Breakdancing
BreakdancingBreakdancing a form of African American dance that emerged from the hip hop culture of the South Bronx, New York, during the mid-1970s. Drawing upon several African American dance forms, break dancing coalesced in the 1970s and reached its peak in popularity during the 1980s.
Breakdancing developed out of the Bronx, New York, disco scene. When disco DJs changed records, dancers would fill the resulting musical breaks, or "breakbeats," with movements that emphasized the rupture in rhythmic continuity. These highly acrobatic interludes developed into a new genre that mixed Afrodiasporic dance styles, reflecting the influence of the lindy-hop, the Charleston, the cakewalk, and the jitterbug as well as the Afro-Brazilian martial-arts dance Capoeira and the antics of Kung Fu movies.
Breakdancing included "breaking" (flipping, spinning, pivoting on the head and hands), "up-rock" (a mock-combat style, often directed against an opponent), and "webbo" (fast footwork between other dance moves). When breakdancing spread to Los Angeles, California, dancers added the "electric boogie," automaton-like dance moves that incorporated pantomime. In the beginning, breakdancers adopted a confrontational attitude, as "crews" met each other in fake...
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