The term "Physical Graffiti" was used by Sally Banes to describe how breakers and Hip-hop dancers embody many of same style elements of battling such as braggadocio, "getting fame," etc. that are part of Graffiti and MCing. She argues "breaking is a way of claiming the streets with physical presence, using your body to publicly inscribe your identity on the surface of the city..." (Banes 14). This week you will read articles and view films that speak to the history and progression of breaking and its evolution into a global Hip-hop dance practice. As you define key terms this week, EMBODIED HISTORIES and BBOY/BBIRL, think about how gestures of breaking and Hip-hop dance practices can be understood as a physical repertoire of Hip-hop history. As we prepare for midterm, think about how the terms connect to one another as well as other elements in Hip-hop such as graffiti and MCings.
In Sally Banes’ article “Breaking” she chooses to use the term “physical graffiti” to describe breaking because of the close association it has with the graffiti culture. She compares breaking to graffiti by saying that it’s a way of “claiming the streets with your physical presence… publicly inscribe[ing] your identity on the surfaces of the city…” (14). Along with the body being the medium of self expression, breaking can also be seen as physical graffiti because of it’s image in society as a “rebellious” act.
ReplyDeleteBreaking can be classified as a physical representation of hip-hop culture because like the many other aspects of hip-hop, breaking began as a form of expression for youth in urban communities. And just like rapping or graffiti, breaking is influenced by different cultures and historical references. In Katrina Hazzard-Donald’s article “Dance in Hip-Hop Culture,” she ties hip-hop dance to countries like Cuba and Brazil. She also argues that one can even connect hip-hop dance to the changing African-American national identity and character after the Emancipation. She says, “African American secular social dance began to lose its rural character and take on more urban characteristics,” (506).
Through observations of today’s hip-hop culture—breaking, graffiti, rapping—one can trace the cultural and historic timeline of a polycultural phenomenon.
In hip-hop dance, embodied history includes the evolution of the styles of dance and the influences other types of dance had on hip-hop. According to Katrina Hazzard-Donald, types of dance that influenced hip-hop dancing include the cakewalk (507). Also, hip-hop dance “can be characterized in three stages: waack, breakdancing, and rap dance” (Hazzard-Donald 509). The way hip-hop has changed since its beginning in the early 1970s is embodied in every dancer’s style and moves. As discussed in lecture, hip-hop dancers sample moves from the early days of hip-hop and moves from other styles of African American dance. Another part of hip-hop history that is embodied in breaking is the idea of “challenging,” or as according to Hazzard-Donald, a “traditional and familiar concept in African American music, dance, and verbal arts: competitive one-upmanship” (509). The idea of challenging can be seen in all four elements of hip-hop.
ReplyDeleteHowever, challenging in hip-hop crews is the most commercialized out of all of the elements, and Sally Barnes describes how bboys and bgirls changed due to the commercialization of hip-hop dance: before the media hype it was a serious game, but after the media hype, breakers either became professional and legitimate or amateurs (14). Barnes also explains the embodied history in bboys and bgirls by explaining that the original break dancers were the ones who invented the blend of dancing, acrobatics and warfare that is breaking (14).
The history of bboys and bgirls is embodied in the way they move, and each move tells a part of the story that is hip-hop dancing.
“Breaking”, a form of hip-hop dance named for being performed during the break beat of a DJ’s performance, is included as one of the four elements of hip-hop. B-boy, or b-girl, is a term that refers to the person performing the dancing, or “breaking”, during the beat break. As breaking became more widespread, most b-boys did not only perform their dances during beat breaks, but performed spontaneously around town in parks and subway stations (Banes 15). Break dancing, along with other forms of hip-hop dance, has evolved from past African-American dances performed throughout time. Some of the previous dances include the Charleston and the lindy hop (Hazzard-Donald 507). Many of the specific moves used in modern hip-hop dances are unconsciously copied from popular dances of the past, known as embodied history. Katrina Hazzard-Donald in her article “Dance in Hip-Hop Culture” discusses that many “modern” dances are replicas of dances that were popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Each generation of youth brings back the dances and reinvents new and improved styles. Hip-hop dancing, including breaking, can be understood as a form of “physical graffiti”. While graffiti artists use paint to express themselves, dancers use their bodies. Also, as graffiti artists try to “burn” other artists by the quality of their work, b-boys use their dancing skills to try and “one-up” their opponents. Breaking, in its original form, was largely about battling and boasting, much like MCing and DJing is known to be (Banes 18).
ReplyDeleteAs we identified in class, breaking is developed from many other elements of dance that go far back in history. Many transformations over time have contributed to break dancing as we know it and have allowed it to be a method of identity on the streets. Like graffiti artwork, breaking can be seen as a way to stake your claim. It is a take on graffiti that is physically embodied and displayed to the public with a presence influenced by immediate audience call and response. It is more interactive, similar to MCing. Banes says breaking may have only been 10-30 seconds, but it was packed with action and meaning (15). Dancers made it imperative to get their message/point out quickly while still maintaining entertainment. The Hip-hop culture has taken much of its presence from the historical background surrounding it. Dance, musical stylings, and art (graffiti) have all developed over time to shape the way history is embodied today.
ReplyDeleteBreaking is a way for the dancers to express their emotions physically. They can let their feelings out and physically move with how they feel. The article “Breaking” points out how breaking was “nearly invisible to outsiders” before the media became involved (Banes 15). Along with breaking comes the term “Bboys,” which is the name for the original breakdancers who pioneered the way for future breakers. It is much like the early hip-hop and graffiti artists who pave the way for generations to come. These Bboys/Bgirls would have special moves that may be compared to a graffiti artist’s signature. The moves are unique to that Bboy/Bgirl, so that it’s an unwritten rule that others should not copy it. Also, breaking can tie into a lot of different topics we have talked about in class, because some breakers get their moves from various cultures. Such as, the Caribbean, Harlem ballrooms, and more (Banes 18). Hip-hop dance is a way of expressing embodied histories because it is a mixture of different moves that have evolved over time that these dancers use to express themselves. The article “Dance in Hip-Hop Culture” states that “popular creation appears to change from one generation to the next” (Hazzard-Donald 505). It is true that as time goes by, a person can look back at history and see how hip-hop dance has taken pieces or “samples” from various dance forms to create its own unique style of dancing.
ReplyDeletePhysical Graffiti has many definitions including the body being the medium for the art and dance as a form of self expression. Afrika Bambaataa called braking one of the four elements of hip hop, and he was one of the founders of core breaking crews. Breaking has a six step pattern, and is a dance practice incorporating upright floor moves using the hands and feet to move the body about the dance floor. Breaking is also improvised and remixing of existing dance steps. Some of the dance steps breaking remixes are a part of African American Dance traditions, including juba, cakewalk, tap, Charleston, and the lindy hop.
ReplyDeleteJames Brown had such incredible moves that are still incorporated in today’s hip hop moves. “The James Brown sound doesn’t speak to your head, it speaks to your body, to your arms and legs, your hips and your rear end…he created the ultimate dance music because it had unrelenting repetitive beats and rhythms…” (Forman and Neal 35).Chris Brown is a prime example of how hip hop remixes dance moves from artist like James Brown and the Nicholas Brothers. The movie Rize is a documentary about the hip hop dance “clowning”. I thought the movie was incredible showing different forms of artistic expression.
Hip-hop dance, much like other aspects of Hip-hop culture, are deeply rooted in African-American history and its mix with other cultures. Much like graffiti, dancing is a physical manifestation of multiculturalism and polyculturalism; dancing also is debated to be either “high” art or “low” art. (In the case of dance, it is sometimes referred to as “street dance” as opposed to “concert dance.”) In Sally Banes’ article “Breaking,” she explains how breaking embodies the dancing history (i.e. borrowing from the Charleston or cake-walking) via the b-boy or b-girl. She likens this “sampling” to that of graffiti or DJing, where the b-boy or b-girl has his or her own specialty but also has a routine (pp. 16-17).
ReplyDeleteIn Chris Brown’s 2007 MTV performance, he incorporated different dancing styles (sampling from artists such as Charlie Chaplin and James Brown) from different periods of time. He also used b-boys in his performance, showing that they are the ones that embody the Hip-hop dancing history.
Dance is ever changing, but if one goes back far enough one will find that the dance that they think to be new is actually a refreshed version of an older dance. Katrina Hazzard-Donald’s article she comments on how African American dance is distinguished from other dances in the African diaspora by its cyclical behavior, unlike Cuban rumba or Brazilian samba which continuously beat in the hearts of the people in those countries. Conversely, Hazzard-Donald makes the connection that “like many popular dances in the United States, both samba and rumba originated among working-class and lower-class members of the black communities only to be adopted and often modified by the “white” and upper-strata segments of society” (Hazzard-Donald 505). An example of this happening is tap dancing. Tap started as a “mix of Irish-step dance”, African American and Caribbean dance traditions” (NHP 9/28) and now tap dancing it taught all over the world and is seen as higher form of dance.
ReplyDeleteLike other dances such as the lindy hop “hip hop dance is often athletic, youth oriented, and competitive, but rap dancing, and hip hop dance generally, require considerably less cooperation between partners” (Hazzard-Donald 510). Also, hip hop dance is geared towards men, “…its movements establish immediate external boundaries while enacting an aggressive self-definition” (Hazzard-Donald 512).
