Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with breakdancing

Better Breakdancing: How can I decrease my downtime from strenous practice sessions?

ManyNinjas — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:38:20 -0800

Better Breakdancing: How can I decrease my downtime from strenous practice sessions? I'd like to double the amount I train without risking injury or constant soreness. I've been breakdancing for almost 3 years, and my problem is that I've never been able to practice more than 2 times a week without leaving my body feeling wrecked. I'd like to be able to train 4 times a week and be able to practice with my body feeling as close to 100% as it can.

I stretch for 20 minutes before I start practicing, and I also cool down with about 10-15 minutes of stretching. I've also taken up yoga to help with my flexibility. I still feel like I need to rest 2-3 days between breakdance practices.

Training puts a lot of stress on my shoulders, knees, wrists and calves. I would consider weight training, but doing that before practice leaves me with no strength to dance, and doing it after I leaves me sore for 2-3 days anyways. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. So what are the best ways I can keep my body from feeling sore, pulling muscles or getting injured, and maintain peak performance?

Name this weird dance

crazylegs — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:47:10 -0800

What's the name of this kind of dancing? There's a certain kind of dancing, I guess it's considered break dancing but I'm not sure. I'm looking for videos of it online but don't know what to call it. It's hard to explain; basically the dancer moves parts of his/her body while isolating other parts so it looks like the parts are kind of melting into each other. I don't know how else to explain it. Anybody familiar with this? Anybody know what it's called?

Name that music video..

phaedon — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:54:17 -0800

Name that music video. A while back I remember coming across a music video for an electronic song that looked like it may have been shot in Japan and involved a lot of really cool popping and locking. I don't know anything about how the video was made, but it did have a very rich cinematic look to it and may have used CGI to create this dancing effect.

These are the only scenes I remember:

Scene 1: Two mall cops sitting behind a desk, drinking coffee, one gets us and starts breakdancing, then the other ones joins in as well.

Scene 2: Cop walks into a brightly lit minimart and has a bboy showdown with the kid working behind the counter.

Style is very similar to David Elsewhere in this Heineken commercial.

Teach me to breakdance!

Zeker — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:30:50 -0800

BBOYZ! Teach me how to dance, specifically popping, locking, and breakdancing. Any tips you can give will be appreciated. I want to learn to breakdance. Any websites or video tutorials or advice will be readily accepted. Anything from moves (air flairs, glides, windmills) to technique on popping and locking, to ideal shoes, to diet and exercise to turn me into a b-boy. Anything that helped you get better and simplified the learning curve, let me know.

About me: I listen to quite a bit of freestyle music, and I find it ideal to break with. Specifically, anything you can find in this CD collection.

I'm a little overweight (like 10 lbs or so) and know very little basics. I'm just perfecting my arm waves and glides haha.

I live in the middle of nowhere, so there is no place that offers breakdancing classes, or even dance classes in general. I'm open to learning a wide variety of dances, but breakdancing is what caught my interest.

Thanks in advance!

Can you identify this New York subway station?

dhammond — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:25:04 -0800

I'm flying to New York tomorrow to tape an appearance on The Maury Show and I need your help. Thankfully, it's not for a paternity test. I am appearing on a segment about the crazy online videos and I need a little background info on one of the clips we're using. Do any of you New Yorkers know at which subway station this video of a breakdancer kicking a baby in the head was shot?

I thank you, hive mind. And daytime television thanks you as well.

Where can I find a bboy workout?

misled — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:51:47 -0800

The B-Boy workout: How are B-Boys able to build such strength in proportion to their own bodyweight? Traditional bodybuilding should be able to help, but are there certain exercises that allow for people to control and distort their bodyweight in the way B-Boys do? I apologize if the title doesn’t make much sense, but I do not know how else to title the question.

I am fascinated with the way B-Boys are able to control their bodyweight in different ways. If you would like to know what I am talking about, here are two videos:

Video 1
Video 2

What kind of exercises do they do? Is there a workout program out there that helps grow their skills more or is it purely the dance that does it?

Where are all the breakdancers?

Brian James — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:33:29 -0800

Where do all the breakdancing/bboying enthusiasts go in NYC? I'm talking about this kind of thing. (Google Video link) I figure there has to be a scene for this in NYC. Where do they all go? What clubs are associated with this? (I'm just interested in watching, not dancing myself--I'd break my neck if I tried that stuff).

What are the best songs for breakdancing?

jeremias — Fri, 13 May 2005 09:43:19 -0800

I'm looking for the best songs ever recorded for breakdancing. Old Skool especially (I.e. "Beat Box" by Art of Noise or "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock)