ClassX Video Lessons Youtube Channel Curiosity Stream Breakdancing: The Newest Olympic Sport | The Science Of Movement
When you dance, you’re telling a story without using words. Your movements, the style of dance, and the music all come together to create a narrative. This is the essence of dance, and it began as a way for young people in the Bronx to express themselves.
Breakdancing is a mix of acrobatics, athletic skill, and dance. It combines competition, friendship, improvisation, and self-expression. Breakdancers are like athletes, and even if you’re not an expert, you can see that what they do is tough and requires a lot of practice and dedication. It’s truly inspiring.
My name is Amy Skinner, and I work as a physician assistant. I also help performing artists stay healthy so they can keep sharing their talents with the world.
Hi, I’m Alex Diaz, also known as B-boy El Nino. I’ve been breakdancing for most of my life and have won the Freestyle Session World Championship five times. Breakdancing combines hip-hop, capoeira, kung fu, and gymnastics. It started in the 1970s in the Bronx and spread to other places.
Breakdancing requires muscle strength, joint stability, core strength, power, endurance, and flexibility. It has four main elements: top rock, footwork, power moves, and freezes.
Top rock includes all the moves you do while standing. It’s like an introduction that helps you connect with the music. It involves rhythm and using your waist, staying on the balls of your feet to move quickly. It’s all about improvisation, dancing, and grooving with different steps. You mainly use your quads and calves, while your arms stay loose. The bounce gives you that hip-hop groove, and the cross step is functional.
Footwork involves all the moves you do on the floor, like six steps and kickouts. It’s challenging and tiring because it uses all your muscles at once. You need to be on your toes, which works your quads, and you use your hands and feet to swing your legs around. It requires strength and agility, engaging your wrists, shoulders, arms, and quads.
Power moves are the spins that make the dance exciting. They use every part of your body. One of the hardest moves is the air flare, which needs strength, momentum, speed, and control. You develop speed by whipping your legs and core, similar to ice skating. Once you have that speed, you use it to keep spinning, using your core and upper body strength. If you do a head spin, you engage muscles that support your neck while staying calm. Great athletes can connect different power moves, which is challenging but rewarding.
Freezes are like the exclamation point at the end of your dance. You hold a pose for a few seconds to let the audience and judges appreciate what they’ve seen. Freezes show your creativity, individuality, and self-expression.
Once you learn the basics, you can express yourself through your dance. Everyone has their own style, and for me, it’s about flow, speed, and originality. I practice like I’m in a battle, just like fighters do. Breakdancing requires muscle strength, joint stability, and flexibility to move your body into different shapes. A strong core is essential for power moves.
To be the best, you need dedication, a willingness to push yourself, and a love for what you do. This helps you overcome challenges, even when it’s tough. With breakdancing, you can show your creativity and connect with the audience. You train like an athlete but think like an artist. The creativity, self-expression, practice, dedication, and time are all amazing. You have to want to be the greatest and go for it.
Try creating your own top rock routine! Use different steps and rhythms to connect with the music. Remember to stay on the balls of your feet and let your arms move freely. Share your routine with classmates and discuss how each of you expressed yourself through your movements.
Set up a fitness circuit that includes different footwork moves like six steps and kickouts. Practice these moves to build strength and agility. Work in pairs to give each other feedback on technique and form. Reflect on how these exercises improve your overall fitness and coordination.
Join a workshop to learn basic power moves such as spins and air flares. Focus on building momentum and control. Work with a partner to safely practice these moves, and discuss the importance of core strength and balance in executing them successfully.
Create a series of freeze poses that express your individuality. Capture these poses in photographs or drawings. Present your artwork to the class and explain the story or emotion behind each freeze. Discuss how these poses can enhance a breakdancing performance.
Develop a short breakdancing routine that tells a story. Use a combination of top rock, footwork, power moves, and freezes to convey your narrative. Perform your routine for the class and explain the story you aimed to tell through your dance. Reflect on how breakdancing can be a powerful form of self-expression.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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[Music] When you dance, you’re telling a story. You’re not using your mouth, but the way you move, the type of dance in conjunction with the music, it all tells the story. The audience is taken on this journey with you, bringing a good portion of yourself to the performance. This is what dance is built upon. It started as an opportunity for the youth in the Bronx to gather and create self-expression.
Breakdancing is a fusion of acrobatics, athleticism, and dance. It combines competitiveness, camaraderie, and improvisation with self-expression. Break dancers are athletes. Even to an untrained eye, it’s hard to doubt that what they’re doing is challenging and requires a lot of dedication to master. It’s all inspiring.
