This energetic urban dance style originated in New York city's hip hop scene.
DJ's such as Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, Kool Herc and Kerlbert Clap spinned beats on their record players, looping the breaks. Break beats and jazz, soul, funk, disco and hip hop samples were used to create a rhythmic feel for break boys to show off their innovative skills. This cypher street dance was initially referred to as b-boying. ( old school break-dance moves consisted mainly of floor work: rapid, often circular movements on the floor with hand and foot support.)
As break-dance is a mixture of acrobatics and dance one needs to be muscular and hardworking to engage oneself in the dance style. Break dance involves rapid moves with different parts of the body touching the ground, nowadays mostly performed to the rhythm of rap music. There's a large variety of break-dance moves. The four primary movements are top rock, down rock, power moves and freezes/suicides.
There are no female divisions in breakdance jams( eg Freestyle Session, Circle Kingz, Summer Sickness, Evolution and Battle of the Year), obliging b- girls to compete with b boys on equal terms, which might explain why there are few female breakers. Battles are either one to one or crew competitions.
Sixteen b- boys and a b-girl( eg Nauty One- Korea, Sam revell aka Sambo -Belgium, Thesis- USA) gathered in Antwerp to compete with each other in a one to one battle. Brazilian Neguin convinced the jury after an impressive final battle against American Morris.
Article written by Ann Timmermans
