How to dance electronic

The most important attribute of street dancers is, of course, sneakers. In 1984, Chinese-made models were on sale, mostly black and brown. But dancing needs bright colors, so many people dyed sneakers themselves, by analogy with jeans.

1985

Breakdance on the Arbat and settlement of culture houses

In 1985, breaking ceased to be a dance of privileged youth and moved from apartments to gyms and dance floors. At the same time, the first professional dance groups appeared. The famous saxophonist and jazzman Alexei Kozlov created Break-Arsenal, a dance group based on the Arsenal musical group. Break Arsenal introduced the style to the public and gradually popularized it.

In addition to the Break Arsenal, the important bands of that time include the Magic Circle, Mercury, Mirror and Vector.

Soviet children who read the Strugatsky brothers and Kir Bulychev were very attracted by the aesthetics of Afrofuturism. The influence of the school of mimes, which at that time was very popular, also had an effect. The audience was fascinated by the strange futuristic movements of the dancers: they moved like robots, making waves and lunar paths. Some tried to imitate them and looked for an opportunity to learn how to dance the same way.

Learning to breakdance and practicing moves requires a lot of space and mirrors. Dancers gradually settled in palaces and houses of culture. For the first time, breaking courses were organized in the Pravda Moscow Palace of Culture, they were led by circus director Valentin Gneushev. The Pravda school, named after the Palace of Culture where it was located, became one of the most developed: in the future, its students represented Russia at the All-Union Championships and showed break dance in the cinema.

The first break parties where dancers shared new moves were at the dairy cafe. The dairy cafe served food and drinks made from dairy products, such as milkshakes and ice cream. "At the Fountain" (it was simply called "Milk"). It was the first permanent youth cafe in the capital.

“Moloko was a place for a really fashionable pastime, where a wide range of young people gathered: from iron-farmers to variety performers. Makarevich sat there from time to time. Sergei Penkin, Volodya Presnyakov gave some of their first concerts there. Even one of the New Year's lights was filmed there. The place was fashionable, and there we saw the performance of Volodya Ratskevich's Vector group for the first time. That performance made an indelible impression. Thoughts “I want that too” were not only mine. From that day on, our studio members began to break their bodies for a break "  Fragment from an interview with Mila Maksimova.
M. Buster. Hooligans-80. M., 2009..

Also, in 1985, breaking hit the streets. This was facilitated by the opening of the first pedestrian street, the so-called "showcase of perestroika" - Arbat. It was immediately occupied by street musicians, circus performers and break dancers. On the Arbat, a unique Russian style, "upper breakdance", also developed. The reason for its appearance is an incorrect interpretation of Western terms. What we called the top break, in fact, were styles electric boogie   Electric boogie is a style that combines smoothness in movement and illusory forms (imitation of waves, robot movements), inspired by the aesthetics of Afrofuturism and the musical environment of New York (funk, electrofunk and other genres). and locking   Locking is a social dance with characteristic bright images and the author's style of The Lockers, performed to funk music. Dance movements are interrupted by stops in certain positions, after which the dancer continues to move at his own pace. Russian dancers reasoned something like this: if you spin on the floor, you perform footwork elements0161 footwork - “foot movements”., you dance the lower break dance, as soon as you rise up, blow waves through your hands, imitate a robot or pharaoh Tutankhamen ( king-tut , or tutting ), this is already the upper break -dance. We can say that the term "upper breakdancing" appeared for the convenience of classifying and separating styles.

At first, upper and lower breakdancing were closely related to each other. Often, performers of the lower style inserted elements of the upper style into their dance. But as it developed, everything became more complicated: people appeared who were exclusively interested in the upper or lower style. There was a gradual division into the so-called "top" and "bottom". Top breakdance existed in Russia until the 2000s. Its longevity is due to the fact that the first generation of Russian dancers (“old schoolers”) did not want to be retrained and lose their status:

“The fact is that our country was closed until 91-92, information did not flow into Russia and did not flow out at all. Therefore, what has come down to us in 86-87 years - dancers began to grow on that, and their homegrown popping, locking grew - their homegrown tops. <...> When they became interested in what exists in the world, when the curtain opened in front of the West, they saw that everything had changed there so that they had to start learning from scratch if they wanted to dance the same way. But we did not have these sources, bases, roots - we did not know where the tree grew from. So we decided to build a house without a foundation. And a house without a foundation collapses from the first wind. You need a deep foundation: the deeper it is, the more and better bases you can build on it. And I didn’t want to strain with the foundation - to start from scratch, because it’s a matter of status: they are old-schoolers and everyone respects them. And in order not to lose prestige in the eyes of the students, they did not recognize Western trends. As a result, they remained there, in that century, in that millennium”  “I come to Russia to enlighten” // iDance.ru. April 4, 2007..

Now the “upper break” phenomenon is understood differently:

“This desire to learn to dance from scratch is precisely the property of young people in the periphery states. The guys want to learn how to do something like in the center (in our case, in the USA), to make the “correct” and “approved” version of art. And older guys understand that their art is their skill, they are not ready to give up their views on the movement. And many of these views already at the end of the 10s again aroused genuine interest - the same Savenkov is now very relevant.
What happened in the mid-2000s - passionate youth appeared (like me, Lesha Bugi and Andrey Slide), who could not appreciate the originality of our Soviet school (in my case, in the pursuit of Western "approval", I could not appreciate our culture, unfortunately , it comes with years).
The old schoolers were that foundation. In Europe, which was not a country of the periphery in terms of culture, the "cassette" old school players completely survived and developed their styles, integrated into modern funk culture. Guys like Nils (b-boy Storm) and Steen (Steen) perform in theaters and do top choreography and no one says that it is “wrong” ”  Fragment from an interview with Matvey Lebedev (Matt Fownk). Recorded by Olga Krupnik. April 2022..

1986

Video clips, battles and the Courier movie

In December 1986 Karen Shakhnazarov's film The Courier was released. He revealed the topic of generational conflict, and also tried to formulate new ideals and principles of young people in the era of perestroika. "Courier" became one of the leaders of the box office in 1987, and later the best film according to the results of a poll by the Soviet Screen magazine. It was a legendary picture for the Russian breakdance community. In the final scene of The Courier, street dancers show their skills on the courtyard. The song "Rockit" by B.T. & The City Slickers sounds: an arrangement of the canonical track by American composer and pianist Herbie Hancock.

Students of the Pravda dance school and other famous dancers, for example, Oleg Smolin and Konstantin Mikhailov from the Mercury group, starred in the film. Then "Mercury" appeared in the films "You Don't Mess With Robots" (1987) from the series of Soviet television plays "This Fantastic World", and later in the musical "The Rattlesnake Dozen" (1988) - in which tap dancers compete with break dance dancers. breakdancing can be found in the films "Publication" (1988) and “My name is Arlekino” (1988) — Moscow dancers appear in their episodes. A year before, the clips of Alla Pugacheva, as well as the Kino group, were released. At the same time, the future pop star Vladimir Presnyakov Jr. released a video for the song "Red Cat", in which he demonstrated the technique of breakdance. The video was shown in the popular program "Morning Mail" on the First Program of Central Television. Another iconic video clip is the work of Alexander Kalyanov "Karabas-Barabas".

Movies and videos popularized breaking and made it part of popular culture: the audience interested in breakdancing has grown rapidly. Such excitement could not go unnoticed, and breaking received state support. The Ministry of Youth Affairs saw street dance as one of the ways to heal the nation.

there is a regular music festival in the country. 26 April 1986 years in the city of Vinni (Estonian SSR) the first all-Union breaking festival called Modern Tants was held. And in the autumn of the same year, the all-Union final was held in Tallinn, which brought together the best Russian break dancers:

“In 1986, an all-Union break dance competition was held in Tallinn. This was done by local Komsomol members, who were well prepared. We rented the entire Sport Hotel and settled it with delegates from Minsk, Kyiv, Riga, St. Petersburg, Kharkov, and, of course, Muscovites. There were 100 participants alone. At the same time, everyone went with support groups, pretended and noisy. When all this crowd gathered in the hotel, the attendants went crazy. Loud music played around the clock. In all the corridors, the participants were rehearsing and fans were wandering around; there was a feeling of complete happiness. By the way, there were no drunks, which, you see, is not typical for a subculture ”  A fragment from an interview with Mila Maximova.
M. Buster. Hooligans-80. M., 2009..

Most of the break festivals were held in the battle format. Battle is the main communication tool for street dancers. It is a dance opposite each other, while the performers are surrounded by people. In fact, the battle is a continuation of the folklore tradition, the transfer of rural dance practices to the city. The dancers take turns doing their exits, demonstrating their technique and telling their story. Dance itself is a means of communication. Accordingly, a battle is a conversation between two dancers, an exchange of dance information.

As in a good conversation, a whole new dance idea, movement or concept can be born at a battle. An important role is also played by the skill of improvisation, that is, the creation of new movements without preparation. Street performers understand dance as a job that requires many hours of training to achieve results: this brings breakdancing closer to academic dance.

Later, battles became a part of professional activity for dancers. By participating in them, they remain visible and continue to function in the community as educators or judges. Despite the fact that breakdance battles can look quite aggressive, the participants consider them primarily a cultural exchange. Some demonstration battles are called that - exchange (from English - "exchange").

