimes a dance was enough to settle the beef, sometimes the dance set off more beef."

Crew versus crew battles are common in breaking. Battles are dance competitions between two individuals or two groups of dancers who try to out-dance each other. They can be either formal or informal but both types of battles are head to head confrontations. They can take the form of a cypher battle or an organized battle. A crew is a group of b-boys/b-girls who dance together. A few of the most well known crews are the Rock Steady Crew, Last For One, Super Cr3w, Gamblerz, Mortal Combat, Flying Steps, and Massive Monkeys. B-boy crews such as the Rock Steady Crew and the New York City Breakers changed breaking into a pop-culture phenomenon when they received a large amount of media attention by battling each other in public at the Lincoln Center in 1981.

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 later termed the break beat.