The history of breakdance

The 70's: the origins of breakdance

Breakdance is believed to have originated alongside the rise of hip hop culture in the early 1970’s in the South Bronx, New York. It is known to be the original and most popular hip hop dance style.

Breakdance was created by local African and Latin-American youngsters. It is commonly believed to come into existence through a disc jockey who lived in the South Bronx, who organized parties in the neighborhood. His name was DJ Kool Herc. Being a DJ, he played at block parties in the early 1970’s in the South Bronx area of New York. He would play the ‘breaks’ of soul and funk songs of artists such as James Brown. The 'breaks' are the parts of a record without vocals, with pure rhythm, percussion and bass. Kool Herc would isolate these parts of the track and loop them, and encourage the people at the party to get down to these breaks.

A lot of songs from African-American, African-Caribbean and Latino descent would have breaks in them. It is broadly believed that back then, slap fighting and fake sparring were a hype. Kids would tease each other with slap fighting, and faint with hits.

Out of these slap movements towards each other (performed to the breaks the DJ played), a move was created which was called the ‘uprock’ or ‘rocking’. That move further developed by adding acrobatic moves like glides and spins, and local dancers in New York would do these dance moves to the breaks of the record. That would be called dancing to the break, breaking, or as the media started calling it in the 80’s; breakdance. A new dance style was born! Men who would execute this dance and live it’s hip hop lifestyle would be called a b-boy, and women a b-girl.

Meanwhile in California, kids were doing the robot dance and the boogaloo, which later evolved into a street dance style called popping through Boogaloo Sam and Poppin’ Pete. Don Campbell came up with another new street dance style which was created out of moves like the funky chicken and other fads of those times, which would become known as locking.

Youngsters from California would travel to New York, as well as the other way around. They would exchange dance moves in the streets, and that is how it’s broadly believed that these dances become connected with each other. Popping and locking would fall under the same umbrella as breaking back then in the 70's. Nowadays, breaking, popping and locking are seen as separate dance styles.

As breakdance started out as a street battle dance, It is broadly believed that it was used in the 70’s as a way to resolve rivalries between street gangs in the suburbs of New York. By battling each other, members of each gang tried to do better moves than members of the other gang. Based on who was better, a winner would be decided.

Breakdance is known to have inspirations from other dance and movement forms such as the Brazilian fight-dance capoeira, kung fu, gymnastics, disco dance and the lindy hop.

An iconic dance style was evolving in the late 70's. Breaking hadn’t hit the mainstream media and commercial world just yet, but it was on the verge of a big breakthrough! There were a few dancers and crews that really built the foundation of breakdance in the 70’s and early 80’s. We have lined (most of them) up:

• DJ Kool Herc
• New York City Breakers (NYC Breakers Crew)
• Rock Steady crew
• Dynamic Rockers Crew
• Crazy Legs
• Ken Swift
• Frosty Freeze
• Mr Wiggles
• Tony Touch
• Mighty Zulu Kingz
• Mr. Wave

Breakdance in the 80's

Then came the 80’s.

Even though breakdance came to exist in the 70's, it didn’t really become known among the mainstream until the 80’s.

Here’s how that happened. In the late 1970’s (1979 and 1980) a breakdance crew was formed in New York. They were called the Rock Steady Crew. In 1983 they came out with a song that all breakers around the world know; it’s an iconic, timeless record for breakers all around the world. It’s called ‘Hey You’. The video clip showed (now legendary) breakers such as Crazy Legs, Ken Swift, Buck 4 and Kuriaki throwing down on the dance floor. Moves like the backspin, the windmill and dope footwork steps came by in the video. This was the first big music video where breakdance was shown.

The single ‘Hey you’ peaked at number-one on the Belgian and Dutch singles charts, and reached the top ten in many other European countries, including the United Kingdom.

Also in 1983, the famous rap group Run DMC came out with the song ‘It’s like that’. In the iconic videoclip you see two breakdance crews (groups) battle each other to the music of Run DMC. The video clip features moves like the flare, handstand, the airbaby, and even belly mills, a variation of the windmill.

Through videoclips like ‘It’s like that’ and ‘Hey You’, breakdance got its first views overseas. It definitely helped trigger the start of breakdance culture in Europe and South-East Asia in the early 80’s.

Then, a first glimpse of breakdance appeared in a movie. On the 15th of April of 1983, the movie Flashdance was released in American cinemas. This involved a scene in an alley with some dancers breaking, popping and moonwalking. An iconic scene for breaking history, as this was the first Hollywood movie that exposed breakdance to the world.

A year later, in 1984, two iconic breakdance-related movies would come out.

The first one was a musical film called ‘Breakin’, which made its first appearance on May 4th, 1984. This breakdance-themed movie was inspired by the 1983 documentary ‘Breakin n’ enterin’, and was set in hip hop club Radio Tron, Los Angeles. In this movie you would see cool break moves and it also featured famous rapper Ice-T and early time breaker and choreographer Shabba Doo.

