Or “breaking”—a specific genre of competitive, physically demanding, injury-risky, artistically inventive, pyrotechnic acrobatic and gymnastic dance movements. These include head spins from a headstand with hands in the air; back spins with legs tucked up and held by arms; “baby swipes,” or handstands in which the legs scissor sharply across each other and the hips spiral with the legs; “suicides,” or no-hands forward flips landing flat on the back; and “hand glides,” in which one hand supports the body while the other propels the body in a spin. Breakdancing developed in the 1970s and came to public attention from the Bronx borough of New York City in the early 1980s. The undocumented early history is wreathed in legend. Similar to dances in other parts of the United States, breakdancing extended African traditions of male youth competition, innovation, self-expression and male bravura, comment on current life, and warrior dances. During the late 1960s, immigrant West African dancers and musicians began performing and teaching in American public schools and for professional and amateur dancers; some Black Americans traveled to Africa to bring back traditions to teach and perform. Also influencing the development of breakdance were West Indian rapping (rhythmic spoken or chanted musical accompaniment), the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoiera, the African American dance repertoire, including the Lindy and the Charleston, and mainstream culture. The legendary Black singer James Brown’s athletic, frenetic dancing to his 1969 hit song “Get on the Good Foot” catalyzed experimentation with movement forms in which “b-boys,” young Black and Hispanic dancers, became proficient. Concerned with increasing inner-city gang violence, Afrika Bambaataa encouraged breakdancing as a peaceful alternative. He founded the Zulu Nation, a loose confederation of Bronx dance crews. Intensely competitive dance “battles” occurred between warring factions. This spread to localities from New York to California. Breaking was a way to be Number One without “blowing somebody away,” in some instances killing. However, police sometimes arrested breakdancers, thinking they were fighting. Dancers were banned from city streets and shopping malls for causing disturbances and attracting undesirable crowds. Occasionally, a dance battle escalated into actual violence. Breakdancers and onlookers form an impromptu circle, and each performer has a brief turn in the ring. Common breakdancing choreographic segments are robot-like movements and other mime sequences known collectively as “electric boogie.” Movements include the wave, the tick, the mannequin, the walls, the King Tut (miming figures in Egyptian hieroglyphics), popping (isolating body parts in robot-like segmentation), pop-locking (locking joints in place between movements in exaggeration for comic effect), glides, huevos (dancers walk on the toes of shoes one size larger than usual and stuffed with newspaper), moon walks (shifting weight from one leg to the other and sliding backward), athletic steps such as “uprocking” (mimed fighting and insults) and “top-rocking” (standing and performing foot movements), breaking, and shaming through mimed insults between dancers. Ghetto breakdancers express personal style and gain a sense of power while also conveying flamboyant, energetic group identity, values, and aesthetics. The dance is the most recent part of the former underground hip-hop social and political youth movement with its wild-style graffiti art, special slang and clothing, and rap music. Breakdancing music is played on a recorded disco rhythm track. Common rap themes are personal selfaggrandizement and comments about women, the police, and society. There are a few female breakdancers. Media obsession with breakdancing popularized it nationwide. The ABC 20/20 television news show aired young street-gang members settling disputes through dance. Mademoiselle, Time, Rolling Stone, People, Newsweek, and the Washington Post all ran pieces that spodighted breakdancing. Burger King and Pepsi ads on television showed breaking. The first hip-hop feature film, Wild Style highlighted breakdancers, as did the film Beat Street. Outstanding breakdancers gained financial rewards through performing on the street, in theaters, at birthday parties and bar mitzvahs, through club bookings and international tours, and on television and film. They gave classes at college campuses, grade schools, exercise studios, and recreation centers. The media hype eventually altered breakdancing’s form and meaning. The circular format became linear, the style became standardized with less improvisation, and acrobatics overshadowed the “freeze” (a held, often seemingly impossible position of personal and group expression). Like many popular dances, breakdancing became part of the formalized history of Black folklore. By the 1980s, street kids believed that breaking no longer belonged to them and went on to create new dances. Judith Lynne Hanna References
De Shane, Nina. 1988. Breakdance, Young Warriors in the Inner City. Play and Culture 1:258266. George, Nelson, Sally Banes, Susan Flinker, and Patty Romanowski. 1985. Fresh: Hip Hop Don’t Stop. New York: Random House, pp. 79–113. Hanna, Judith Lynne. 1986. Interethnic Communication in Children’s Own Dance, Play, and Protest. In Interethnic Communication, ed. Young Y.Kim. Vol. 10 of International and Intercultural Communication Annual Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 176–198. ——. 1987. To Dance Is Human. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.