Break dance or Bboying (breaking) is a social dance that is part of the Hip Hop culture along with Graffiti, Rap and Djing. This element was born in the communities of New York neighborhoods such as Bronx and Brooklyn in the 1970s.
Breakin Sports Pictogram
Break Dance is a commercial term used by the media to call this dance, but its real name is Breakin.
This would reach a higher recognition in the 1980s, exactly with the "boom" of 85, thanks to the influence of films such as Flashdance, Breakin 'and Beat Street that spread the movement across the planet, especially Europe.
The term was imposed by the media to the dance known as Breakin or B-Boying, originally called by who is widely considered as the 'Father of Hip Hop' DJ Kool Herc, who applied it to young people who attended his parties and They were especially waiting for the breakbeat part of the songs (that is, where the accompanying instrumentation goes and only the syncopated percussion is left) to invade the track and demonstrate its bizarre movements. It is thought that this name 'breakdance' had commercial reasons, and that is why some “B-boys” prefer to continue calling their dance “Boying”, in the original way .
Beginnings and development
(1968-1974): This phase laid the groundwork for breakdance. It began as a consequence of the wars between local bands that plagued the Bronx and Brooklyn. There were continuous fights between them in the ghettos, especially between black and white members, among which we observed there was a spiral of continuous hatred.
This aggressive fighting spirit was transferred to the dance by Spy, who introduced him to his way of dancing, characterizing it with this street style.
Among the first Bboys we can highlight: Clark Kent, The Amazing Bobo, James Bonfire, Sau Sau, Tricksy, El Dorado, Mike, the Nigga Twins. As they themselves declare in the documentary "The Freshest Kids", in their origins, most of the steps of breakdance, did not follow any pattern or base structure, although in their routines all incorporated clear elements of steps of the Funk Godfather James Brown, as well as the dance styles of the then famous TV show "Soul Train" of characters such as The Lockers and the Electric Boogaloos groups in California. In the last years of this period, breakdance served to peacefully resolve many of the fights before.
Foundation (1975-1979): The second phase begins with the contribution of the Bronx boys born in Puerto Rico, who came to acquire prominence as the "moreno style", the "Latin style" and allowed it to integrate with the of the black community. Taking inspiration from Salsa, and according to b-boy Ken Swift, of the pirouettes shown in the kung fu movies, Puerto Ricans were the true creators of B-boying. In 1977 the Rock Steady Crew was founded, destined to teach the true origins of B-boying as we know it today. However, in 1979 there were many B-boys who abandoned dance to focus on other disciplines of hip hop culture (DJ, Graffiti, Rap) as a result of the crisis. A dubious future of the discipline of B-boying began to arise.
The dance
Like any musical movement, the Break Dance emerged as a body response of the Beats that marked the music; due to this the name of Break Boy that was transformed to B-boy. This dance is influenced by different dance currents. From the marginalized segments of Brooklyn, from the South Bronx, there is the influence of “tap” and some African dances and “salsa” and “mambo” are taken up by the Latin American community.
Its predecessor is the dance movement that called itself "UpRock" was executed by gang members and with it they prepared to fight through this dance, and thereby reduce physical violence and deaths. In this dance two styles were used; the first one already mentioned, was to express what the opponent meant by imitations based on gestures called “Jerks” that included body shapes of guns, kicks, punches. The second style was called "Burns" this consisted, as the name implies, in burning the opponent, ridiculing him.
