Breaking, also called breakdancing or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance from the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in the dance, breakdancing mainly consists of four kinds of movement: toprock, downrock, power moves and freezes. Breakdancing is typically set to songs containing drum breaks, especially in hip-hop, funk, soul music and breakbeat music, although modern trends allow for much wider varieties of music along certain ranges of tempo and beat patterns.

Breaking was created by the African American youth in the early 1970s. The earliest breakdancers were the 1st Generation Bboys known as Trixie (Lauree Myers), Dancing Doug (Douglas Colon), A1 Bboy Sasa, The Legendary Smith Twins and Clark Kent. The groups included Zulu Kings, Star Child La Rock, Salsoul and Crazy Commandos. By the late seventies, the dance had begun to spread to other communities and was gaining wider popularity; at the same time, the dance had peaked in popularity among African Americans and Puerto Ricans.



Instead of the original term b-boying (break-boying), the mainstream media promoted the art-form as breakdancing, by which it came to be generally known. Some enthusiasts consider "breakdancing" an ignorant and even derogatory term due to the media’s exploitation of the artform. The media displayed a simplified version of the dance, making it seem like the so-called "tricks" were everything, ultimately trading the culture for money and promotion. The term "breakdancing" is also problematic because it has become a diluted umbrella term that includes popping, locking, and electric boogaloo, which are not styles of "breakdance", but are funk styles that were developed separately from breaking in California. The dance itself is properly called "breaking" by rappers such as KRS-One, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C.



Many elements of breakdancing can be seen in other antecedent cultures prior to the 1970s. B-boy pioneers Richard "Crazy Legs" Colon and Kenneth "Ken Swift" Gabbert, both of Rock Steady Crew, cite James Brown and Kung Fu films as influences. Many of the acrobatic moves, such as the flare, show clear connections to gymnastics. In the 1877 book 'Rob Roy on the Baltic' John MacGregor describes seeing near Norrköping a '...young man quite alone, who was practicing over and over the most inexplicable leap in the air...he swung himself up, and then round on his hand for a point, when his upper leg described a great circle...'. The engraving shows a young man apparently breakdancing. The dance was called the Giesse Harad Polska or 'salmon district dance'. In 1894 Thomas Edison filmed Walter Wilkins, Denny Toliver and Joe Rastus dancing and performing a "breakdown". Then in 1898 he filmed a young street dancer performing acrobatic headspins. However, it was not until the 1970s that b-boying developed as a defined dance style in the United States. There is also evidence of this style of dancing in Kaduna, Nigeria in 1959.




It has been stated that breakdancing replaced fighting between street gangs. On the contrary, some believe it a misconception that breakdancing ever played a part in mediating gang rivalry. However, uprock has its roots in gangs whose leaders would uprock to help settle turf disputes, the winner deciding the location of the fight that would settle the matter.

Worldwide expansion



Ismael Toledo was one of the first breakers in Brazil. In 1984, he moved to the United States to study dance. While in the U.S. he discovered breakdancing and ended up meeting breaker Crazy Legs who personally mentored him for the four years that followed. After becoming proficient in breakdancing, he moved back to São Paulo and started to organize crews and enter international competitions. He eventually opened a hip-hop dance studio called the Hip-Hop Street College.








Breakdancing in Japan was introduced in 1983 following the release of the movie Wild Style. The release of the movie was accompanied by a tour by the Rock Steady Crew and the Japanese were captivated. Other movies such as Flashdance followed and furthered the breakdance craze. Crazy-A, who currently is the leader of the Tokyo chapter of the Rock Steady Crew, was dragged to see Flashdance by his then girlfriend and walked out captivated by the dance form and became one its earliest and one of the most influential breakers in Japanese history. Groups began to spring up as well, with early groups such as Tokyo B-Boys, B-5 Crew, and Mystic Movers popping up in Harajuku, a district in Tokyo. The breakdancing community in Japan found a home in Tokyo's Yoyogi Park in Harajuku, which still remains an active area for breakdancers and hip-hop enthusiasts. As hip-hop continued to grow in Japan, so did breakdancing and the breakdancing communities. Following the introduction of international breakdancing competitions, Japan began to compete and were praised for their agility and precision, yet they were criticized in the beginning for lacking originality. The Japanese began to truly flourish on the international stage following the breakdancing career of Taisuke Nonaka, known simply as Taisuke. Taisuke began to dominate the international scene and led the Japanese team Floorriorz to win the BOTY in 2015 against crew Kienjuice from Belarus. Despite Taisuke’s successful career in group competitions, he failed to win the solo Red Bull BC One competition, an individual breakdancing championship that had continued to evade Japanese bboys. The first Japanese to win the BC One competition became Bboy Issei in 2016. Issei is widely regarded by many as the best Japanese breakdancer currently and in the eyes of some, the best worldwide. Female bboys, or “bgirls”, are also prevalent in Japan and following the introduction of a female BC One competition in 2018, Japanese bgirl Ami Yuasa became the first female champion. Notable Japanese bboy crews include FoundNation, Body Carnival, Floorriorz, and the Heima. Notable Japanese bgirl crews include Queen of Queens, Body Carnival, and Nishikasai.