Just a month later, an absolute classic movie came out under the name of Beat Street, which was released on June 8th 1984. This American movie was about breakdance, and was set in the South Bronx. It follows two brothers and their friends who are all dedicated to elements of hip hop culture like breakdance, rap, DJ’ng and graffiti.

With breakdance hitting the mainstream media through documentaries, movies and videoclips, breakdance was becoming a hot happening! It was at this time that the dance style started spreading across the world. People in Korea, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands started breaking too.

The United States was of course the forerunner of breaking, as it’s the country where it originated. Breakers from crews like the Dynamic Rockers, the Rock Steady Crew and New York City Breakers paved the way for breakdance’s global expansion. An exciting future was in the making for the art of breaking - the 90's would look promising for breakdance.

Breakdance in the 90's

Since breakdance massively picked up it’s popularity in the 1980’s, the 90’s were a special decade of growth for the breakdance scene. In the 90's, the dance evolved a lot. More people were breaking than ever before, and the level of breakdancers was going up quick.

Through television and radio, breakdance had landed in other parts of the world. What started in the United States, had spread to countries such as France, England, Netherlands, Japan, United Kingdom and Germany.

In 1990, a German breakdance enthusiast named Thomas Hergenröther set up a breakdance competition in Germany, and decided to call it the ‘Battle of the Year’. It was the first big breakdance battle in Europe, and it would become the largest international breakdancing competition on the planet in those times. Breakdance crews from all over the world would get invited to do a showcase, and the best crews would be selected for crew versus crew battles later in the competition. This international breakdance event gave a massive boost to the (European) breakdance scene, and breakers from all over the world would come to Germany for this event.

At that time crews like Aktuel Force from France, Battle Squad from Germany and Flying Steps from Germany held the throne in Europe. These and a few other crews brought breakdance to a new level. Towards the mid 90's it seemed like the breakdance 'hype' was on a downfall. It didn't get as much attention as it did in the 80's and early 90's, and some OG's of breaking like b-boy Kwikstep, b-boy Storm and Swift Rock helped keep the scene alive through these years, according to stories of several old-school breakers. These b-boys are considered to be a few of the living legends of breaking.

In 1998 the Netherlands came into the picture with their first big breakdance event. This event is still happening every year, and is known as one of the most popular and long running breakdance competitions in the worl. It’s called The Notorious IBE (International Breakdance Event). At that time it was organized at Nighttown, a club in Rotterdam. This breakdance event involved all hip hop elements and was a true hip hop event. It brought breakers from all over the world together, and kept on growing bigger and bigger every year. Just take a look at the footage of the first event.

Meanwhile, in the USA breakdance was a big thing and there were a lot of battle events. Battles like B-boy Summit and Miami B-boy Pro-AM brought breakers together in the 90's. Crews like Style Elements, Soul Control, Renegades, Boogie Brats, Mighty Zulu Kingz and Rock Force Crew were on top in the United States.

Japan and South Korea had a growing breaking scene too. South Korea had crews like Expression, People Crew, TIP, Gorilla Crew and NY Crew that dominated the breaking scene over there. In Japan, the crews Spartanic Japan and the Waseda Breakers dominated the scene.

By the end of the 90's, a lot of countries were developing their own breakdance community. The dance form was clearly evolving, but the best was yet to come.

Breakdance in the 00's

In February of the year 2000, a Finnish rap group came out with a new record and its videoclip. They called themselves the Bomfunk MC’s and the song name was called ‘Freestyler’. In the video clip you see a teenager in a metro station. He gains control over the movement of breakdancers in the station through a remote control. The clip shows these dancers doing moves like the windmill, headspin, toprock, footwork and waves. For a lot of people born in the early and mid 90'sin Europe, this video clip was their first interaction with breakdancing and this catapulted a new wave of aspiring breakdancers in Europe.

In the early 2000’s breakdance was growing stronger than ever.

Big international breaking battles were being organized and first introduced to the world. One of those important and most influencing battles in the United States was ‘Lords of the Floor’, which was first organized in 2001. This iconic two-versus-two breakdance battle footage has inspired b-boys and b-girls all around the world.

In Europe, the breakdance scene was growing rapidly at the same time.

In the Netherlands, the Notorious IBE in Rotterdam’s Nighttown grew in popularity every year in the early 2000’s. Many breakers from all over the world would travel over to Rotterdam, the Netherlands to compete in several categories of the breakdance competition.

In France the community was growing too, with loads of battles in and around Paris as well as in the south of France. In 1999, an organization called Style2ouf was founded and created a community for the French breakdance scene.