In Sally Banes’ article, Breaking, she states that break dancing “began as a kind of a game, a friendly contest in which black and Hispanic teenagers outdid one another with outrageous physical contortions, spins, and back flips, wedded to a fluid, syncopated, circling body rock done close to the ground’ (Banes 13). Breaking dancing started as a way to combat gang violence. Instead of kids physically fighting in the streets dance crews were formed. Like gangs, crew members would wear the colors and outfits that were associated with their crew, the “look of militarized athleticism creates and image of power and authority” (Banes 17).
Breaking is a way of “claiming the streets with physical presence, using [ones] body to publicly inscribe your identity on the surfaces of the city, to flaunt a unique personal style within a conventional format” (Banes 14) just like graffiti adding your own unique personal style is a way of gaining fame.
A lot of what we have been discussing in class is about the hip hop identity. Bboys and bgirls add to this identity. Bboys and Bgirls are the dancers, movers, and breakers who make dancing an art form. Individuals compete both “professional[ly] and amateur[ly]” (Banes 14) to make a statement about who they are and where they come from. These breakers are part of “crew systems that provide social order among the kids of the Bronx” (Banes 15). Crews ‘embody their history’ because their dance styles represent the area they were raised and creates a social order. The breakers show who they are through their dancing. Katrina Hazzard-Donald discusses in her article how hip hop dancing came about. She discusses that dancing first was the “Jamaican skank” or the “Brazilian samba” (Donald 505). However, “shifting circumstances of class stratification and work, particularly as they impact on the changing African American national identity and character, also shaped the general movement of…popular dances” (Donald 506). Shifts in the culture have resulted in shifting of the dance moves. As such, the dances or breaking that is popular in media, as seen in You Got Served, are the way they are because of the changes and history that bboys and bgirls have gone through, showing their embodied history in their dance moves.
ReplyDeleteBreaking is a style of hip hop dance that really embodies the history of the genre. In the video that was shown during class of Chris Brown, he borrows from all sorts of historical figures of hip hop and beyond. In the articles the authors talk about how b-boys and b-girls were given their titles by the famous DJ Kool Herc. I think that breaking is a form of physical graffiti because it uses the body to paint a very beautiful picture, as all forms of dance do, but this picture is very distinct. Hip hop dance in general is not always pleasant, like artistic graffiti, it violates the senses and can show profanity, or other profane gestures. There are certain moves in the realm of hip hop dance that are demeaning and offensive to be sure. The articles also talk about how the style of dance is widely known to be masculine, even though there are several b-girls that are just as entertaining as the b-boys. All in all, that is what dance is about, entertainment. The entertainment factor holds true whether it be entertaining ones self, or others.
ReplyDeleteThere is a high population of people in North America that are not properly educated in the histories that the hip-hop culture arise from. This portion of the population is part of the problem that is present in the African-American community. These people do not have the slightest idea of the good that hip-hop culture has done. Hip-hop has allowed these b-boys and b-girls, though there are much fewer of the girls, to do something that will hopefully keep them away from the gang violence for their entire lives. The b-boys are normally between the ages of eight and sixteen (Forman 15) and this allows for them to not even get started in the illegal activities that are currently corrupting the African American youth in America. By participating in break dancing, the kids are active and fit. Being fit is yet another problem that is going on in the US currently, being the number one obese country in the world is not exactly something to raise your pointer finger about. Overall, breaking has had a major impact on the lives of many African American children, it has kept them out of violence and possibly even kept them alive.
ReplyDeleteEmbodied Histories are within each and every person. The way we talk, walk, and gesture is established by our genetic code and our social environment. It is natural that this personification of our culture would be expressed through the movement of our bodies in dance. Breaking is a form of cultural and individual expression. Sally Banes, dance historian, states, "like the other elements of hip-hop, breaking began as a public showcase for the flamboyant triumph of viriltiy, wit, and skill. In short, of style" (Forman 14). It was and still is an expression of an embodied history. It samples from the styles of dance that have evolved over the years.
ReplyDeleteBboys and Bgirls are the artists in the realm of Breaking. They turn their bodies into expressions of emotions. Through dance they display conflict, oppression, pride, humor, and all of the other emotions that are involved in the human psyche. They have conversations with each other without using a word; their bodies are their voices. Bboys and Bgirls represented their neighborhoods when they entered into a battle. Like other forms of hip-hop, boasting and bragging is a necessary part of a successful breaker's repertoire. Fab 5 Freddy describes it as "sort of a macho thing where they would show each other who had the best moves" (Forman 17). But this 'macho thing' helped to eliminate a large amount of violence that would have otherwise took place instead of dance. Through the peaceful expression of emotion through movement, many bboys and bgirls extablished an outlet for urban youth to display their feelings without turning to physical violence.
