Breakdancing
Breaking, also called b-boying, b-girling or breakdancing, is a style of street dance developed by African American and Puerto Rican communities in The Bronx, New York City, United States.
"Breakdance" redirects here. For other uses, see Breakdance (disambiguation).Genre
Breakdancing consists mainly of four kinds of movement—toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes—and is typically set to songs containing drum breaks, especially in funk, soul, and hip-hop. Its modern dance elements originated among the poor youth of New York during the early 1970s.[1] It is tied to the birth of hip-hop, whose DJs developed rhythmic breaks for dancers.[2]
The dance form has expanded globally, with an array of organizations and independent competitions supporting its growth. Breaking will become an Olympic sport at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris,[3] per a December 7, 2020 decision by the International Olympic Committee, after a proposal by the World DanceSport Federation.[4]
There are four primary elements that form breakdancing: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes.
There are many individual styles used in breakdancing. Individual styles often stem from a dancer's region of origin and influences. However, some people such as Jacob "Kujo" Lyons believe that the internet inhibits individual style. In a 2012 interview with B-Boy Magazine he expressed his frustration:
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 breakdancing:
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. Breakers can therefore be categorized into a broad style, which generally showcases the same types of techniques.
Music[edit]
The musical selection for breakdancing is not restricted to hip-hop music as long as the tempo and beat pattern conditions are met. Breakdancing 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 funk, soul, disco, electro, and jazz funk. A musical canon of these traditional b-boy songs have since developed, songs that were once expected to be played at every b-boying event.[37] As the dance form grew, this standardization of classic songs prompted innovation of dance moves and break beats that reimagined the standard melodies. These songs include “Give It Up or Turn It a Loose” by James Brown, “Apache” by the Incredible Bongo Band, and "The Mexican" by Babe Ruth to name a few.[37][52]
The most common feature of breakdance 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[35] later termed the break beat.