The Birth of Breaking: Hip-Hop History from the Floor Up

by Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian, Toyin Falola (Editor), Abimbola Adelakun (Editor)

Overview

The untold story of how breaking – one of the most widely practiced dance forms in the world today – began as a distinctly African American expression in the Bronx, New York, during the 1970s.

Breaking is the first and most widely practiced hip-hop dance in the world, with around one million participants in this dynamic, multifaceted artform – and, as of 2024, Olympic sport. Yet, despite its global reach and nearly 50-year history, stories of breaking's origins have largely neglected the African Americans who founded it. Dancer and scholar Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian offers, for the first time, a detailed look into the African American beginnings of breaking in the Bronx, New York.

The Birth of Breaking challenges numerous myths and misconceptions that have permeated studies of hip-hop's evolution, considering the influence breaking has had on hip-hop culture. Including previously unseen archival material, interviews, and detailed depictions of the dance at its outset, this book brings to life this buried history, with a particular focus on the early development of the dance, the institutional settings where hip-hop was conceived, and the movement's impact on sociocultural conditions in New York City throughout the 1970s.

By featuring the overlooked first-hand accounts of over 50 founding b-boys and b-girls alongside movement analysis informed by his embodied knowledge of the dance, Aprahamian reveals how indebted breaking is to African American culture, as well as the disturbing factors behind its historical erasure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501394300
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/27/2023
Series:	Black Literary and Cultural Expressions
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.95(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian is Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA. He has been active in the breaking world since 1997, under the name Midus, gaining notoriety internationally for his unique, abstract style. His scholarly writings have appeared in the Journal of Black Studies, Dance Research Journal, Oxford African American Studies Center, and The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies.

Toyin Falola is Professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He is an Extraordinary Professor of Political Science, University of Pretoria. He has received over 30 lifetime career awards and 24 honorary doctorates.

Abimbola Adelakun is Assistant Professor in the Department of African/African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. She is co-editor, with Toyin Falola, of Art, Creativity, and Politics in Africa and the Diaspora (2018). She is also the author of Under the Brown Rusted Roofs (2008) and writes a weekly column for PUNCH Newspapers.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

1. Detecting Breaking's Beginnings
2. Going Off in the Bronx
3. Keeping the Movement Moving
4. Make Way for the B-Boys
5. Mothers of the Movement
6. Breaking's Latino Adoption
Epilogue: Back to the Beginning

Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

Aprahamian couples his critique of anointing a select few with the power to define the boundaries of validity with a call to action. He makes a compelling case for all of us-scholars, practitioners, educators, journalists-to check our technique. The Birth of Breaking: Hip-Hop History from the Floor Up is a crucial addition to the Hip-Hop Studies canon.” —Dance Chronicle

“The Birth of Breaking is the most complete and in-depth study of the origins of hip-hop to date. Midus's research is unmatched and he sets the bar high for all future scholarship. Praise True.” —Pete Nice, Co-Curator, Universal Hip Hop Museum

“The Birth of Breaking offers an insightful and vitally important account of hip-hop history, presenting it in a way that properly acknowledges the crucial contributions of African-Americans and their cultural traditions, highlights the central role of women, and underlines the importance of breaking in hip-hop's development. This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in or involved in hip-hop culture.” —Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, 2020 and 2021 Top Ranked b-girl by the Australian Breaking Association, and Lecturer in Media and Creative Industries, Macquarie University, Australia

“A tour de force study of the African American wellsprings of breaking, written with academic rigor and empathetic care. With outstanding complexity, Serouj Midus Aprahamian explains how race and class have shaped hip-hop dance histories. Exploring unpublished archives and conducting new interviews with hip-hop legends from the 1970s, The Birth of Breaking demonstrates how dance has been central to understanding hip-hop's powerful global influence.” —Thomas F, DeFrantz, Professor of Performance Studies, Northwestern University, USA

“As a b-boy and scholar, Dr. Aprahamian could not be better positioned to author this groundbreaking historical study that sets the record straight on the genesis of breaking culture. A combination of archival research, practitioner interviews, and embodied knowledge, The Birth of Breaking details how innovations in this Black vernacular dance influenced the advent of hip-hop music, dispels myths that link the dance to Black criminality, and recognizes the contribution of women to this vibrant dance culture.” —Sherril Dodds, Professor of Dance, Temple University, USA

From the Publisher