Rize presented that dance was a positive impact on the community. Breaking is a way to express emotions from everyday life in a positive way instead of turning to drugs and alcohol. This movie talked about the different groups (Clowns, Krumpers) families. Embodied History can be defined as the group’s history together because each member past, present, and future is going to effect the movements of the group. So each crew is a chunk of different histories. Also another definition that can be tied to Embodied History is that is reflects the movements of past African Americans and the African Diaspora. There are a few clips in the moving showing this. Flash backs from the past and future of each groups painting their face very intricately. The groups are pushing members around but not fighting just perusing the battle and the way they dance with all of their emotion. This tip of dance is not watched for enjoyment such as ballet, it is a show that entertains. It includes customs (face paint, baggy clothes), a story, facial expressions, announcer (MC), and the energy from the dancers bounces off from the audience. BBoy and BGirls bring different styles to the table. The Stripper dance, which is almost the base for krumping and some clown dancing, is used by both sexes in different ways. Also I liked when Rize showed a couple, boy and girl, battle because the emotion between the two could not have been anymore real. Overall dance is a positive release and creates a positive impact on the community as the Tommy Academy did so.
ReplyDeleteNow when I relate breaking to graffiti, it is like art coming alive. Graffiti has sharp movements, pauses, waves, and so on, that breaking can reflect and vise versa. Graffiti, Breaking and scratching all have this call and response style that can be reflected in each medium. I wonder if the floor was a canvas and the hands and feet of breakers were painted (with constant strokes) what would the painting turn out to the look like?
Coming into class, I had heard very little about physical graffiti, never having heard of it at all in those terms. I had a couple friends who goofed around with break-dancing, but aside from hearing Cassidy sing “chill’n in the club in my b-boy stance.”, the subject was of hip-hop dance culture was foreign to me. I think it is very fitting that as barnes tells us breaking began, “a friendly contest in which black and Hispanic teenagers outdid one another…”(13), very similar to the rap battles, and one-upmanship of graffiti tags that cultivated other aspects of the hip-hop movement. It also interesting as Barnes notes that a documentary such Wild Style aired on PBS, a national very diverse station viewed by many of the nations youth. This also plays into physical graffiti following the natural evolution and mainstream acceptance of hip-hop. The incorporation of the breaking into mainstream hip-hop can clearly be seen. Early MC’s would rap over the beat, and a Bboy would dance in the breaks. In present day Hip-Hop the lines have been greatly blurred to a style demonstrated by artists such as Chris Brown, whose style as we discussed in class greatly reflects many aspects of the early breaking techniques. The athletic ability required to perform such feats in something that can be appreciated by all people no matter of background, illustrated by the recent breakout of dancing on mainstream television.
ReplyDeleteAs an obvious factor, the hip-hop world stems from a historical standpoint. Hip-hop is not solely based on the fact of music, but the inspirations behind the music, whether that be graffiti, break dancing, or DJing. As Bane’s describes in her article “Breaking” she coins the word physical graffiti as a means of claiming your own innocence with your physical attributes, meaning that one uses their body to incorporate their expression. Hip-hop breakers are often looked upon as rough around the edges, or “tough guys”, because of the ways in which they express themselves are quite elaborate, in relation to other way’s people express themselves. I, myself, have a dance background and when we would incorporate different ethnic rhythms into our ballet techniques it made for a very over the top, influential act, including all aspects of the dance culture. As the Hip hop world progresses in it’s elaborate ways of expression, break dancing continues to stand still as a means of self integrity or lack there of.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Sally Banes, "Breaking is a way of claiming the streets with physical presence, using your body to publicly inscribe your identiy on the surfaces of the city, to flaunt a unique personal style within a conventional format"(14). The embodied history of breaking is that it uses a variety of different dances throughout time and are often mixed together. Some traditional African dances used include: Juba, Cakewalk, Tap, Charleston, and Lindy Hop. Hip-Hop dance tended to have both 'old school' and a 'new school.' Old school dance included breaking, popping, and locking. As hip-hop dance evolved, it allowed for krumping, clowing, and tecktonik. However, there is more than involved than just dance styles. B-Boys and B-Girls are the actual dancers. According to Banes, B-Boys are the original dancers who are black and Hispanic teenagers that invented the blend of dancing, acrobatics, and warfare that is breaking. In some of today's breaking world, we see B-Boys and B-Girls battling each other in competition to see who the better dancers are. In the movie, You Got Served, crews are battling each other for prize money. Breaking has allowed for people to earn extra money, take roles in Hollywood movies, and appear on tours.
ReplyDeleteWith each passing century, there seems to be a different form of dance expressed in African American youth. As the world transcended into the craze of hip hop, dance transformed, too, into a style that complemented this new music. Breaking was born when an alternative form of battling was needed; the form of dance became a “competitive one-upmanship” (509). This was a safer form of raging war with another gang. Breaking became a physical outlet of self-expression. A B-Boy or B-girl would be able to express themselves, as an artist might through graffiti, through the dance skills and moves they’ve acquired. Banes wrote that “through breaking, in its original form, all the pleasures, frustrations, hopes and fears of adolescence were symbolically paled out in public spaces” (15).
