Breakdancing History

Breakdancing or B-boying is one of the most popular and physically difficult dance forms. It is also one which is widely followed by hip-hop lovers across the world, who like to 'break'.

History of Breakdancing

It is well-known that breakdancing as well as rap music are two of the most important aspects of the African-American culture. But did you know that they were both these art forms were born out of the same discontent? That's right, breakdancing too was born out of the bottled up unhappiness of the African-Americans. Like rap again, the roots of breakdancing can be largely traced back to the Bronx in New York. It also became an important part of rap music itself. Thus we can see that both art forms have grown hand-in-hand.

The history lesson begins around the late 1960s, but it wasn't till the 1970s and 80s that it gained widespread popularity. At the time, it used to be a part of a rap song, during the 'breakdown'. The DJs would perform the breakdown at some point during the song, where the breakdancers used to come in and do their act.

Breakdancing moves find their origins from different sources, most common among them being the kung-fu martial arts style. Hard to believe, isn't it? But like I said, the African-Americans of the time needed a less violent vent for the brimming discontent and saw mixing martial arts into dancing as a way to go about it. The ways out that the B-boys sought were these battles, which featured a severely physical dance exhibitions.

But the man who is largely credited as the person who came up with the dance form was James Brown. In 1969, James Brown came up with a dance video titled 'Get Down on the Good Foot'. And that's where breakdancing started. It was known as Good Foot back in those days. Slowly the fights in the Bronx between rival African-American gangs started slowly and steadily being replaced by the Good Foot battles. The onlookers encouraged this less violent and moreover creative activity.

Early forms of breakdance had mostly a lot of Floor Rock and nothing else. But over the years, as breaking became more and more popular and competitive the uprock, the tailspin, the headspin and all the other breakdance moves started coming to the fore a lot more and by the middle and late 1980s were an intrinsic part of this dance form.

As it became more and more popular, more 'crews' started coming up. A group of dancers which performed together was known as a crew. In the 1970s, Afrika Bambaataa the 'godfather' of breakdancing formed the Universal Zulu Nation, an organization to spread the awareness of breakdancing. The first members of the Zulu Nation were known as the Zulu Kings and were instrumental in making breakdancing one of the most popular dance forms in the world. Afrika Bambaataa saw it as a way to get the African-Americans to direct their angst towards each other to a more creative outlet. And as the gang started being replaced, more and more with battles, it became evident that Afrika Bambaataa had been successful in his venture.

Like I said, breakdancing or hip-hop dance is no longer an integral part of only the African-American culture, but is now a widespread phenomenon all over the world!