Contents 4 History of streetdance 6 History of breaking 8 Music for break and streetdance 9 Clothing for break and streetdance 12 B-boy ali interview 14 B-boy jasper Q&A 16 Ravmaster interview 20 Credits 21 Letter from editor
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StreetDance Street Dance is described as the use of different dance styles outside of the dance studio setting, but with the popularity of Street Dance it has become a dance performed not just in the streets or at a party but in studios too, due to this Street Dance has more recently been described as a mixture of different styles to create either a freestyle dance or a routine.
While the history of Street Dance dates back to around the late nineteenth century with jazz I will be focusing on the Modern ‘new school’ form of Street Dance which was born as early as the 1960s. ‘New school’ Street Dance is firmly rooted in hip-hop, it was the music that influenced the styles being used and how they were used together. The most popular styles of Street Dance being performed to hip-hop music were breaking also knowing as B-boying, Popping and locking.
Groups of people would band together in the streets, parties and just about anywhere else to dance together, all it took was music, either performed there on the spot by a DJ and or out of a stereo system like a ‘Boom Box’ and a large enough flat area to perform some moves. in a feat to outshine other dancers (usually at a party and to impress girls or earn more street credibility) would have dance battles. this could be one on one duals or between certain groups of people who would probably all be in one dance crew. With other dance crews, battles are now seen on big stages across the world the most famous being the Red Bull BC one. Individuals would freestyle on the streets to show off their moves and earn street credibility.
Street dance has come a long way since its inception and now you can find dance schools, community centre groups and university societies like ours, teaching Street Dance. The best thing about Street Dance is the freedom it provides for the dancer. Want to mix breaking with a bit of robot dance and popping? Go ahead! As long as it’s with the music you can use any dance style you want.
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Breaking Breaking was born from hip hop music, a street dance style that has broken out as a global movement. It all started in the new york Bronx early 70s with a DJ named Kool Herc the ‘Godfather of hip-hop’. He would host the biggest dance parties in the Bronx, everyone would want to be at these parties, and it was here that dancers showed off their best moves.
Herc at a point in the party would play a record that had a ‘breakdown’ in it which is why the records he was playing we’re called ‘break beats’. The ‘breakdown’ was when all the melody in the track would drop out and only the beat was left, the party goers would go crazy for the frantic beats these breakdowns brought to the party. Herc noticed this and started extending the breakdowns, it was at these times B-boys and B-girls would start breaking.
People
would
gather
round
the
breakers
to
see
these
amazing
moves,
and the famous breakers circle would form, this is when other breakers might challenge
each
other
and
battle
for
the
most
respect
from
the
crowd.
Breaking can be broken down into four elements; top rock, down rock, freezes and power moves. Top rock is the foundation of breaking it’s commonly known as footwork in a standing position, down rock was footwork as well, but down on the ground as the name suggests this came a few years after top rocking, freezes came from breakers halting all body motion in certain positions, the crazier the position the better for as long as the breaker wants. Freezes were a natural way to end down rocks like spins, and finally power moves the most recent addition to breaking these moves would take strength and momentum to pull off. Head spins and windmills are both examples of Power moves.
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Music Music is the life blood Streetdance and breaking, the ways a song or a beat can force you to start dancing are incredible. Whether it is a Streetdance routine or breaking freestyle the chances are music is involved. The type of music associated with Streetdance and breaking is usually Hip-Hop music, but that’s not to say different genres aren’t used to dance, pop, rock and even classical music have been used in a dance routine or a freestyled to.
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Clothing When it comes to dancing, whatever clothes you feel the most comfortable in performing moves is best. When you’re in a dance crew wearing the same clothes or at least a similar style to the rest of your crew looks great, and makes you look like a team, some dances needs a certain style of clothing, for example fancy frilly attire for salsa, or shoes with bells on for irish dancing, but at the end of the day, you can wear whatever you want when you dance.
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B-BOY Ali Ali Ghaith, Gifted breaker based at the University of Portsmouth answers my important questions about dance. By Patrick Morrison
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tudent at the university of portsmouth and adept breaker ali, has been breaking for 9 years, training all the time to get better, the life of a breaker is tough, but ali decided to tough it out and has come out the other side a very good B-boy, and one of the best in portsmouth.
1. What does breaking mean
to you? Breakdancing always meant the world to me , it’s the only thing I love and have passion for.
2. Who inspires you as a
breaker? And what have they taught you about breaking? I was really inspired by b-boy cico ,he is one of the best breakdancers (powermovers) I used to watch a lot of videos for him ,especially tutorials and that’s how I learned the flare. The flare is one of the toughest moves in breakdance.
3. How important do you
think music is to breaking? Music plays a major role in breakdancing since you actually have to Follow and kill the beat when doing your moves .
4. What do you enjoy most
about breaking? and What’s your favourite breaking move? I really enjoy doing powermoves cause they look really cool and they take a lot of energy and practice to achieve.
5. What do you think it
takes to be a good breaker and what mind-set should they have? . Breakdance is one of the toughest sports in the world therefore it needs a lot of practice ,time and comitment, as for the breakers mind set he should be energetic ,positive , motivated ,passionate and capable to train through blood ,sweat and tears.