ReplyDeleteThrough breaking, dancers can tell a story, just as their ancestors did before them. The slaves used dance, such as the cakewalk, as a way to mock their owners without them knowing, for example. Donald writes that “each generation of African American youth, it seems, recalls demonstrating what they think is a new dance step, only to be told that their elders did that same dance twenty, thirty, forty, or more years ago […] like a language, the basic vocabulary of African American dance is passed along” (506). Breaking encompasses the past and the present in a style that matches hip hop, a kind of music that is a mixture of past and present.
Hip Hop Dance and Breaking are ways to publically claim space with your body. Getting noticed and gaining fame is a big part of all hip hop culture and it is just as true with the high energy dance forms used in breaking and hip hop dance. The crowd is always a major factor in hip hop culture, but it is best seen in breaking when a talented breaker hits a great stunt or trick the audiences claps. Clapping at an inoppurtune time is one of the ways of signaling you are an outsider. The dance is just as slang drenched as the rest of the culture is, and using a move incorrectly or clapping at a mundane move are looked down upon. In Hip Hop dance, you are to keep the rhythym with your feet. A missed step throughs off the whole flow of the performance. Sampling is huge in Hip Hop dance, as we viewed in the YouTube clips in class of Chris Brown sampling from James Brown and Charlie Chaplin.
ReplyDeletePhysical graffiti gives dancers the freedom to express themselves in a physical way known as “breaking”. Breaking is described as dancers who dance in the break beat of a song. Sally Banes’ article “Breaking”, described the unique comparison between breaking and graffiti as they came together to form physical graffiti. Physical graffiti is also a way for a dancer to claim his or her fame in their community and try to get their name out in the open for their talents. Sally describes this as, “claiming the streets with your physical presence… publicly inscribe[ing] your identity on the surfaces of the city…” (14). Meaning people do not recognize these dancers from their graffiti on the sides of buildings but from their “breaking” ability and presence on street corners and in back alleys. Breaking is another representation of hip-hop culture, being that it began in small, poor, urban communities, and is now a way for the youth of those communities to express their struggles and lack of opportunity. But like all other elements of hip-hop, physical graffiti is influenced by many different cultures, dance styles (juba, cakewalk, tap, popping, locking), and historical references such as the “Zulu Kings”(9/28/09) who were involved in the creation of “breaking”.
ReplyDeletePhysical graffiti is a term that is quite unique and most people have no idea exactly what it means. Physical graffiti is like graffiti in that it is an act of expression, but the difference lies in the fact that physical graffiti is the act of expression thorough your body and dance. We can express ourselves through embodied histories which describe how we conduct ourselves, our demeanor, dance, and our attitude in general. Many artists use the embodied histories of old influential artists to express themselves and identify with hip-hop’s beginnings. Chris Brown in his 2007 MTV Awards performance incorporated different genres of dance that were famous in hip-hip history to make his performance that more riveting and hip-hop based. Just like Chris Brown did in his performace, bboys and bigrls use improvisation to innovate old dance moves into their dances. This allows for the hip-hop audience to relate to the breaker and appreciate his incorporation of such an influential dance into the new, modern dance he or she is performing now. Break dancing is one of the four important aspects of hip-hop and bboys and bgirls use their embodied histories to express themselves through physical graffiti, dance, and motion.
ReplyDeleteBreak dancing is an integral component of Hip-hop as it completes the artistic and creative circle that is the four elements of Hip-hop. Music, creative writing, and art on canvas are all expressed through the other three elements we have discussed in class. Break dancing expressed art through movement. Breakers (or Bboys and Bgirls) are unique within the Hip-hop community however, because they carry the history of Hip-hop within their bodies (embodied history). The transformation of Hip-hop dance tells the story of Hip-hop’s evolution. From the 70s era of primarily DJing and a heavy influence of funk and soul to a heavy reliance on the MC and focus on the money and “gangsta” lifestyle to modern day Hip-hop which is embracing all four elements equally, breaking has transformed and evolved to complement the other four elements. Breaking has moved from freezes and tricks being fundamental to popping and locking to krumping and clowning and has moved from primarily street battles to more of a performance art, explored and appreciated by all sectors of society.
ReplyDeleteSally Banes’ uses the term “physical graffiti” in the article “Breaking” when she is describing breaking mainly because breaking is so closely related to the graffiti culture. In Banes’ article she compares breaking to graffiti when she states that they are both a way of “claiming the streets with your physical presence” (14). Breaking is also seen as a form of physical graffiti because in general they are both portrayed as “rebellious” acts in our society. The neat thing about breaking is it is the only thing that is a physical expression of hip-hop. Breaking is a form of physical personal expression and is a unique and creative and rebellious as graffiti. However the coolest thing about it is it give kids a positive way to release their aggression without being violent.
