MHS fosters a wide variety of dance styles, from Bollywood fusion to the catchy, energetic moves of K-pop. Despite the vast selection of dance clubs and teams, only a select few participate in the improvisational street dance of breakdancing.
“I’m shocked because that was the one time to shine for me in high school,” former b-boy and ceramics teacher Jonathan Huang said. “Most school dances, I just go to just practice in the corner, and then wait until a cool song came out, and then I go out and do a little something.”
Breakdancing, also known as b-boying or breaking within the dance community, is one of five essential elements of hip-hop culture, Huang said. It comes from the late 70s to early 80s in the Bronx, where the pioneer of breaking, DJ Kool Herc, extended the instrumental part of a record, Huang said.
“He got another turntable and a mixer, and he would just extend, seamlessly, extend the beat portion,” Huang said. “So if you were dancing during that breakpoint, during the break of the song, you’re a b-boy, and that’s where the term came from.
Huang’s b-boy name was “Füthertz”, coming from the words “foot” and “hurt”, he said.
“I would get injured a lot,” Huang said. “So I thought I was so clever because it was like a play on words. I was like ‘speed’, but also I’m ‘hurt’.”
As an amateur breakdancer, senior Nithila Thirumoothy first learned the basics from her friend, senior Edward Wong, who taught her how to do a handstand, which then progressed to a baby freeze, Thirumoothy said.
“It is a lot of strength (and) it’s a lot of balance, but I feel like anybody could do it if they really tried,” Thirumoothy said. “It’s not so bad.”
Strength and knowing how to use your muscles in the right way is a large factor, Wong said. When he just started, it was hard to lift himself even though he had the muscle since he was untrained with it, Wong said.
“And it was hard to learn how to use muscles, because similarly to working out, if you could do 100 pounds on a lat pulldown, it doesn’t mean you could do a pull-up,” Wong said.
Besides physical differences, it is harder to get into the breakdancing scene for girls because of the sheer number of guys in the community, Thirumoothy said.
“I feel like it is such a male-dominated area already that it’s intimidating,” Thirumoothy said. “But having friends really helps because it makes it easier to break down that kind of mindset where it’s like, ‘Oh, I feel like I’m not going to fit in because there’s so many guys and I’m a girl.'”
However, the breaking community is very welcoming and encouraging for beginners, Huang said.
“Like in the skateboarding community, people don’t care if you’re not very good, because everybody who is good was once a beginner,” Huang said. “So it’s not, ‘Oh, you’re not very good, so I don’t respect you’. Everybody respects everybody, as long as you’re not in people’s way.”
Huang was always interested in hobbies that had high difficulty and required high skill, including breaking, he said. Before Google or YouTube, the only way to learn was from someone else or from VHS tapes of dance battles, he added.
“I would get bootleg copies of battles in the Bay Area, and I would just watch them over and over again and try,” Huang said. “They were terrible quality. Terrible. It’s dark and people are shoving the cameraman around and all that stuff, but I would just pour over these videos and then try and figure out, like, dude, how?
Formal b-boying battles are when dancers compete against each other based on a bracket, Huang said.
“I definitely competed in a bunch of battles, and I’ve competed against some really good people,” Huang said. “I remember one battle I went (in) the first round. I went against the guy who won it all. His name was Little Rock. He was a ‘Rock Steady Crew’ guy, and I got so smoked, but it was fun.”
Practicing and knowing the different movements of breaking is like understanding grammar and syntax, Huang said.
“Those are the underlying rules for your vocabulary.” Huang said. “That’s the beat right there. And then you can break the grammar and syntax too, right? You can, if you break it in an interesting way, in an unexpected way, that’s really fun.”
Pop culture and media inspired senior Mukil Kumar to start learning how to break with his friends, Kumar said.
“We really just doomscroll, and then we find something,” Kumar said. “And then we share it with another person. And then, ‘Hey, you wanna try this out?’ And then we’d spend some time dancing at this community center.”
The breakdancing scene in the Bay Area is large, but it is one of the smaller regions compared to LA or New York, Kumar said.
“I feel like, here it’s just people like us trying stuff out, just seeing where it goes,” Kumar said.
To those wanting to get into breaking, the best thing to do is try and keep in mind that it will take time to learn, Kumar said.
“You’re gonna feel like giving up, but it’s worth it,” Kumar said. “The adrenaline rush you get after finally learning a move after maybe spending three months is amazing.”
