The Origin of Breakdance: Breakdance, the oldest known hip-hop style of dance, is believed to have originated in the Bronx, New York in the 1970's. Sonic inspirations date back to the energetic performances of funk maestro, James Brown. In the early days of djing, emceeing, and b-boying, a break - instrumental part of a song that is looped repeatedly by the DJ - were incorporated into songs to allow a showcase of improvised breakdance steps.
Elements of Breakdancing:
Music is an essential part of breaking, but hip-hop is not the only option. 70's soul, funk, and even jazz tunes all work as well. Style, fashion, spontaneity, concept and technique are also vital aspects of breakdancing.
Popular Breakdance Moves:
* Toprock
* Air Flares
* Headspins * Dizzy run * Applejack * Windmills
* Swipe * Suicides * Handglide * Footwork
Dance has dramatically evolved over the past 100 years. From the loud, sampede-like movements of Africa, to the more graceful and fluid movements of ballet from europe, dance has been constantly shifting to the norms of society. The traditional aspect has played a huge role in dancing because of traditions are always carried throughout history. Most likely these traditions are slightly modified, but that is what maked every era of dance new and exciting. The traditions from the late 1800s have carried throughout the years, creating the style of dancee we have witnessed over the last 20 years.
Before the 1980s, dancing involved signature dance moves, such as the Hustly and the Locomotion. In almost any dance club, one could witness groups of people doing the same movement over and over to a specific song. Once the 80s hit, however, the signature dance moves rom earlier eras slowly faded out. Rock and hip-hop music became much more popular, and people gravitated toward the "hard beats" of this genre of music. Dance moves were gradually becoming less conservative, which involved more isolation-type movemments. Some of the signature dance moves from 1980-2000 were the Tom and Jerr from MC Hammer, The Macarena, Electric Slide, and the Cha Cha Slide.
Besides the previous traditional dance movves, new forms of dancing were being developed, such as break dancing and slam dancing. These styles became very popular with the growth of hip-hop and rap music in the early 1990s. Break dancing is the art of people quickly gyrating on an type of surface, such as flattened cardboard boxes or floors at night clubs. People claim that James Brown was the initiator of break dancing with his high energy and quick foot movements. The traditional learning of dance in classes slowly evolved into learning dance via television. For instance, bak dancing and slam dancing were mostly seen on the television program MTV.
Moving towards the late 1990s and 2000 era, dancing was still slightly changing. Hip-hop music skyrocketed, which increases the desire for hip-hop dancing. Hip-hop took isolation-type movements to a whole new level, entitles "pop-n-lock". This style of dancing was on the other end of the traditional spectrum of ballet, which consisted of very graceful movements. Even though there is nothing graceful about hip-hop, it can still have its fluid movements, just like in a ballet. Hip-hop has become more accepted throughout the past 10 years in the United States and is slowly leaking into countries overseas.
Another form of dancing introduced during this time period was imitation of individuals in the media. Dancing has always told a story, taught a lesson, or incorporated humor to it. Then underground, Harlem's homosexual African Americans and Latino's, poked fun at the high fashion models, creaing a "pose" type of dance. This style of dancing was popularized by madonna with her hit "Vogue" in the 1990s. After the voguing style of dance was introduced, more dancers started incorporating humor into their dances, and poking fun at the media and political figures.
Music has almost always motivated and driven the dancer to a certain type of style, which is why dance has evolved so much over the past 100 years. It is inevitable that with the continuous change in society, there will be an endless change in the style of dance.