Cutting It Up Old Skool: Breakdancing Makes a Comeback

Are you able to somersault into a head spin? Can you back dive into a windmill? Perhaps you are into popping and locking. Or maybe you just want to go off.

What had once emerged on the street corners of New York in the late 70’s and exploded into the mainstream in the early 80’s, is now a cultural phenomenon reborn. Breakdancing, the dance style of the early hip-hop movement, is back tearing up a mall near you.

Reemerging in the early 90’s, urban companies like Rhythm Technicians demonstrated that the baby of hip-hop had evolved with more complex moves. In 1995, GhettOriginal Productions put on “Jam on the Groove,” a breakdance musical, at the Minetta Lane Theater in Greenwich Village in New York City. And breakdancing has since appeared in countless television commercials and resurfaced in music videos.

Not only is breakdancing hot in cities such as Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and Chicago, but also in countries such as Germany, Italy and Japan. These new hardcore dancers are appearing at national competitions like the B-Boy Summit in Los Angeles, the B-Boy Pro-Am in Miami and the Freestyle Sessions in Houston, Seattle and Chicago. And of course, the dance is all the rave in the suburbs.

Teens are studying hip-hop movies from the 1980’s like Wild Style or Breakin’ or current breakdancing competitions in order to mimic the moves. Some California high schools have breakdancing teams and suburban ballet studios are offering classes.

Not only are the b-boys and b-girls picking up their dance moves from the mainstream but also from martial arts like kung fu or capoeira, the dancelike Brazilian martial art. If you would like to learn a few moves before Aunt Hilda or Uncle Leroy drive you to the community center to face off, check out http://www.bboy.com or http://www.breakdance.com. Or to learn about Freestyle Sessions, a national breakdance competition that takes place all over the United States, log onto http://www.freestylesession.com.

But before you bust a move, here are a few terms to help you break into a crew:

LOCKING Freezing in a particular pose, after doing wrist rolls, etc.

POPPING Isolating muscles or popping parts of the body like the neck or the shoulder. Aka the robot.

TOP ROCK Dancing standing up, before you go down on the floor.

GOING OFF Dancing constantly.

FREEZE Poses in mid-stunt.

B-BOYING Otherwise known as breaking, it consists of top rock, footwork, spinning moves and freeze. B-Boys means break boys. The nickname is the result of dancing to the break part of the music.

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