South Korea



Famous breaking crews from Korea include Morning of Owl, Jinjo Crew and Gamblerz.

Soviet Union

In the 1980s the Soviet Union was in a state of the Cold War with the countries of the Western Bloc. Soviet people lived behind the Iron Curtain, so they usually learned the new fashion trends emerging in the capitalist countries with some delay. The Soviet Union first learned of breakdancing in 1984, when videotapes of movies "Breakin'","Breakin' 2" and "Beat Street" got into the country. In the USSR these movies were not released officially. They were brought home by Soviet citizens who had the opportunity to travel to Western countries (for example, by diplomats). Originally, the dance became popular in big cities: Moscow and Leningrad, as well as in the Baltic republics (some citizens of these Soviet republics had the opportunity to watch Western television). Attitude of the authorities to the new dance that came from the West was negative.The situation changed in 1985 with Mikhail Gorbachev who came to power and with the beginning of the Perestroika policy. The first to legalize the new dance were dancers from the Baltic republics. They presented this dance as the “protest against the arbitrariness of the capitalists”, explaining that the dance was invented by black americans from poor neighborhoods. In 1985 the performance of Czech Jiří Korn was shown in the program "Morning Post", that became one of the first official demonstrations of breakdancing on Soviet television. With the support of the Leninist Young Communist League in 1986 breakdance festivals were held in the cities of the Baltic republics (Tallinn, Palanga, Riga). The next step was the spreading of the similar festivals to other Soviet republics. Festivals were held in Donetsk (Ukraine), Vitebsk (Belarus), Gorky (Russia). Breakdancing could be seen in Soviet cinema: "Dancing on the Roof" (1985), "Courier" (1986), "Publication" (1988). By the end of the decade the dance became almost ubiquitous. At almost any disco or school dance one could see a person dancing in the “robot” style.

In the early 1990s the country experienced a severe economic and political crisis. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union breakdance passion was over. Breakdancing has become an association with the past. The next wave of interest for this dance in Russia will occur only in the late 90s.


Although social media such as youtube cannot be used in China, this does not affect the development of breakdancing in China. Many people copy some breakdancing video abroad and distribute them back to the mainland to make Chinese like breakdancing. Although it is still an underground culture in China because of some restrictions, more and more people like breakdancing and join in.

In May 2017, K Crush magazine selected the five best Bboys in China, namely Bboy Devil, Bboy Boss, Bboy NoName, Bboy Marbles, and Bboy lil-chao.

Dance elements







There are many individual styles used in breakdancing. Individual styles often stem from a dancer's region of origin and influences. However, some people such as Jacob "Kujo" Lyons believe that the internet inhibits individual style. In a 2012 interview with B-Boy Magazine he expressed his frustration:



