DANZ QUARTERLY - No 18 January, February, March 2010

DANZ QUARTERLY Issue 18
January, February, March 2010

B BOYING: THE CULTURAL DANCE OF HIP HOP

What techniques define the dance form that you practice? What training or skills are required such that when your body moves, that form is recognisable to you and to others as, say, ballet, tango, or bharatanatyam?

This article, the first of a two part series, examines the history and foundation of b boying — the cultural dance of hip hop. We also discuss the means by which misconceptions of this dance were introduced globally through the popular media in the 1980s, and the ways such misconceptions are both embraced and vigorously contested by practitioners today. A relatively young dance form, b boying does not have the centuries of institutional formalisation behind it that ballet does, but the correct execution of the dance nevertheless demands specific techniques, skills and training. That this training does not always take place in a formal studio, with a barre and mirrors, makes it no less necessary.

For b boys, one of the difficulties with redefining our identity in the general public is the lack of consistency in the use of the term “hip hop”. People invest the term with widely divergent meanings, with it signifying anything from gangsta rap to gym class choreography. Let us be clear, when we talk about hip hop, we are talking about the popular culture that coalesced in the 1970s in certain boroughs of New York City, involving innovative DJs, the dancers who inspired their innovation, the MCs who developed, initially, to complement these DJs and dancers, and the writers (graffiti artists), who were also part of their urban milieu.

In terms of historical timeline, b boying as a dance existed before the term hip hop was coined, but it became one of the main elements that subsequently identified hip hop culture. The roots of b boying can be traced back to the Bronx, New York, in the early 1970s. Its closest relative, rocking or up-rock, pre-dated b boying and developed in another borough, Brooklyn, in the late 1960s. Rocking had a definite influence on the initial development of b boying technique, particularly contributing to the vertically danced sequences (called toprocking), which should precede the dancer dropping for the rapid sequences of hand, foot, and other contact with the floor which are collectively called footwork.

While audiences, and media, often focus almost exclusively on individual acrobatic power moves — such as headspins, continuous backspins, or the air flares that have been borrowed intact from competitive gymnastics — b boying is, first and foremost, a dance. Thus, toprocking forms part of its crucial foundation, while any individual acrobatic move should serve more as creative punctuation, for example, to build momentum before a precisely timed freeze where the dancer abruptly stops and holds a (usually) difficult pose for emphasis.

Like rocking, b boying was inspired by funk music — it was a kinesthetic response to musical rhythm. Songs that had the most impact on b boying, now considered classic b boy anthems, include James Brown's "Give it Up Turn it Loose", Jimmy Castor and the Castor Bunch’s "It's Just Begun", and Michael Viner and the Incredible Bongo Band's version of "Apache".

In the early1980s, hip hop caught the attention of American mainstream media and featured in movies such as Flashdance and Beat Street, and music videos such as Malcolm McLaren’s "Buffalo Girls". By the mid-1980s, New York's b boying and hip hop culture became merged, via representations in popular media, with the separate Californian styles popping and locking, and all these forms were grouped under a new umbrella term breakdance. This new Hollywood version of b boying and popping and locking, conveyed through globally influential movies such as Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2 (titled Breakdance and Breakdance 2 outside the US), was a misrepresentation of New York and West Coast street cultures. Participants, in New Zealand and across the world, referenced these movies and music videos to emulate this dynamic street dance but unfortunately adopted the many defects present in the Hollywood hybrid version of these distinct dance cultures.

In the late 1980s the US breakdance phenomenon died out — a victim of media exploitation, as well as the debilitating effects of the illicit crack trade on urban American neighbourhoods — and newly emerging club dances such as freestyle and new jack swing entered the mainstream spotlight. In many ways, b boying in New Zealand suffered the ripple effects of the dance's decline in the US.

In the mid-1990s, however, b boying reappeared in the global mainstream consciousness, thanks in large part to pockets of b boys and b girls — particularly in the United States, Japan and Europe — who had persevered through the period of media absence. In the US in particular, nostalgia for an "oldschool" era was mounting in the shadow of a commercial rap music industry that seemed, to many, to take hip hop outside the realm of community control. Amidst a general frustration that commercial hip hop had forsaken its b boy past, along with a series of community shocks such as the violent drug-related deaths of former dancers, b boys and b girls in the US began to regroup. Large competitions and events dedicated to b boying were emerging from the US and other parts of the world, re-introducing the dance to new and existing audiences through firsthand exposure and through the widely circulating videos and dvds that such events produced.

These gatherings brought many of the first and second generation b boys from the United States out of obscurity and re-established them in their roles as the founding figures of original b boy culture. Some of these pioneering dancers had in fact featured in what they now understood as the 1980s media exploitation of b boying, and had learned powerful lessons. As Ken Swift of the Rock Steady Crew explains with regard to his involvement in the movie Beat Street, “When you’re young, you’re not thinking like a historian, that this could be damaging to your culture. It flew over our heads” (cited in Verán 1999: 57). With the 1990s revival of b boying, these key developers of the dance had the wisdom of experience and a stable platform through which they could educate the many established and fledgling participants around the world about the history of the dance, its many subtleties, and the integral relationship between music and dancer. The internet has also played a substantial role in this educative process.

The need to understand b boying beyond the physical aspects — to comprehend, as well, the story of the people that created and developed it, the theory behind the creation and execution of the moves, the dance’s relationship to funk music and other party dances of the time — are all new characteristics of the modern b boy. As with any relatively young dance form attempting to assert legitimacy and kinaesthetic coherence, b boying is undergoing a process of formalisation. This battle to self-define one's history and practice is particularly tough for forms associated with urban street culture and people of colour. Knowledge and techniques that may initially have been inherent in practice are now more consciously studied and maintained by b boys; they are important areas to develop as a participant in what is not just a dance, but part of a broader culture.

Hip hop has experienced phenomenal growth: as an art form, as an identity, and, of course, as an economic opportunity for a corporate world eager to market goods and services to young people. Despite such commodification, and beyond the bling and glitter that shrouds the current mainstream incarnation of the rap music industry, there remains strong global consensus amongst adherents that the culture offers meaningful opportunities for personal, professional, and creative development.

The authors of this article share this view. Our vision of hip hop understands it as integrally related to community development, binding people together through shared practice both locally and globally. We have created On Point Charitable Trust to enhance and nurture the creative and professional development of hip hop in Aotearoa. We are a collaboration of practitioners and researchers, and this collectively authored article is the first of many projects. In the next issue of DANZ Quarterly, we follow up with a more detailed discussion of professional development concerns for hip hop dance practitioners. In mid-2010, we are planning a major b boy/b girl event in Wellington to build capacity in this sector. Other projects will follow, each motivated by our desire to educate, preserve, develop, and build the art forms of hip hop culture in this country.

This article was produced collaboratively by members of On Point Charitable Trust: Radamez Smith (Future), Sara Tamati (SpexOne), Sen Thong (Khmer), and Dr. April K. Henderson.

DANZ QUARTERLY Issue 18 January, February, March 2010

B BOYING: THE CULTURAL DANCE OF HIP HOP

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DANZ QUARTERLY Issue 18
January, February, March 2010