Thursday Night Revelations

On Thursday night the roomie and I went to The Funky Buddha. It was a unique and HUGE place with fun decorations and colors all over the place. The night was supposed to be a show of live performance art so there were a couple different rap/hip hop groups who were performing, an artist painting live, and something I didn't know about at the beginning...a breakdancing group! 

Growing up in Nh and attending an engineering school in Mass meant that I have never before seen breakdancing live. Of course I've watched movies with it and music videos, but after watching it last night I realized that I legitimately had never seen it live. Needless to say it was so fun to watch these guys. The moves and speed with which the dance is done blows me away. I always find when I work out that my problem is that my body physi

cally can't move at an extremely accelerated pace. I attend this one class where the instructor makes us do exercises in double time and it is impossible for me to keep up! Then you add in weights....it's not a pretty sight. It's so exhausting to me and I know that if I tried and worked up to it I would probably be able to do it, but I just don't think its me. Haha I truly think my body make up does not allow for rapid quick movements. 

Watching these guys dance made me wonder where breakdancing came from and how the heck people learn how to do this without hurting themselves. I mean they spin on their heads!!! So now the history is; James Brown created a dance called the Good Foot which consisted of a lot of fancy and quick footwork. It was popular amon

g young athletic men and slowly morphed into B-Boy dancing and than break dancing. Presently it is called old-school break dancing because it does not contain any of the crazy moves like head or back spins, windmills, hand glides, etc. After this dancing became popular it was commonly used by gangs in new york city where they would have dance-offs instead of fighting. Kind of cool that a dance would be able to replace what is needless fighting in my eyes. Of course these dance-offs did not always stop fights and in turn could lead to an even more intense battle between the groups. But you can't win em all.

Old-school breaking was popular until the Freak took over. It then made a comeback a few years after that, but with a more acrobatic and unique twist. This meant that included into the fancy footwork that breaking was so well known for were flips and twists and the use of the whole body. This became what most people picture when you think of breakdancing. 

I've always loved to watch people dance. All different types have their own characteristics and qualities that make them different and special. When a person is a really good dancer they have a fluidity and grace that makes me very jealous of their abilities. And even in something as jerky as breakdancing they make it look so effortless. 

So I'm now on a mission to find out where more breakdancing groups perform and the roomie and I are going!!! So excited!