    Downrock styles



    The musical selection for breaking is not restricted to hip-hop music as long as the tempo and beat pattern conditions are met. Breaking can be readily adapted to different music genres with the aid of remixing. The original songs that popularized the dance form borrow significantly from progressive genres of funk, soul, disco, electro, and jazz funk. James Brown, Jimmy Castor Bunch "It's Just Begun", and the Incredible Bongo Band "Apache" were used for breakdancing . The most common feature of breakdance music exists in musical breaks, or compilations formed from samples taken from different songs which are then looped and chained together by the DJ. The tempo generally ranges between 110 and 135 beats per minute with shuffled sixteenth and quarter beats in the percussive pattern. History credits DJ Kool Herc for the invention of this concept BOTY holds regional qualifying tournaments in several countries such as Zimbabwe, Japan, Israel, Algeria, Indonesia, and the Balkans. Crews who win these tournaments go on to compete in the final championship in Montpellier, France. BOTY was featured in the independent documentary Planet B-Boy (2007) that filmed five dance crews training for the 2005 championship. A 3D film Battle of the Year was released in January 2013. It was directed by Benson Lee who also directed Planet B-Boy.
  • The Notorious IBE is a Dutch-based breaking competition founded in 1998. IBE (International Breakdance Event) is not a traditional competition because there are not any stages or judges. Instead, there are timed competitive events that take place in large multitiered ciphers—circular dance spaces surrounded by observers—where the winners are determined by audience approval. There are several kinds of events such as the b-girl crew battle, the Seven 2 Smoke battle (eight top ranked breakers battle each other to determine the overall winner), the All vs. All continental battle (all the American breakers vs. all the European breakers vs. the Asian breakers vs. Mexican/Brazilian breakers), and the Circle Prinz IBE. The Circle Prinz IBE is a knockout tournament that takes place in multiple smaller cipher battles until the last standing breaker is declared the winner. IBE also hosts the European finals for the UK B-Boy Championships.
  • Red Bull BC One was created in 2004 by Red Bull and is hosted in a different country every year. The competition brings together the top 16 breakers from around the world. Six spots are earned through six regional qualifying tournaments. The other 10 spots are reserved for last year's winner, wild card selections, and recommendations from an international panel of experts. A past participant of the competition is world record holder Mauro "Cico" (pronounced CHEE-co) Peruzzi. B-boy Cico holds the world record in the 1990s. A 1990 is a move in which a breaker spins continuously on one hand—a hand spin rather than a head spin. Cico broke the record by spinning 27 times. A documentary based on the competition called Turn It Loose (2009) profiled six b-boys training for the 2007 championship in Johannesburg. Two of these b-boys were Ali "Lilou" Ramdani from Pockémon Crew and Omar "Roxrite" Delgado from Squadron.

  • R16 Korea is a South Korean breaking competition founded in 2007 by Asian Americans Charlie Shin and John Jay Chon. Like BOTY and Red Bull BC One put together, Respect16 is a competition for the top 16 ranked crews in the world. What sets it apart from other competitions is that it is sponsored by the government and broadcast live on Korean television and in several countries in Europe. In 2011, R16 instituted a new judging system that was created to eliminate bias and set a unified and fair standard for the way b-boy battles should be judged. With the new system, breakers are judged against five criteria: foundation, dynamics (power moves), battle, originality, and execution. There is one judge for each category and the scores are shown on a large screen during battles so that the audience can see who is winning at any given moment.
  • BBIC (Buncheon B-Boy International Championship) is a breaking and popping competition founded in 2016 by Jinjo Crew from Korea. It features solo and crew dances along with performances by many dancers.

    Female presence



    In 2018, Japan's B-Girl Ami became the first B-Girl world champion of Red Bull BC One. Although B-Girl Ayumi had been invited as a competitor for the 2017 championship, it was only until 2018 that a 16 B-Girl bracket was featured as part of the main event.

    B-girls, such as Honey Rockwell, promote breaking through formal instruction ensuring a new generation of breakers.

    Media exposure








  • In 1997, Kim Soo Yong began serialization of the first breaking themed comic, Hip Hop. The comic sold over 1.5 million books and it helped to introduce breaking and hip-hop culture to Korean youth.
  • Breakin' the city, a photo book by Nicolaus Schmidt, portrays breakers from the Bronx and Brooklyn wheeling around on subway cars, in city plazas, and on sidewalks in New York City. Published in 2011, it features six New York based breakdance crews photographed between 2007 and 2009.

    Video gaming

  • Floor Kids is a Nintendo Switch game released in 2017 that scores your performance based on its musicality, originality, and style. It received praise for its innovative controls and the Kid Koala soundtrack.
  • In the long running Yakuza video game franchise, Goro Majima 's Breaker fighting style heavily relies on movements and techniques derived from break dancing.