In an interview with B-Boy Magazine he expressed his frustration:. It used to be that you could tell what city a b-boy was from by the way he danced. Not anymore. 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 of their own. B-boys can therefore be categorized into a broad style which generally showcases the same types of techniques.
The names of some of these moves are air baby, hollow backs, solar eclipse, and reverse air baby, among others. Like freezes, a suicide is used to emphasize a strong beat in the music and signal the end to a routine. While freezes draw attention to a controlled final position, suicides draw attention to the motion of falling or losing control. B-boys or b-girls will make it appear that they have lost control and fall onto their backs, stomachs, and etc.
The more painful the suicide appears, the more impressive it is, but breakers execute them in a way to minimize pain. This style is focused more on the beat and musicality of the song than having to rely on power moves only.
Downrock Styles In addition to the styles listed above, certain footwork styles have been associated with different areas which popularized them. Euro Style : Created in the eraly 90s, this style is very circular, focusing not on steps but more on glide-type moves such as the pretzel, deadlegs, undersweeps, and fluid sliding moves. Based upon the Euro Style, except characterized by elaborate leg threads.
Multiple stereotypes have emerged in the breaking community over the give-and-take relationship between technical footwork and physical power.
This debate however is somewhat of a misnomer. It is a concept which encompasses how a move is executed rather than what move is done. The musical selection for breaking is not restricted to hip-hop music as long as the tempo and beat pattern conditions are met.
Breaking 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 jazz, soul, funk, electro, and disco.
The most common feature of b-boy 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 and beats per minute with shuffled sixteenth and quarter beats in the percussive pattern. It is the first and largest international breaking competition for b-boy crews. Crews who win these tournaments go on to compete in the final championship in Montpellier, France.
BOTY was featured in the independent documentary Planet B-Boy that filmed five b-boy crews training for the championship. IBE International Breakdance Event is not a traditional competition because there are not any stages or judges. Instead, there are timed competitive events that take place in large multitiered ciphers—circular dance spaces surrounded by observers—where the winners are determined by audience approval. There are several kinds of events such as the b-girl crew battle, the Seven 2 Smoke battle , the All vs.
All continental battle all the American b-boys vs. The Circle Prinz IBE is a b-boy knockout tournament that takes place in multiple smaller cipher battles until the last standing b-boy is declared the winner. Chelles Battle Pro was created in and it is held every year in Chelles, France. There are two competitions. One is a kids competition for solo b-boys and b-girls who are 12 years old or younger.
The other competition is a knock-out tournament for eight b-boy crews. The competition brings together the top 16 b-boys from around the world. Six spots are earned through six regional qualifying tournaments. B-boy Cico holds the world record in s. A is a move in which a breakers spins continuously on one hand—a hand spin rather than a head spin.
Cico broke the record by spinning 27 times. A documentary based on the competition called Turn It Loose profiled six b-boys training for the championship in Johannesburg. Floor Wars is a three-on-three breaking competition founded in in Denmark. Eight top ranked international crews, referred to as the Great 8, are automatically invited to participate in the final.
The other eight crews qualify for the final through regional tournaments. What sets it apart from other competitions is that it is sponsored by the government and broadcast live on Korean television and in several countries in Europe. In , R16 instituted a new judging system that was created to eliminate bias and set a unified and fair standard for the way b-boy battles should be judged.
With the new system, b-boys are judged against give criteria: foundation, dynamics power moves , battle, originality, and execution. There is one judge for each category and the scores are shown on a large screen during battles so that the audience can see who is winning at any given moment. An hour before the competition is to judge which duo has the best chemistry when working with someone they have not trained with.
Like the other aspects of hip-hop culture, graffiti writing, MCing, and DJing, males are generally the predominant gender within breaking. However, this is being challenged by the rapidly increasing number of b-girls. Critics argue that it is unfair to make a sweeping generalization about these inequalities because women have begun to play a larger role in the breaking scene.
Despite the increasing number of female breakers, another possible barrier is lack of promotion. There are a lot more girls involved. The problem is that promoters are not putting on enough female-only battles.
The lower exposure of female dancers is probably caused not by an conscious discrimination, but simply by the fewer breakers compared to the number of male breakers. However, both males and females do practice this art form equally together and are competitively judged only by skill and personal expression, not gender.
References April, Matthew Oxford University Press. Breakdancing Ninja on breakdance history May 1, Israel director Adam Mansbach May 24, The Boston Globe. Schloss, Joseph Rivera, Raquel ISBN Freeman, Santiago July 1, Dance Spirit Magazine. Retrieved September 9, National Public Radio. October 14, Archived from the original on April 21, Retrieved May 28, Retrieved August 24, Again it is due to the understanding of how formations can be used, moves within those formations, and just moves in general.
It doesn't mean that young dancers are no good, or lack the talent to make good routines, etc Good dancing is achieved from experienced dancers, but if we continue to put an age cap on hip-hop dancers, we will always lose the experienced ones. If we want to increase the dance level, we need to encourage people to continue dancing even if they are past their teens. They do not need to dedicate their life to it, but as long as they maintain it as a hobby, they can still contribute their experience to newer dancers.
We also need more goals for the dancers to strive for such as more contests and showcases so that the good dancers can get fame and the lesser dancers can see what it takes to get good. We need more schools to teach the styles.
This would serve two purposes. The first is that it can educate dancers to different styles as well as teach them the fundamentals so that they do not have to reinvent them, themselves. The second is that it gives experience dancers work at least part-time and is a motivation for them to keep dancing.
And of course, it would be nice if rappers used dancers again and also DJ's so that good dancers would have work and the public can see what good hip-hop dancing looks like.
That way, people could aspire to be professional hip-hop dancers and not be laughed at or mocked by society, but instead be respected as artists. Should I shoot his bitch, or make the nigga rich? Don't wanna commit murder, but damn they got me trapped Breakdance : What does it mean to be a B-Boy.
It was a time where they felt like they were out of control. This way, they had the opportunity to create something that was their own. Naturally, a huge part of b-boying and hip hop is the art of the battle, where one challenges the other to test their skills and see who is the most dominant. It's through the constant challenging of skills that has lead this movement to evolve to what it is today. In the late 70's , breaking was replaced by disco.
In the 80's, breaking was popularized by mainstream media. By the late 80's, early 90's, breaking and breakdancing music faded away from the mainstream. B-boying is one of the four elements of hip hop. Other hip hop dances are popping and locking. While these elements had already existed before, it was the Godfather of Hip Hop, Afrika Bambaataa, that brought all of them together.
According to the Universal Zulu Nation, the current representatives of the true essence of hip hop, the four principles of hip hop are: peace, love, unity, and having fun. It was these principles that brought many individuals to hip hop despite their background. This is where you're using both your hands AND your feet to make footwork patterns that dazzle your audience.
Adding this to your repertoire will give you athleticism that will compliment your smooth footwork, controlled freezes, and dynamic top rocks. You can check out my breakdancing for beginners video demos of all of these moves here. What's next? Head over to my breakdancing basics section where I give you all the answers to your b-boying questions.
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