Then the energy drink brand Red Bull decided to start promoting breakdance, as they were supporting the growth of many extreme sports such as skateboarding, BMX and snowboarding. In 2004, the first Red Bull BC One (Breakdance Championships) was held in Biel, Switzerland. The first Red Bull BC One was won by the American b-boy Omar. This was, and nowadays still is, seen as the official 1-versus-1 breakdance championship of the world. Red Bull BC One created a huge spike of interest in breaking because they gave breakdancers the dream to ‘officially’ become the world champion. This incentive has inspired many breakers all around the world to get better and become as good as possible in the dance.

In the 00’s, the internet started developing further as well. Where previously people had to buy VHS tapes or DVD’s in order to watch breakdance, the rise of platforms like YouTube have heavily influenced the reach of the dance.

One of the very first breakdance videos on YouTube was uploaded in 2006. It was B-Boy Ivan versus B-boy Iron Monkey, who went at it in an absolute classic 1-versus-1 battle that influenced a lot of people to start breaking.

From the second half of the 00’s until 2010, breaking was bigger than ever all over the world. With more breakdance battles being organized than ever seen before, breakdance was more popular than ever! Crews like Expression and Gamblerz from Korea, Pokemon and Vagabond crew from France, Top 9 from Russia, Found Nation and Mortal Kombat from Japan, and Rock Force Crew, Knuckleheads Cali, Mind180, Boogie Brats and more from the United States were on top in the global breaking scene.

Breakdance in the 2010's

In the 2010’s, breakdance was an established dance culture all around the world with lots of countries having their own breakdance event organizations and online communities. The biggest battles of the 2010’s are battles like The Notorious IBE, Red Bull BC One, Freestyle Session Silverback Open, Chelles Battle Pro, Hip Opsession, BBIC Korea, UK B-boy Championships and Battle of the Year. Many of these events still get organized until this day.

In the 2010’s, watching breakdance battles on YouTube became the standard. This is on the one side a positive development, because dancers can watch their favorite breakers wherever and whenever they want. But on the other side, it also hurt the originality of movements of breakdancers from this generation in many cases, as they started copying movements or even styles of their favorite breakers from YouTube videos.

There were enormous amounts of competitions and breakdance could be found everywhere online, both through social media and platforms like Vimeo and YouTube. Breakdance was still growing during this decade; it had exposure on social media and streaming platforms such as YouTube. However, for some people it felt like the popularity of the dance hit its peak during this decade.

But things are not always as they seem. In 2018, breakdance wrote history with its appearance at the Youth Olympics of Buenos Aires, Argentina! While many people debate whether breakdance is a sport or a dance, it’s undeniable that the exposure at the Youth Olympics had an impact on breakdance’s popularity!

Breakdance in the 10’s was again, bigger than ever before - and big historic happenings were awaiting.

Breakdance in the 2020's

In the current decade, breaking seems to await an exciting future.

Breakdance competitions are on-going and flowing all around the world. When the COVID-19 global pandemic plagued the world between 2020 and 2022, online breakdance battles grew in popularity massively.

Then, towards the fall of 2022, breakdance got confirmed as an official sport at the Summer Olympics of Paris in 2024! This was a major moment for breakdance and its global popularity. The main reason for adding breakdance to the Summer Olympics of 2024 was its’ success at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in 2018.

Breakdance seems to have a bright future, and the level of breakers around the world keeps on going up, which suggests the dance is evolving. The question many people have is if it’s evolving in a direction that keeps the dance form pure. At the end of the day, breaking is perceived as an ‘underground’ dance artform by most, not a performance sport.

How far will breaking go? Will it develop further and become even bigger than it’s ever been before? Only time will tell.

Breakdance has seen many great dancers over the decades. We thought it’d be good to line up some of the most successful breakers based on winning battles in the 2010/2020’s, so here you go. These are the best breakdancers of modern time:

• B-boy Hong 10 from South Korea
• B-boy Menno from the Netherlands
• B-girl Ami from Japan
• B-boy Lilou from France
• B-boy Victor from USA
• B-boy Thesis from USA
• B-girl Logistx, from USA
• B-boy Taisuke, from Japan
• B-girl India, from the Netherlands
• B-boy Neguin from Brazil

Become better at breakdance

Becoming good at breaking involves a lot of hard work and dedication.

You want to be practicing multiple times a week (preferably almost every day) for at least an hour, and find ways to keep evolving beyond your dance practice by doing daily stretching and movement exercises. It helps to film yourself while practicing breakdance moves, so you can assess and review your progress. It is important to have a great teacher to give you the right insights and tips to grow.

That’s why MyGrooveGuide is here for you!

On MyGrooveGuide you can follow breakdance classes from some of the best breakers on the planet. Watch classes on different difficulty levels and get tips, tricks and homework exercises so you can keep improving.

Learn moves like the flare and the windmill, different freezes, toprocks and footwork. You can watch these classes anywhere and anytime, and we have classes for both beginner and advanced breakers. For only $6 per month we will guide you to becoming the best breaker you can possibly be. Start your free trial today and become a great breaker!