FREE ESSAY ON THE UNDERGROUND DANCE MOVEMENT

THE UNDERGROUND DANCE MOVEMENT

In almost every culture throughout history, there has been dance. Prayer dances,
celebratory dances, social dances. In many cases, we can see the cultural progression
through the progression of dance. In the United States alone, we've seen the transitions
from the European-grown ballet to tap, then to modern dance. What is not so well
catalogued, however, is the underground progressive dance movement. Starting in the late
sixties, the so-called Underground or counter-culture has built its own species of dance.
Our subject today is the three most dominant styles of this new wave, popping, or the
Electric Boogie, hip hop/break dancing, also known as old school dance, and the
trance/house or new school dance. The television show "Soul Train" was really one of the
keys to the spread of these radical new styles. It was especially instrumental in
spreading the Electric Boogaloo, or Boogie.
The Electric Boogie developed in the mid-sixties by a family of black men living in
Fresno, California, through influences like James Brown and strangely enough, TV shows
like "Lost In Space." It was a mutant child of sorts, of what is called 'The Robot'
dance, Popping, and Miming. The Robot is a dance that our generation has grown up
recognizing, the angled body parts, sliding feet, and rigid motions all creating the
illusion of a human robot. Popping, however is an unfamiliar term to many of you. Popping
can be described as energy passed through the body, popping and snapping elbows, wrists,
necks, hips and just about all the body joints along the way. The final ingredient to the
mix, however, to control and smooth out the stop-and-go of a popping robot, was the
influence of mime. The miming is what gives the Electric Boogie its voice, by making it
possible to tell stories and create illusions with the body. This new dance was the
forerunner to break dancing, and indeed many of the so-called power moves in break
dancing incorporate some . . . electrical features.
Break dancing was also influenced by the great James Brown. The original model for
breaking was called "Good Foot" from Brown's record of the same name, and based on his
unique dancing style. At that point, it was just foot work, rather than the full body
moves we see today. Good Foot was the first freestyle dance that incorporated moves
involving drops and spins. Breaking today consists of extended footwork, spinning/power
moves, and strategically spaced freezes. There is controversy between b-boys and b-girls
(the "b" coming from the word break) over emphasis; some put emphasis on power moves and
their combination and the others show their style and individuality by footwork and
freeze. It is also called hip hop dancing because in the 1980's, when movies like
BeatStreet and Breaking became popular and when the style was really developing, the
preferred music used to dance was hip hop for its revolutionary experimentation with beat
mixing. It is called break dancing or breaking because the dancers move to the breaking
part of the beat. The traditional four-count measure was broken down into about four
different coinciding rhythms, giving the dancers more options for improvisation. However,
dancing to break-beats is not limited to break dancing, but is utilized throughout
progressive dance. The Electric Boogie uses it, as does the most common style of dance,
trance/house dance. 
House and Trance are two of the most popular genres of techno; these two are more closely
related to each other than any of the other genres, jungle, speed garage, or hardcore,
and the dancing styles are closely related as well. It has been noted by Ejoe Wilson, a
reknowned house dancer, that while in hip hop, you control your body to the beat, in
house dance, music controls your body. It is more free style than hip hop and its
emphasis on footwork. House clubs are unique of clubs because of the 'vibe' that they
carry. One of the most important aspects of house dancing is the style. Style is
everything when it comes to house dancing, because there are no set moves to master, no
steps to learn. It is club dancing, which is to say, anything that makes you feel good,
that gets you into a groove with the music is acceptable and welcome. House/trance
dancing is usually a gateway for those learning how to dance. Once they discover that
they can move their bodies in a way that satisfies the beat, they begin to experiment
with other more technical forms of dancing, like break dancing, and the Electric Boogie.

Something unique of these dance forms, I think, is that they are accessible. Whereas
ballerinas train most of their lives, almost anyone can do these dances. It takes time
and practice, but I've found, in myself as well as others, that its only a matter of
loosening your reins and letting your body take over for the length of a song. And that's
what dance is, no matter how we break it down by its characteristic steps and moves, its
the outward expression of those emotions within us that are unexpressable. For the kids
in the mid-sixties, the Electric Boogie was an expression of their need to do something,
to create something their own. What they didn't know is that they were creating an
entirely new culture, a counter-culture which would produce an answer - a tangible answer
- to the ballets of the elite, and through break dancing, popping and just plain house
dancing, many have found the expression of their own lives.