Spinning Misconceptions :: Break Dancing Culture Essays

Spinning Misconceptions The music pounded loudly on the dance floor as people stood in a circle. Nodding my head to the beat, I stepped out and did a few dance steps before I went down to the ground. On my hands and legs, I began walking rounds to the beat, throwing in a little bit of flare to it all, as much flare as I could think of. A few moments into the step, I jumped onto my hands and twisted my legs in the air. Freeze! So far, the crowd seemed silent; they just casually watched me mess around as if I was making a fool of myself, for it looked so simple to them. After some more dance steps, I jumped onto my right forearm and split my legs in the air above my head. Freeze number two! The hard-to-please crowd gave little response. I find it very difficult to dance to a crowd who shows such little response: neither positive nor negative feedback. So I jumped into the move that they gave their attention to see. I did a windmill: I rolled around on the floor as I swung my legs around in the air. The crow d finally gave me cheers of satisfaction. From the few years I learned about the break-dancing culture, I discovered a drastic difference between the popular view of the dance and an actual break-dancer’s view. Most misperceive the dance to be a bag of fancy aerobic tricks; however, the dance is more than that, for it includes the profound creative expression that makes it a unique portion of the hip hop culture. The first response I notice from people when I say that I break-dance is the emphasis on spinning on the head or just plain old spinning around. Flares (a gymnastic move where the dancer swings his legs around with only arms as support), head-spins, and other flashy moves are the main thing people associate with break dancing. â€Å"What, break-dance? What, you can spin on your head?† is an extremely common response. When people watch any type of breaking, they anticipate the showy stuff. Most have a superficial view of the dance and lack the profound appreciation for the art and culture. I find that people unconsciously categorize the dance into two parts: moves they think they can do, and moves they wished they could do.