How to Breakdance

Break dancing was a style of dancing that grew up around hip hop music during it's early stages of development in the United States. 'Break dancing' stretched the human body to its limit.

Whether you want to impress your friends or participate in dance competitions, or just have fun – break dancing is an exciting hobby.  A skilled break-dancer will always grab everyone’s attention instantly with the complex moves, keeping up with the pace of the music.

Break dancing is an energetic street style dance where you perform amazingly intricate moves but appear completely in coordination with your body. Break-dancers are called b-boys or b-girls, depending on their gender. 

This dance form is also a wonderful way to keep fit since you need plenty of balance, a strong body and a fit heart. As you become better at this form of dance art, you will gain self-confidence as you face your fans across the floor. 

The purpose of this Instructable is to walk you through the steps of performing basic breakdancing moves. Breakdancing is a lot of fun, great exercise, and is pretty impressive if you practice enough to make it look good. Anyone who is in pretty good shape can learn to breakdance…doesn’t matter if you’re skinny or buff, short or tall. And if you’re not in good shape, dancing is a great way to get there! Basic breakdancing takes only a little time to learn, but it takes a long time to make it look good and sharp. As long as you have a desire to dance, you’ll do great!

If you want to learn how to Break Dance, you'll need to be flexible and be able to move quickly.You'll also need a pretty good sized tile or linoleum floor and a pair of athletic shoes to dance in.And, of course, you'll also need some Hip Hop music. 

As with any sport or active type of movement, you should limber your body up first before you begin. This will help to prevent strained muscles and other injuries to your body. To limber up, all you'll need to do is to perform some leg stretches, arm rotations, and maybe some deep knee bends.

The most basic breakdance moves are the 6-step and toprock. The rest of the dance is founded around these two elements. Dancers usually begin by toprocking, and then continue by going down to the floor and performing a 6-step or 4-step that may be heavily 'teched' (variated). The 6-step provides a base for other more complex moves to be formed, as well as power moves.

After performing a 6-step to begin the dance, and then performing a power move, the breakdancer will usually end the dance with a 'freeze' which is when he contorts his body to a strange position and literally freezes, stopping all dance motion. The breakdancer will usually hold the freeze for a second or two. There are nearly infinite variations on freezes, and coming up with new freezes greatly enhances the breakdancers style.

Between 1970 and 1973, break dancing makes its first appearance in the clubs, Plaza Tunnel and the Puzzle. The earliest moves were the "Drop" and the "In-and-Out" 

One popular move in 'break dancing' was known as the 'Floor Lock'. In this move dancers would support themselves on one hand while spinning their bodies around while kicking out their legs. Another popular move was the 'Handglide or Flow'. In this particular move the dancers would spin their bodies wile balancing them on one elbow. The 'Backspin' and the 'Windmill' moves were break moves that used the shoulder as a pivot. The 'Headspin' move as its name indicates, requires the dancer to spin using his head as a pivot point. Then there was the 'lofting' move in which the dancers would dive in the air and land on their hands. Probably one of the most dangerous break moves was the 'Suicide' move. In this move the dancer falls forward with their hands to the side doing a complete flip landing flat on their back.

There are 7 basic types of moves in breakdancing: the Toprock, the Footwork, the Drops, the Floor Rock, the Power Moves, the Freezes and the Suicides. Let us look at the meaning of these types and the different breakdance moves which fall under each category.

The Toprock
The Toprock is a set of moves which are performed in a standing position. Toprock moves are generally easier and are used by the b-boys as a warm up before the real stuff starts.The easy breakdance moves in toprock are

• Basic Toprock
• Side-Step
• Boyoing
• Power Step
• Power Step Hop
• Latin Rock

The Footwork
The foot work is the set of moves the dancer does with his feet while he is standing or on the floor.

• 2 step
• 3 step
• 4 step
• 5 step
• 6 step
• 7 step
• 8 step
• 10 step
• 12 step
• Zulu Spins
• Kick-outs
• Spindle
• Swapping
• Shuffles
• Coffee Grinder

The Drops
The drops are a set of moves where the dancer 'drops' from the standing position, down to the floor to perform the next set of moves. A dancer may 'drop' in the following ways

• Coin Drop
• Knee Drop
• Other Knee Drop
• Sweep Drop
• Thread Drop
• Corkscrew

Floor Rocks
The floor rocks are moves which a dancer does while pretty much of his body is touching the floor. The basic list of floor rocks has

• Scissors
• Belly Swim
• Body Glide
• Side Slide
• Figure 4

The Power Moves
The power moves are moves where the b-boy moves in a spinning motion. They are usually the toughest moves in breakdancing, and the judges rate a breakdancer on the perfection with which he makes the power moves.

• Flare
• Swipe
• Windmill
• Back Spin
• Side Spin
• Halos
• Head Spin
• Head Slides

Freeze
A freeze is a move which the dancer uses to signify the end of the dance. A freeze move is a really impressive move in which the dancer suspends himself and has a lasting impression on the viewers or the judges. The freeze moves have

• Baby Freeze
• Air Chair
• Side Chair
• Elbow Freeze
• Dead Freeze
• Shoulder Freeze
• G-Kick
• Head Stand
• Hollowback
• Pike
• Flag

Suicide
Alternatively, a dancer may choose to end the dance routine by pretending to fall down and loose control of himself. The trick of making a 'suicide' look effective is that it must look painful, but must be executed in a way where the dancer does no damage to himself.

• Front Headflip
• Back Headflip
• Hard Drive
• Pencil Spin
• Suicide Rubberband
• Suicide Corkscrew
• Coin Drop

Red Bull BC One

Red Bull BC One is an annual international b-boy competition organized by the energy drink company Red Bull. It is an individual (or 'one on one')b-boy competition (as opposed to a crew competition). The main event is a knockout tournament featuring sixteen b-boys, chosen for exceptional skills in the dance and good character, competing in one-on-one battles decided by a panel of five judges. 2007 was the only year in which the sixteen competitors were chosen systematically, via worldwide regional knockout tournaments, along with the prior year's top finishers as well as wild card selections.
The event has been held in a different city and country every year. In 2004 it was held in Biel, Switzerland, 2005 in Berlin, Germany, 2006 in São Paulo, Brazil, 2007 in Johannesburg, South Africa, 2008 in Paris, France, 2009 in New York City, USA, 2010 in Tokyo, Japan, 2011 in Moscow, Russia. It is announced that the 2012 compeitition will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
An official Red Bull BC One DVD was released for the 2004 and 2005 events. The production of the DVDs has been criticized due to musical rights, as the live music played during the competition had to be dubbed over. From 2006 and on, Red Bull stopped releasing DVDs and made the videos available online for free.
In 2007, Alastair Siddon directed a film about the Red Bull BC One 2007 competition. The film was released in March 2010 under the title, "Turn it Loose."

This is trailer of  Red Bull BC One