ReplyDeleteBreaking has many of the same elements incorporated in it as do other parts such as MCing and DJing. In many setting breaking is largely a competitive dance where Bboys and Bgirls try to out-do one other. Bboys and Bgirls would start their dance by performing a six step series into the circle, allowing them to get into rhythm with the music, and perform for about fifteen to thirty seconds. In class we saw a great example of embodied histories in the Chris Brown video. Chris Brown brings back many different hip-hop dance styles that are considered to be the corner stone of the style. Banes tells us in “Breaking” that breaking is what made hip-hop a media obsession even though it is relatively new (13). Breaking went from the New York ghettos to ads for many big name brands and making the cover or major newspapers and magazines such as Newsweek and the Los Angeles Times.
ReplyDeleteBanes makes the argument that breaking is a way to claim public space and express personal creativity using one’s body. Breaking is one of the four main elements of Hip Hop, which I am able to understand after further studying its details. MCing, DJing, and graffiti artists all exhibit their creativity in an apparent manner. Breaking, as a form of dance and physical movement, is a way to articulate personal interest, style, and uniqueness in a different way. As BBoys and BGirls perform, they are conveying their interpretation of Hip Hop culture, music, and rhythm through movement. As well, Banes makes the argument that breaking and graffiti can be compared similarly. These two elements were combined to create the term “physical graffiti.” Taking all of this into consideration, the embodied history of breaking is very influential. Style of dance has evolved over time, and within the Hip Hop community, the evolution is apparent. Breaking has become an art form considering how much more serious it is being taken. Katrina Hazzard-Donald wrote in her article that breaking has moved from a rural to an urban stylized form of dance. Again, it is apparent that this uniquely artistic form of dancing has evolved over time.
ReplyDeleteBreaking has developed into a new kind of graffiti art. It has transformed the way in which we see 2D art, into a 3 dimensional world of popping, locking and other forms of movements with the body. In Sally Banes article "Breaking", she states that "breaking is the newest part of hip-hop culture, it's the part that has made hip hop a media obsession" (13). Breaking has popularized the media dramatically, especially in Hollywood films. Take "You've Got Served" for instance, which stars R&B singers Marques Houston and Omarion. The film is, by no means, a well structured movie. But in fact it contains a miraculous sight of dance moves and breaking which unvold in front of our eyes. This is also shown in other recent popular films such as "Stomp The Yard" and "Step Up 2: The Streets". The popularization of the breakdancing style continues to rise, as new moves are being invented all the time. The elements of graffiti and rap intertwine to help develop the art of breaking. However, breaking is a more powerful art which can develop with many other different historical dances; such as ballet, swing, jazz, funk, etc. "The intensity of the dancer's physicality gives breaking a power and energy even beyond the vitality of graffiti and rapping"(14). I would have to agree with Banes on the idea that breaking is much more energized than graffiti. Breaking is also continuing to develop with new forms such as krumping, clowning and tecktonik. This brings forth new challenges and competitions to the spectrum of hip hop dance. With breaking, hip hop as an art form has not only helped the development of ones character, but created free expression around the world today.
ReplyDeleteBLOG- PHYSICAL GRAFFITI AND HIP-HOP DANCE
ReplyDeleteBreaking and hip-hop dance are a form or art. As in all of the elements of hip-hop, breaking is a form of self expression. In the Barnes article, she describes breaking and hip-hop dance as "physical graffiti". This is a very accurate term for this dance because it is a way of making art that is unlike what most people think it hip-hop. This very misunderstood dance is a way of expressing and gaining fame from one's self, graffiti and physical graffiti are similar because they are also (in many cases) not considered a legitimate form of art as well.Breaking originally started when bboys or bgirls would hip-hop dance in the break of a song, soon this gained more popularity and breaking was able to preform alone. Interestingly, breaking uses samples like the other elements of hip-hop do. Many breakers today sample dance from a lot of different types of dances like the Charleston, the LIndy Hop, and others. Artisits also sample from performers such as Charlie Chaplin, or the Nicolas brothers, Historically breaking was created in New York by young black and Latinos, these early forms of breaking (and today's breaking) contained remnants of the African American slave dances, like the Juba or Cakewalk.
From DJs scratching records, graffiti artists expressing one, to breakers having an artistic invention, hip-hop is an embodied history. Before the media hype, “breaking was nearly invisible to outsiders” (15). In Sally Banes article, “Breaking” Fab Five Freddy states “breaking began when rapping did, as an intuitive physical response to the music” (17). Breaking and other forms of hip-hop dancing can be traced back to the twenties and thirties as well as several other cultures and styles. Much like graffiti artists and DJs, Breakers would battle their opponents by attempting to outdo each other. The call and response within Hip Hop is upheld among B-boys and B-girls when the breakers would battle or display their Hip Hop dancing talents, and the audience would applaud when the breakers would bust a power move, similar to jazz improvisations. Physical graffiti is defined as a form of self-expression, which corresponds to the embodied history Hip Hop contains.
