Breaking (dancing)

B-boying

A b-boy performing outside Faneuil Hall, Boston, MA, United States
Genre	Hip-hop dance
Inventor	Street dancers
Year	Early 1970s
Origin	New York City

B-boying or breaking, also called breakdancing, is a style of street dance that originated primarily among Puerto Rican and African American youth, many former members of the Black Spades, the Young Spades, and the Baby Spades, during the mid 1970s. The dance spread worldwide due to popularity in the media, especially in regions such as Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United Kingdom. While diverse in the amount of variation available in the dance, b-boying consists of four kinds of movement: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. B-boying is typically danced to hip-hop, funk music, and especially breakbeats, although modern trends allow for much wider varieties of music along certain ranges of tempo and beat patterns.

A practitioner of this dance is called a b-boy, b-girl, or breaker. Although the term "breakdance" is frequently used to refer to the dance in popular culture and in the mainstream entertainment industry, "b-boying" and "breaking" are the original terms. These terms are preferred by the majority of the pioneers and most notable practitioners.

Instead of the term b-boying (break-boying), the mainstream media promoted the artform as breakdancing, causing many to only know it as such. Enthusiasts consider "breakdancing" an ignorant and 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 incorrectly 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" according to rappers such as KRS-One, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, and Darryl McDaniels of Run–D.M.C.