6. What are some of your
goals for breaking? I’m aiming to open up one of the biggest breakdancing academy’s in the UK so that I can spread the breakdance culture , and get people to try the amazing feeling of being a bboy- b girl.
7. How do you feel when you perform? It’s something I can only describe by one word “ unique “, whenever i perform i forget the whole world around me and get taken by the music its an amazing feeling.
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8. What motivates you
to keep breaking? I get motivated by many factors ,first of all breakdance is a great sport to maintaining a healthy athletic body second of all when ever I breakdance I feel happy and that’s enough for me to stay motivated and keep on dancing.
9. In your opinion what’s
the hardest thing about breaking? Breakdance is one of the most difficult and extreme sports in the world therefore a lot of people quit on breakdancing after a short period of practice simply because they got desperate of getting a certain move ,that’s why continuity and never giving up is one of the hardest thing in breakdancing.
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B-boy Jasper
Personally, I feel that freestyling is king. Sets and routines, they are nice to watch every now and then, but to me freestyling the actual definition. Cause there’s nothing better than just hearing that amazing song and just get down and busting out your moves without even a thought. Yes, with heavy amounts of practice sets and routines will work without a thought, but at the end the feeling between freestyling, and sets and routines are miles apart.
I don’t really like performances and showcases. But at my level that’s all I can do for now. With every performance, I’ll always feel a little nervous. No matter how much you’ve rehearsed, there’s always a chance where that one great move you’ve been saving up for that moment won’t happen. So it’s really normal for me to feel a little nervous. But at the end of it, I know I’m performing with a great crew so that eases my anxiety.
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I have 2 favourite moves. The first would be the airchair. To me that’s the best freeze of all the freezes. There’s so many variations from that one move and it’s my go to move for a picture, haha. The second move would be the flare. I absolutely love flares. It looks amazing and incredibly hard to learn and master. And there’s so many moves you can combo with flares.
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I actually don’t like mixing it up, and I actually don’t know any other styles as such. I use a few moves every now and then like shuffling and cwalking. As much as I would, I don’t think I’ll pay too much attention to it and just try it out every now and then.
Ravmaster Ravi Luhar, incredible StreetDancer and former student at the University of Portsmouth takes on my questions about dance. By Patrick Morrison
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ormer student at the university of portsmouth and on his way to being a architect Ravi is always looking for a challenge. His YouTube channel show casing his StreetDance freestyles and routines Has over 45,000 views and he doesn’t plan to stop just yet. 1. What does dancing mean to you? Dancing
has changed my life. It’s given me a new medium to meet people and make great friends with, alongside being able to express myself through performing arts. You’ll hear people say all the time; “dance to express, not to impress”, it’s arguably the most well-known dance quote, but you never know how much it means to dance to express yourself until it becomes a part of you.
3. What styles of dance do
you do now? would you like to try any other style? I started dancing with
cwalking, back when it was the cool thing to do, now I mainly practice in hip hop contemporary freestyle, if that makes sense in your heads as it does mine. I’ve trained breaking and some popping too. But next on the list is house.
4. Who inspires you as a
dancer? And what have they taught you about dancing? I think the most
influential dancer to me would be Brian Puspos, the mentality he takes with his approach to his dancing, and definitely the songs he chooses too, are similar to my methods, just that he takes them to another level. And it’s incredible to watch over and over again.
5. What got you into
dancing? I used to be the
quiet, timid guy in the class, if I didn’t know anyone I would rarely bring up conversation and would just sit around drawing. I wanted to start something that no one else did, to be different. One day I just typed into YouTube “tutorial” not knowing what kind of tutorial I wanted to turn up. It just happened that the most viewed were dance related!
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6. How important do you
think music is to dancing?
You can’t have one without the other. How can you show musicality; the relationship between your moves and the music without the music?! It’s just movement otherwise!
7. What’s your favourite dance move? I can give
you an endless list of moves and sets that wow me every time I watch them, but I have to say my favourite dance move, and when I’m having the most fun, is when I’m with dancers just vibing, and everyone comes together at the same time doing the same move. Doesn’t matter what the move is as long as it’s simple and grooves well with the music.
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“I love that I can motivate kids and students. Kids because I give them a great hobby to spend time with, which later on will become passion, and students because they never thought that at Uni they would learn such a different style of dance which can get you in a perfect body form, makes you extra cash and bring the ladies to you.�
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“The hardest part is to learn the move. It’s move has many different lil steps and sometimes you get stuck on one step for long time, which makes you frustrated. Once a friend of mine said,” you need to let yourself fall. The only thing keeping you back from that move is your fear to fall.””
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Credits Photography: Patrick Morrison Krista dyulgerova Vera Hadzhiyska Kofe agyemang Ali Ghaith Folusho Adewale Models: Ali Ghaith Jordan Lamb Charlie Chatz Jasper lam Ravi Luhar Maylorn Thiva Francisco Molina Adah Lee Pebbles Be Maral Amini Nicole Tiu Marta Romera Patrick Morrison Special thanks: Portsmouth community center University of Portsmouth Claire Sambrook
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Letter from editor My name is Patrick Morrison and I have put this magazine together to showcase the talent within the breakdance and street dance society. I’ve been dancing for nearly half my life and I hope the passion I have for dance translates into this magazine
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