1987

Lubera, breakers and informal culture

By 1987, breakdance had gained an all-Union scale. Festivals were held not only in the Baltic States, but also in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The competitions lasted for several days and were broadcast on local television. In parallel with the dawn of the breaking culture, informal associations also developed: rockers, hippies, punks, metalheads, as well as luberas (or lubers) - aggressive young guys from the city of Lyubertsy near Moscow. They actively promoted a healthy lifestyle and were at enmity with fashionable informals. Luber was mostly not touched by breakers because of respect and love for the sport. However, it went to those who looked too fashionable or "ironed"  That is, they were a farce. items:

“At the same time, of course, groups of Lubers cruised around the city and often watched the breakers, but did not particularly touch them. Apparently, related sports styling and a dismissive attitude on the part of radical informals, with whom they began a real war, had an effect. Back in 86, I met a guy who lived on Zhdani, who at first gravitated towards the break, and then, already in 88, I met him, but already in a bull suit and with other interests in his head. He then indicated to me that we do not touch the breakers, but only drive the majors, irons and radicals. At the same time, the breakers themselves, willy-nilly, were forced to do ironing in order to “keep the style” and “be in the know” ”  Fragment from an interview with Ilya Pincher.
M. Buster. Hooligans-80. M., 2009..

In 1987, a film by Latvian director Juris Podnieks “Is It Easy to Be Young?” was released. The film told about the Soviet youth of the early 1980s: their desires, dreams and difficult relationships with their parents. In a sense, he formulated the meaning of informal associations for young people of this era.

1988

Triumph of Russian rock

In 1988, Sergei Solovyov's film "Assa" was released. He immediately approved the unconditional triumph of Russian rock. A vinyl record with songs from "Assy" became one of the first official publications of Russian rock music. The soundtrack included compositions by Boris Grebenshchikov and the Aquarium group, the Bravo group with Zhanna Aguzarova and the Kino group:

“Sergey Solovyov broke me even more, who almost invited me to the main role in his Assu. Few people know that at first he wanted to mix the artistic part of the film with breakdance. We went to Mosfilm, even did screen tests. But then Solovyov went to St. Petersburg, and they convinced him there that break dance was already going down, and the new wave was rock music. Then he decided to bet on rock, chose Africa for the main role according to my type, and transferred the musical part to Kino, Aquarium and other St. Petersburg groups. While the film matured, this wave really came up. ” The history of Russian breakdance // School of breakdance "Volnorez". 2013..

The breaking wave was indeed gradually fading away. Many dancers were taken to the army, the rest started families. The Pravda Palace of Culture was closed, and smart children's groups began to dance break dance. So the style faded away.

But the most enthusiastic b-boys B-boy/b-girl (eng. b-boy / b-girl) - a person who dances break dance. continued to perform on the Arbat and delve into the history of style. They began to understand breakdancing as part of the hip-hop culture, which includes not only dance, and discovered rap for themselves:

“Back in 1988, everyone knew that there was not only break, but also rap, so attempts to read were made repeatedly. Timur Mammadov, I remember, on the Arbat, on April 1, when people were dancing on the stage and for some reason the tape recorder did not work, he composed on the go and read this to the clapping rhythm ... Like: “So, friends! As you can see, we are breakers from the city of Moscow. I won’t surprise you with this, I’m starting to rap…“”  Fragment from an interview with Ilya Pincher.
M. Buster. Hooligans-80. M., 2009.

1989 and early 1990s

From breakdance to rap

In 1989, the first rap groups appeared. The dance group "Mercury" has transformed into a rap group DMJ, consisting of two soloists and three dancers. The hip-hop duo "Black and White" took on break dancers from the "Stop" team.

1989 - the year of the founding of the Bad Balance team: it was formed from the White Gloves break dance group. At 19In 1990, the well-known musician and singer Mikhey joined her. Later they became legends of the local hip-hop culture. The team members not only wrote music and rapped, but also danced break dance. And in 1991, the group "Bachelor Party" appeared, consisting, in fact, of Arbat street dancers.

Further development of breaking took place already within the hip-hop culture. Strong horizontal links have developed between dance, music and art (graffiti). People moved from one type of creativity to another, spent time together and organized events.

The first wave of breakdancing was marked by protest and street action, which was later compensated by sports (numerous championships) and cultural (joint hangouts and events) projects. However, the subculture is inextricably linked with the protest: it gives energy for development and social unification, which is difficult to replace with something.

“I started in the late 90s, and for us it was also a protest. We protested against the attempts of schools, sports clubs and parents to turn young people into a gray mass, who had to dress so as not to stand out, not to listen to loud music and so on. It was a protest against something different than in the 80s, but it was one hundred percent"   Fragment from an interview with Jan Nemalovsky. Recorded by Olga Krupnik. 2022..

In the future, breaking has become more professional in terms of technique, and intercultural exchange has become stronger.

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