What is a "break": a fashionable dance or lifestyle? Let's try to understand this article.
Break story
In the mid-70s of the last century, the fashionable Break Dance movement appeared on the streets of American cities. At first it’s just entertainment for young people from poor neighborhoods, a kind of competition, when you need to hit your opponent with the originality of dance movements and elements of acrobatics. They say that then some sort of battles were arranged and the one whose movements were distinguished by originality and nobody could repeat them won.
Very soon, "break dance" will spread throughout the world and become part of the dance culture, winning the hearts of millions. Translated from English, “break” means breaking, it turns out “broken dance”. On slang, “break” means crazy, which very accurately conveys the essence of this dance, because its movements cannot be confused with anything. With the light hand of DJ Kool Herc, the dance itself was called B-boying, and the dancers B-boys and B-girls were called broken-beat dancers. Yes, yes, among the fans of this dance there were and there are many girls. And even though it is considered more complicated than other
types of dances, since it requires excellent physical preparation, bi-gels are not inferior to guys. Initially, elements of rotation on the ground (Get on the Good Foot) were used in the dance. And in 1977, a group from the Bronx Rock Steady Crew edited the dance, adding a lot of acrobatic movements and plastic.
Main directions
Conventionally, “break” dances are divided into two directions:
- the lower “break” (style, power moves and power tricks) consists of complex acrobatic tricks that require good physical preparation;
- the upper "break" is a free style of dance movements and a lot of improvisation.
Each of them has a number of characteristic differences. In the lower one, mainly acrobatic ligaments and power tricks are used, mainly on the floor.
The upper “break” is unrealistically plastic, it is unique, from the point of view of physics, movements in space, incredible possession of one’s own body, this is simply surprise and delight. But that is not all. It is divided into 5 more styles: Electric Boogie, King Tat, Robot, Locking and Pop. And these five can be divided into two groups: street and stage. Street dance, street dance, locking and pop are more lively, they have fewer rules, more improvisation. The remaining three are already stage "break" dances, each of which has its own basic elements.
A little bit about styles
“Electric Boogie” is basically waves, “waves”: broken, shaking, discrete, turning one into another. An important element for body waves is gliding or gliding over the floor, like on skates or in a circle, like a compass. "Explood" - explosions that carry the body forward, backward, from side to side, from one point. “Snap” (click “break”) - this is jumping from one sphere to another with the whole body, from one mood to the next. "Twist of flex" - a flexible rotation around its axis from top to bottom and vice versa. It seems that the dancer hangs in the air, moves in a viscous mass.
King Tat is reminiscent of Wushu. There are right angles everywhere, straight hands, plus soft snake and wave movements. Sometimes it is considered the "dance of the pharaohs."
Robot Break is a very tough style. This is vibration, shaking, static. One of the founders of this style is considered to be Eddie Addison, the main elements of "breaking" outlined in the film "Breakie." According to his version, the robot moves with straight arms, legs, body, with wide open chest. A little later, this style is modified, elements of smoothness and lightness are introduced. As an example, Michael Jackson’s robot with its lunar gait. It seems that it does not move on solid soil, but under conditions of lunar gravity or moves in something viscous.
In this style there is also a substitute: “cyber-robot”, “bio-robot”, “robot-jack”, “plastic man”, “robot-puppet”, etc. If this is a “break dance” for children, it’s very it is important to convey gait, character. So, the robot jack is tough, the bio-robot is much softer, the police-robot is a bit of aggression. Everyone's gait is different: with fixations, sticky, gait through the flash, magnetized, smooth, moonwalk. There are those when you move forward and walk backward, with a small shake, like from electric shocks, with raising your hands, etc. Modern Bi-fights combine “break” dances of several styles, which makes the performance much more interesting.
Hip hop music
The development of "break dance" is closely related to electronic music. Since then, much has changed, but the style remains the same. "Break dance" refers to hip-hop culture, therefore it requires musical accompaniment in the style of funk, rap, soul. One of the unspoken rules of “break dance”: never dance if you don’t play hip-hop!
What a beginner needs to know
Getting started, it is important to know that this type of dance is very traumatic. After all, it contains complex ligaments and acrobatic elements.
Especially a "break" for beginners - without special physical preparation it can not be mastered. Here you need endurance, the ability to breathe correctly and control your own body, the ability to properly distribute the load.
Sports for B-Boys
Before you try the headstand or flip, it is important to strengthen all muscle groups. You need to start with sports: pump up the press, do running and jumping. No exception and "break dance" for children. It’s good if it’s not only exercises in the gym, but also daily exercises at home: running, jumping, pull-ups, push-ups, squats, stretching, abs. Indeed, without daily training, the likelihood of injuries only increases.
And only a few months after the start of hard training you can start a "break dance". To begin with, it’s nice to learn how to stand and move on your hands, on your head (“bulbs”, “candle”, “friezes”, “cricket”, various “tattoos”), do stretching, and even better, sit on a twine (“dalasal” and all kinds of "gelics").