ReplyDeleteAs Sally Banes said in her article “Breaking,” she describes breakdancing as a “style of competitive, acrobatic, and pantomime dance” (Banes 13). As with the other three elements of hip-hop, breaking is another outlet of personal expression for underprivileged kids who knew nothing else of dance besides what they made up. As Katrina Hazzard-Donald points out in her article, although many kids and adult who break don’t know it, many moves from breakdancing reflect dances throughout history such as the way the Twine and the Snakehips dances in the early thirties have shown up in breakdancing as the pop-and-lock dances. Even the way breaking started is highly congruent with the way most things in hip-hop start: without a name or certain set style, and always done in competition with others to prove superiority and mark territory. When breaking was just starting out, dancers would try to ‘get fame’ and one-up each other all while copying each others’ styles, much the same way as graffiti artists, DJ’s and MC’s. One B-Boy in the movie ‘Rize’ was saying how the “krumping” dance style allowed everyone to let out their aggression, prevent fights and avoid gang violence. By participating in breakdancing challenges, one could leave his/her mark on the territory around them without resorting to violence.
ReplyDelete“Breaking” by Sally Banes lays out some of the terms and styles used in breaking, the form of dance that revolves around floor moves. Banes does a good job of laying out the vernacular for those unfamiliar with the dance style, and addresses the idea of “BBoys” and a skeletal overview of breaking’s history. She mentions the masculinity inherent in the form, as well as the dichotomies between “breaking” and “break-dancing,” the commercial cousin of the original. Banes fails to incorporate any mention of “BGirls” other than to write them off as a fringe element of an otherwise male-dominated cultural form. In forgoing any attempt to write about women, Banes misses out on a crucial element of contemporary breaking: the inclusion of women into the dance.
ReplyDelete“Dance in Hip-Hop Culture” by Katrina Hazzard-Donald located breaking, and indeed other forms of hip-hop dance like Rap dancing and Waack, in the larger socioeconomic and cultural movements of the fifties, sixties, and seventies. She contextualizes these dance forms in terms of the rise of a black middle class through blue-collar production jobs and their subsequent disappearance from this demographic. This article also negotiates the relationships between these forms of dance and their slave predecessors, and the regionalism that accompanies them. Again, however, Hazzard-Donald fails to address the relevance of BGirls other than to say that they hold no place in the male-only world of Hip-Hop dance.
"Physical Graffiti" is an apt moniker for breaking. In the same way that youth asserted themselves by inscribing tags and burners across the architecture of the city, breakers used another crucial resource (the body) to create an equally viable form of expression. The term emphasizes the body as medium, thus linking it with a long tradition of African-American dancing. Importantly, its competitive nature was a way for b-boys/girls to achieve recognizable status on their own terms. Its nuances of movement, dress, and "style" utilize the embodied history that informs all African American cultural endeavors; they enacted the same competitive dialogue that had defined the cultural output of their predecessors. By calling breaking "a way of claiming the streets," Bates reinforces the idea of claims/counterclaims, including the possibility of sampling other breakers and pop culture in search of a unique and unconquerable "style." The derivative trends in dance vocabulary also references the “cyclical quality” (Hazzard-Donald 505) of African-American historical dance forms, expressed in group/individual formats and the assimilation of Cuban, Brazilian, and Jamaican patterns of movement (among others).
ReplyDeleteB-Boy and B-Girls and “breaking” are 2 important elements of Hip-Hop. B-Boys and B-Girls embodied typically many aspects of what hip-hop is all about, the music, the self-expression, free styling, and coming from being a fad to being very mainstream. B-Boys and B-Girls were originally referred to as break boys and break girls because they performed during the breaks of shows as a transition of sorts. They were only seen as background noise or entertainment. Now they are the whole show. Like hip-hops rags to riches story, Breaking and the b-boys who break danced have transformed this style of dance to a global phenomenon that is being incorporated into some of the most popular tv shows and movies that are coming out today. As it was then, some people can say that the re-emergence of hip-hop and b-boys and b-girls are a fad, but just as hip-hop was once deemed a fad, “breaking” has lasted and is more popular today than ever.