This is the science of breakdancing with ELO. My name is Amy Skinner, and I am a physician assistant at HSS. I’m also a provider in the Performing Arts Medicine Collaborative, where we connect performing artists with physicians, physical therapists, and nutritionists to help them get back on stage to share their gifts with the world.
What’s up, guys? My name is Alex Diaz, also known as B-boy El Nino, and I’m a five-time Freestyle Session World Champion. I’ve been breaking pretty much my whole life. Breaking is a combination of hip-hop party dances, capoeira, kung fu, and gymnastics. It started in the 1970s with young kids in the Bronx trying to express themselves at parties and dance battles. It grew to different cities and states.
When it comes to breaking, it takes several things: muscle strength, joint stability, core strength, power, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. Breaking basically consists of four elements: top rock, footwork, power moves, and freezes.
Top rock includes all the movements we do up top, usually as an introduction that allows us to feel the music. This involves rhythm and using my waist, staying on the balls of my feet to be agile. It’s improvisation, dancing and grooving using various steps. The muscle groups used mainly include the quads and calves, while the arms should be loose. The bounce gives you that hip-hop groove, and the cross step has functionality.
Next is footwork, which involves all the floor work, including six steps and kickouts. Footwork is very hard and tiring because it uses all muscle groups simultaneously. You want to be up on your toes, which strains your quads. You need to be on the balls of your feet and hands, using different muscle groups to swing your legs around. It takes a lot of strength and agility, engaging your wrists, shoulders, arms, and quads.
If you were to take footwork out of breaking, it might not be breaking anymore. Power moves are the spins that give the dance a wow factor. Some of these movements use every part of the body. I started with the air flare, which is one of the hardest moves to master. It requires strength, momentum, speed, and control. You develop speed by whipping from the legs and core, similar to ice skating.
Once you develop that whip, you harness that energy to continue the spins, using your core and upper body strength. If you drop into a head spin, you engage muscles that support the neck while trying to remain calm. What makes an athlete amazing is the ability to string together a series of power moves. I combine power moves by connecting different ones, which is particularly challenging but fitting to my name, El Nino.
The freezes are the exclamation point on your set, how you end strongly. You hold the freeze for about 2 to 3 seconds to give the audience and judges a moment to take in everything they’ve just seen. Freezes bring together the artist’s creativity, individualism, and self-expression in those few moments.
Once you learn the basics, that’s where your expression comes out. There’s a specific essence to the way we dance and express ourselves. You open your mind and get as creative as possible. Everyone has different styles, and for me, I focus on flow, speed, and originality. I practice as if I’m in a battle, just like MMA fighters or boxers do.
Breaking requires muscle strength, joint stability, and flexibility to contort the body into various shapes. A strong core is essential for executing power moves. What does it take to be the greatest? It takes dedication, a willingness to go above and beyond, and a love for what you’re doing. This helps you overcome hurdles, even when it’s challenging.
With breakdancing, you can show your creativity, making it easy for the audience to connect with you. I always say that you train like an athlete but have to flow and think like an artist. The creativity, self-expression, practice, dedication, and time are all amazing. You have to want to be the greatest and go for it.
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This version maintains the essence of the original content while removing any informal language and ensuring clarity.
Breakdancing – A style of street dance that involves acrobatic and athletic movements, often performed to hip-hop music. – During the talent show, Jake impressed everyone with his incredible breakdancing skills.
Dance – A series of movements and steps that are usually performed to music. – The students practiced their dance routine for the upcoming school play.
Creativity – The use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness. – The choreographer’s creativity was evident in the unique dance sequences she designed.
Strength – The quality or state of being physically strong, often necessary for performing demanding physical activities. – The gymnast’s strength allowed her to execute difficult moves on the balance beam.
Flexibility – The ability to bend easily without breaking, important for performing various physical activities and dances. – Yoga classes helped improve Maria’s flexibility, which enhanced her dance performances.
Expression – The process of conveying thoughts or feelings through movement, often seen in dance and theater. – The dancer’s expression conveyed the emotions of the story beautifully.
Competition – An event in which individuals or teams compete against each other, often to showcase their skills in sports or arts. – The dance team was excited to participate in the national competition next month.
Improvisation – The act of creating or performing something spontaneously without preparation. – During the workshop, students learned how to use improvisation to enhance their acting skills.
Performance – The act of presenting a form of entertainment, such as a play, concert, or dance, to an audience. – The school’s annual performance night featured a variety of acts, including singing and dancing.
Athletic – Physically strong, fit, and active, often related to sports and physical activities. – The athletic students excelled in both track events and dance routines.
