History

From The Beginning

Six basketball hoops hang on the walls of a large building with a red rubber floor. The glass is broken out of one of the backboards, but no one cares. All eyes are on one guy in the middle of a 30-foot circle created by the crowd. He's been spinning on his head for what seems like 5 minutes, and changing body positions as gracefully as a figure skater. When he is done spinning, he effortlessly slides into a windmill, which is a sort of body roll done on the shoulders while flailing the legs around like a windmill. He pops up in rhythm with the funk music that has been ringing through the gym all night, and does a few dance steps back to the outside of the circle so the next guy can get in.

The origins of bboying can be traced to the Bronx in the 70s, when African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Hispanics living there were looking for new ways to express themselves. That need led to the birth of the hip-hop culture. Within hip-hop, there are four aspects used to express an individual's style: DJing, MCing, graffiti writing and bboying. In recent years, the world has seen and heard a definite rise in the first three, but what happened to the latter? Bboying's rise to fame came in the late 70s and early 80s, when the media realized that a way to target the inner-city audience was to implement aspects of hip hop, namely b-boying, into commercials, movies, print ads, et cetera. This exploitation of bboying led to a decrease in its popularity by the early 1990s, and although many large competitions are popping up all over the world, it receives very little coverage from the media.

The lack of exposure has not kept many great b-boys from sticking with it. Crazy Legs is one of the pioneers of bboying and was a member of the Rock Steady Crew, which appeared in the movies Flashdance and Style Wars. Crazy Legs said, "Bboying will not die because it wasn't started for fame and fortune. It began when inner-city gangs needed a new form for proving physical prowess and a style of expressing their originality." Bboying in Austin is becoming as competitive as other large cities across the U.S. B-boys and b-girls practice every Wednesday night at the South Austin Recreation Center. Practices last for around two hours with as many as six crews attending. Music blasts from the speakers set up on a curtained, wood stage while dancers stretch and warm-up for practice. Beanies, sweats and wind pants are common garb because they slide on the floor well. As the bboys start battling, many of the moves are immediately recognizable. Handsprings, headstands and tumbling look like gymnastics and Capoeira moves.

The martial art Capoeira is a fighting technique done in rhythm to percussion instruments and dates back to Brazil in the 17th century. Because the Angolan slaves were not permitted to practice fighting techniques, it evolved to a dance that uses handsprings, fast footwork, daring leaps, handwalking and tumbling. Gymnastics also incorporates these aspects, and bboys took the flare move from one that male gymnasts use on the pommel horse. The weight is put completely in the hands, shifting from one to the other while the legs move around the body in a circle and never touch the ground. Bboying also uses boxing and street fighting in a part of the dance referred to as the up-rock. This part tells a story about the dancer and their surroundings. It is commonly used to taunt the opponents watching by moving quickly from squatting to standing and teasing them with kicks and jabs but never touching them. This is part of the dancer's boasting and raises the intensity of the rivalry, which is often seen in boxing-especially with the legend Muhammad Ali.

Certain types of dancing that were popular in the 20th century aided in the development of bboying. Some of the basic moves are taken from such dances like the Lindy, Charleston, Hustle and others from the Caribbean and South America. The incorporation of these elements of different activities led to the wide variety of moves that are used by b-boys and b-girls of today. Bboys feel a connection to the old-school hip-hop culture and to even deeper roots through bboying because of how it originated. Brooks Frederick, whose 8-year-old son Cameron is learning to bboy, encourages him to do it because she wants him to be a part of his culture. He is Latino and adopted, while she and her husband are Caucasian. "We watch him practice at home and take him to watch competitions because bboying is a very ethnic activity," she said. In an interview with The Toronto Sun on May 20, 1994, Mr. Wiggles, a well-known bboy, explained the main ingredient for their hip-hop show, "Concrete Jungle," is a "spiritual connection to their black, Native and Hispanic roots." Gabriel Morales, a member of the Masterz of Mayhem from Edinburg, Tex., feels that his crew takes the place of a gang. "It's the people you spend all your time with and always practice with. By bboying I feel like I have a common bond with all the other b-boys and b-girls," Morales said. B-boying also keeps Morales close to his family. His brother started showing him how to break four years ago, and now his crew is mostly extended family members and close friends.

The cultural significance of bboying is astounding for youth of today, even if they don't recognize it. It is a lifestyle rather than merely a sport or a dance, and bboys work hard to show this to new recruits. Mr. Wiggles stated, "Culture, to me, isn't just music, dance and art. It's also food, the way you dress, talk and walk."