Breakdancing (also referred to as b-boying) has captured the hearts and imaginations of audiences worldwide, inspiring many movies that showcase its graceful moves.
Wild Style, released first, explores graffiti art, early hip-hop culture, and rival gangs in an interesting plotline. Beat Street followed shortly afterward with a more original narrative.
Wild Style (1980)
Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style was the pioneer hip-hop movie ever produced and features graffiti artists, break dancers, and MCs from New York in the early 1980s. Starring graffiti legend Lee Quinones as Zoro, this semi-documentary captures their encounters as they tag subway trains, host spontaneous break-dancing events in derelict warehouses, and display their works in downtown galleries – becoming an instantaneous hit with local youth culture and helping foster an evolution that has had far-reaching effects over three decades of change in society.
Ahearn’s Wild Style stands in stark contrast to many films from that era which presented hard-boiled gangster-pimp and pusher parables, instead becoming an affirmative paean to joy. The movie celebrates guerilla creativity that emerges from urban America’s slums; this DIY strategy and sense of optimism would later define much of their art and music when they burst forth from uptown murals, MTA train yards, galleries, and clubs on Lower East Side galleries and clubs.
With actors portraying all of the major artists at that time, this movie serves as an accurate time capsule for an era that had global effects beyond New York City streets – hip-hop and graffiti became global phenomena that found roots in Bronx neighborhoods like this one.
Wild Style remains a cult classic today, even though released by an independent studio and was not commercially successful. Even so, its legacy lives on through generations of young people taking up spray cans, turntables, and microphones in creative expression – rock bands like Beastie Boys and Cypress Hill taking inspiration from it, while Nas, De La Soul, and AZ all cite it as their source of creativity.
Jeffrey Deitch Gallery honored the anniversary of this influential movie with an exhibition that brought together key participants, redisplaying its original movie poster while also including works by some of its artists as well as archive photographs from this seminal work.
Breakin’ (1984)
Breakdance is a style of street dance characterized by acrobatic moves, power moves, footwork techniques, and other moves that incorporate acrobatic acrobatics, power moves, and footwork techniques. Additionally, its associated fashion styles often include baggy pants, sweat suits, baseball caps worn backward or sideways, and shoes (required due to risk). Breakdance has become an iconic symbol of youth culture; often seen featured in commercials and music videos due to its energy, improvisational nature, and urban aesthetic qualities.
Breakin’ (1984) was an instantaneous commercial success and helped establish breakdance as a genre. This film opened the way for future movies like Wild Style and Beat Street; both versions use the conventions of jukebox musicals to combine dance sequences with plot and characters; this method enabled filmmakers to connect with audiences who may not necessarily know much about hip-hop or breakdancing.
Breakin’ and its sequels may not be great films, but they do demonstrate something about fads. Turbo, the protagonist in Breakin’, spent most of the movie thinking girls were disgusting and saw them only as challenges to his dance floor dominance; yet by Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo he has fallen for one and sought advice from Ozone on romantic matters.
Production numbers such as those featuring dancers using their powers to bring back to life a dead man and heal disabled individuals are particularly embarrassing, yet still worth viewing as either important cultural documents of an influential moment in street culture, or unintentionally humorous camp comedies.
Since Breakin’, dance movies have seen exponential growth and expansion. Moviegoers can watch breakdancing featured prominently in films such as Zoolander from 2009 and Samurai Champloo from 2014; where b-boying serves as an imaginary fighting technique. Other examples of dance films are Style Wars from 1983 PBS documentaries, as well as the 2013 American 3D dance competition drama Battle of the Year; not only do these movies highlight break dancers’ talents, passions, and social and cultural issues associated with dancing but they also raise awareness regarding social and cultural issues related to dancing as a genre of film.
You Got Served (2004)
Dance scenes have always been an integral component of movies since their introduction. From timeless classics like Singin’ in the Rain to recent hits like Saturday Night Fever and Moulin Rouge, movie musicals require impressive footwork that keeps audiences on their feet.
Although You Got Served boasts exceptional dancing, its poor plot and acting are hard to overlook. Still, its end-of-film dance battles left lasting impressions among breakdance enthusiasts around the globe.
You Got Served is also notable as being the movie that kicked off a whole subgenre of dance movies called street dance films, such as Step Up, Stomp the Yard, and Kickin’ It Old Skool.
You Got Served was created with one goal in mind – to impress audiences with its dance numbers. Unfortunately, they achieved their aim while failing to deliver anything else of note. If you watch just for its dance numbers while disregarding its bad acting and silly storyline then You Got Served can still provide hours of enjoyable viewing!
Though not perfect, this movie deserves to make our list as it remains one of the most influential in its genre and should be watched by any lover of breakdancing.
Though not based on true events, this film provides an inspirational tale about a group of children striving to break into dance as professionals. A great film to watch and will encourage you to follow your dreams; its brilliant choreography will leave you wanting more!
This movie boasts some of the finest dancing in any movie on this list and should be seen by all. Not only is the music incredible; this film’s dancing will leave you wanting more. Ideal for any fan of dance music – its soundtrack should not be overlooked either!
Kickin’ It Old Skool (2007)
Harvey Glazer produced Kickin’ It Old Skool, a film about a young breakdancer who hits his head during a talent show in 1986 and wakes up resurrected in 2006. With help from a girl and his parents, he attempts to revive his career and dance team with help from Smurfs, Garbage Pail Kids, Sixteen Candles and Rubix Cubes references as well as references such as Smurfs (played by Jamie Kennedy), Micheal Rosenbaum (whom everyone remembers from Smallville), Vivica A. Fox among others – unfortunately only grossing about one-fifth of its budget at the box office.
So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew helped revive breakdancing as part of popular culture, with two dancing competition shows–So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Best Dance Crew–helping bring it back into mainstream consciousness. Furthermore, several films have been inspired by it–for example, the 2013 American 3D film Battle of the Year features dancers from around the world competing in an international breakdance contest; Neukolln Unlimited explores two brothers who use their breakdancing abilities as a means of livelihood; similarly, breakdance moves have also been included into martial arts films like 1983 PBS documentary Style Wars as well as 2009 Thai action film Raging Phoenix.
There have been a handful of video games featuring breakdancing as part of their gameplay, though these titles have not become extremely popular. Epyx produced Break Street for Commodore 64 during the peak of breakdancing’s popularity – this computer game involved performing complex dance moves without tiring out your character too quickly – this also served as inspiration for Dance Dance Revolution on Wii; more recently the Nintendo Wii version, Dance Dance Revolution features a character who specializes in breaking. Linden Dalecki published Hip Hop: The Art of a Nation (2006) which made history by featuring breakdancing as its central theme.
