Breakdancing

Breakdancing is a form of acrobatic dance that is part of hip hop culture.

It is probably connected to Urban Street Jazz or capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian dance/ martial art. In its early form, breakdancing was divided into three distinct forms of dancing, breaking, " and popping. Today, each body movement has been classified into a distinct style or genre of breaking and is similar in principle to others but characteristically different.

Other styles of dance associated with (but are NOT the same as breakdancing, though may be minorly incorporated,) include Popping, Locking, Tutting, Boogaloo, Uprock, and Liquid.

Some of the most admired break dancers of today may be found in such crews as Rock Steady Crew (RSC), Style Elements, Ichigeki, Team OHH, Fireworks, Ozone and Turbo, Havikoro, and Airforce Crew, etc. Legendary breakdancing names include Crazylegs, among others.

Prototypically the breakdancer is between the ages of thirty and forty and of a lower socioeconomic class. The majority of these are male, and most are Black or Hispanic, although there are breakdancers of all races. Speaking of prototypes one may distinguish a breakdancer in a crowd by his slim muscular figure, shoes with "fat" laces, attentiveness to music and people dancing, and his feet, head, or hands moving to a fixed beat.

Not all breakdancers/bboys/bgirls/breakers have "fat" laces.

In modern times, breaking has become quite popular with the 13-25 age group however the focus of many of these new bboys (particularly of korea and germany) is with power rather than style. This is less evident in the USA.

Many oldschool breakdancers prefer to be referred to as bboys. Bboying was the original term for urban style dancers, while breakdance is better known as it was used in the commercialization of breaking.

A few basic breakdance moves are the 6-step and toprock. To give an example of what a breakdance move looks like, the basic 6-step resembles walking in a circle on the ground. Uprocking is often confused with toprock, but the two are completely different dances. Breakdancers "tech" the moves that are most common among breakers, allowing a huge number of variations.