ReplyDeleteSally Banes simultaneously defines breaking and b-boys/girls when she says “b-boys, the original break dancers, black and Hispanic teenagers who invented and endlessly elaborate the heady blend of dancing, acrobatics, and warfare that is breaking.” Warfare is a key word in Banes’ definition, because it is a huge theme uniting almost every aspect of hip-hop, including breaking. The term embodied histories is explained all throughout both of this week’s articles and the article “Breaking” by Michael Holman (which I mistakenly read because it is on the pages incorrectly stated in the syllabus) when they discuss the history of hip-hop dance. Holman’s article details this history, going back to what we discussed in lecture about slave dances like the cakewalk, which Katrina Hazzard-Donald mentions as well. Holman describes how the slave masters would see the slaves dancing and go encourage the competition, maybe even being a little easier on the winners. This competition shows very early presence of the theme battling, which is extremely prominent in all hip-hop aspects today, from breaking to MCing to DJing to graffiti and even in attire. Embodied histories and b-boys/girls are strongly related by the battle, which relates them to the other elements of hip-hop as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the article by Sally Banes, it is demonstrated how breaking came from the underground and was able to surface. I like how the pratice is described as "physical graffiti" because the body is used as a means for the self expression. Breaking went from being banned in public places such as malls to being performed by "middle-class houswives" and "excecutives" in their spare time. The controversy between what is street dance and formal concert dance is blurred because it appears that the only difference is documented history. B-boys and b-girls are able to have "embodied histories" of secret jargon and slang that only a slect few are able to read. Banes also speaks about how balck dances are created and vanish, only to resurface once again. Only in today's society is there now being written history. I find it fascinating that breaking can serve as a prime example of multicultralism, deriving from Asian cultures and African slave dance such as the Juba. Just like the four other elements of Hip-Hop, breaking is not in the least bit static. It is constantly evolving dependong on time, space, and what came before it. This is demonstrated in the movie Rize. Krurmping/Clowning is displayed as the newest evolution of Hip-Hop dance. The movie itself is significant because it allows more to be exposed to an uncommon form of art definately not studied at the Univerities.
ReplyDeleteThe act of breaking has become one of the four elements of Hip-hop because it encompasses aspects of Mcing, Djing, and Grafitti. Breakers are able to display these elements through their pure physical presence. According to Sally Banes in the article “Breaking”, the body becomes a symbol for claiming a unique personal style for others to identify; similar to a graffiti artist recognizing a rival’s design or tag. The art of breaking is credited to the original break dancers known as Bboys and Bgirls (Banes 14). These original breakers compiled moves such as breaking, popping, and locking. However, the essential building blocks for breaking can be linked back to the slave trade providing modern breaking with an embodied history (Banes 18). Traditional dance moves such as the Charleston, Juba, and Tap were kept alive and sampled by Bboys and Bgirls. This embodied history for breakers goes full circle with the other three elements of Hip-hop by demonstrating its deep roots. However, the power of breaking allows Hip-hop to ‘physically’ come alive!
ReplyDeleteTosin Morohunfola: “This is not a trend. Let me repeat, this is not a trend.” (Rize, Dragon) Though Hip-Hop lives in the moment, it is in no way momentary. Everything about hip-hop dance is embodied history. Even specific dance styles like BBoy/BGirl styles are just stages in hip-hop’s long and diverse embodied history. Though most things hip-hop related were born from “lower- and often marginalized working-class African American youth it has West Indian influences.” (Forman & Neal, 508)
ReplyDelete“There is no shortage of creative recycling. Each generation of African American youth, it seems, recalls demonstrating what they think is a new dance step, only to be told that their elders did that same dance twenty, thirty, forty, or more years ago.” (Forman & Neal, 506) Pop-and-lock is a very popular, modern hip-hop dance. “The pop-and-lock technique could also be observed in the snakeships, as that dance was performed by the Cotton Club’s Earl “Snakeships” Tucker in the 1920s.” (Forman & Neal, 509). “Competitive one-upmanship” and “Apart dancing” are both traditional West African dance styles. (Forman & Neal, 509, 511)
Since being a Bboy or Bgirl is merely a dance style, “memory is short and history is brief.” (Forman & Neal, 17) Being a Bboy/Bgirl used to just mean tee-shirts, sneakers, group solidarity and taking turns dancing on the floor with “a mat made of cardboard or linoleum.” (Forman & Neal 17) But now Bboying/Bgirling really has expanded to mean anything that challenges the status quo, anything that was once perceived as obscene. And it that same challenge to the status quo that other areas of Hip-hop embrace. “The obscure gestural ciphers of breaking find their parallels in the (deliberately) nearly unreadable alphabets of wild-style graffiti, the (deliberately) nearly unintelligible thicket of rap lyrics, and the (deliberately) barely recognizable music that is cut up and recombined in scratching.” (Forman & Neal, 18)
But I’ve very curious as to the Embodied Future of Hip-hop. Hip-hop fanatics are very protective of their dance styles and how cutting edge and authentic it is. After all, for some people it has been very integral to a peaceful way of life, “youth in New York City used the breaking form of hip hop to settle lower-level gang disputes and assert territorial dominance.” (Forman & Neal, 512) So, despite the illustrious history of hip-hop dance, the fact that it is now very mainstream and a marketable product “has on one level robbed the dance of its original significance.” (Forman & Neal, 513) So what will happen to hip hop dance, will it continue to be authentic or totally succumb to commercialization?