It all Began...
Break dancing is a unique style of dancing. One may think where did it all begin? Well it began with the father of rock and roll, James Brown. In 1969 he came out with his big hit "Get on the Good Foot" and he loosend it up for a few seconds in concert. He showed the world its first taste of break dancing, although the world didn't know it. It may have only had some footwork, but it was enough to cause the new dance sensation quickly named "Good Foot". Good Foot became very popular in the ghettos of NYC. Gangs would have dancing competitions instead of fighting, and dance teams formed.With this new form of dance a new form of music evolved. DJs began spinning records. When there would be breaks in the music, where no lyrics played and there were only beats, dancers would start "breaking". Since they were known to "break" it down during the breaks in music they were originally called break boys which got shortened to b-boys. A main contributor to the growth of break dancing was the grand master DJ Afrika Bambaataa. He encouraged other breakers and started one of the first break dancing crews, the Zulu Kings. Break dancing was popular until around 1977. By then people began to get bored of break dancing. "Old School" break dancing was made up of less gymnastical more fast leg movement. Break dancing had almost come to a dead stop until the early 80s. Then a new crew, "Rock Steady Crew" appeared. They were influenced by Afrika Bambaataa and came up with a new form of break dancing. They began using more acrobatic moves. They certain tributes of old school break dancing like downrock and foot work, but added new harder moves like Headspins, Handglides, and Windmills, and Backspins. Lots of martial art forms and gymnastics inspired many of the new school moves. The windmill came from Chinese martial arts, the swipe came from Capoeira, the Brazilian martial arts, and the flare came from gymnastics. With all the new craze created by break dancing it became very and almost too popular in the 80s. Because of this break dancers went underground and that is where many of them remain today, although it is becoming increasingly more popular by the year in high school. And remember, as long a freshmen keep becoming breakers in highschool, we will still have soul in the school.