B-Boying To Express Yourself: Here’s What Dance Enthusiasts In India Have To Say About This Thrilling Form

By Tarushi Varma:

We all have heard of the flirtatious salsa, silky contemporary and the naughty tango; all well known dance forms of our time, each with its own history, origin and language. But there is another brilliant dance style which has become very popular with the audience of our nation. This dance form thrills us, enchants us, and slowly blows our mind away!

And here ladies and gentlemen, I speak of B-Boying. It is considered to be the hottest new trend by some in our nation. B-Boying has many names, some call it popping, some call it break dance and some call it the art of stunts. But very few of us know the details, so here’s a breakdown of all one needs to know.

B-Boying, also popularly known as breakdance is actually one of the four elements of Hip Hop. It gets its name from the fact that it is a dance that combines movement with breaks in music. It is believed to be a style of battle for marking one’s territory without any violence. B-Boying has its own intricate terminology and jargon like any other dance form. A very popular feature of it is “Freezes”, relating to a break in a smooth movement to match the rhythm or beats of the music. B-Boying has upper body movements sometimes referred to as ‘Top rock’, and a well defined footwork. Some of the popular moves from Break dancing are Headspin, Flare, Backspin, and Floorlock among others.

When asked about B-Boying, Pallavi a student at Shiamak Davar’s Institute of Performing Arts, who is also a part of the Shiamak’s Special Potential Batch said, “B-Boying helps us to express our inner feelings of aggression in form of dancing, it is a special way of battle where you can express yourself through something as pure as dance.”

The widespread recognition of B-Boying among different dance circuits in our country is evident by the display of moves in Bollywood movies and performances aired on the television in the trendy dance reality shows such as Jhalak Dikhla Ja and Dance India Dance. Hence, it is safe to say that B-Boying has been the ‘new cool’ in the recent past.

But there are some who now sense a change in the trend, like Prabhu a Probationer at Danceworx Performing Arts Academy states, “B-Boying is a very popular form of Hip Hop, where new styles such as Crumping and Popping are also performed. But it is not as popular as it was 3 or 4 years ago, now there is a shift towards Urban Hip Hop and Lyrical Jazz.”

Even with a change in the trends, B-Boying still remains a very popular and highly praised style of dancing with the remarkable stunts and freezes. Proof of that can be easily found in the Delhi University dance circuit where according to a student, Abhilasha (ex-president Zeal dance society, Maitreyi College) “B-Boying still remains the most preferred way of battle between teams where they get to show off their skills and strength. The praise and popularity for B-Boying is still at an all time high throughout the fest season.”

Thus, B-Boying has risen tremendously in popularity in India over the past decade, even though there might be an indication of a shift in the trend, B-Boying will never go out fashion. And how can it? All the hot swagger and style never fails to captivate the audience.