Breakdancing or breaking, also called b-boying (when performed by men) or b-girling (women), is a style of street dance originated by African Americans and Puerto Ricans in the Bronx borough of New York City.

[1][2][3][4] Breakdancing consists mainly of four kinds of movement—toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes—and is typically set to songs containing drum breaks, especially in funk, soul, and hip-hop.

Freeze" Lemberger, hip-hop historian Fab 5 Freddy, and rappers Big Daddy Kane[17] and Tech N9ne[18] use the term b-boy.

"[3] For example, in 1942, ‘The Mills Brothers' short film The Caravan featured a dance sequence that bears a striking resemblance to modern breakdancing.

He then executed a backflip, dropped face down to the ground, and transitioned into spins, rotating his body horizontally with the support of his hands and feet.

In 1894, Thomas Edison filmed Walter Wilkins, Denny Toliver, and Joe Rastus dancing and performing a "breakdown".

[39] As a separate dance style, it never gained the same widespread popularity as breaking, except for some very specific moves adopted by breakers who use it as a variation for their toprock.

[39] Uprock is also stated to have roots in gangs, as an expressive medium used to settle turf disputes, with the winner deciding the location of a future battle.

Australian breakers started developing more creative and innovative styles, and "pushing international barriers", according to Kid Tek.

[45] The qualifying Australian entrants to the Olympics were b-girl Raygun (36-year-old university lecturer Rachael Gunn), and 16-year-old b-boy Jeff "J Attack" Dunne.

[46][47] Neither made it out of the round-robin stage, and Raygun was widely mocked online for her creative "kangaroo hop" moves, with a video clip of her performance going viral, as well as discussed in the press.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, films such as Breakin' (1984), Beat Street (1984), and the immigration of people from Chicago, New York, Detroit, Seattle, and Los Angeles introduced dance styles from the United States.

Breakdancing expanded in Canada from there, with crews like Canadian Floormasters taking over the 80's scene, and New Energy opening for James Brown in 1984 at the Paladium in Montreal.

Leading into the 90's, crews like Bag of Trix, Rakunz, Intrikit, Contents Under Pressure, Supernaturalz, Boogie Brats, and Red Power Squad, led the scene throughout the rest of the past two decades and counting.

In the 2024 Paris Olympics men's gold medal showdown, Canada's Philip "Phil Wizard" Kim swept 3 rounds against France's Danis "Danny Dan" Civil with judges voting 23–4.

Crazy-A, the leader of the Tokyo chapter of the Rock Steady Crew,[58] was dragged to see Flashdance by his then girlfriend and walked out captivated by the dance form and became one its earliest and one of the most influential breakers in Japanese history.

Following the introduction of international breakdancing competitions, Japan began to compete and were praised for their agility and precision, yet they were criticized in the beginning for lacking originality.

Taisuke began to dominate the international scene and led the Japanese team Floorriorz to win the BOTY in 2015 against crew Kienjuice from Belarus.

[59] Breakdancing was first introduced to South Korea by American soldiers shortly after its surge of popularity in the U.S. during the 1980s, but it was not until the late 1990s that the culture and dance took hold.

[61] A year later when he returned, Chon found that his video and others like his had been copied and dubbed numerous times, and were feeding an ever-growing breaker community.

In 2002, Korea's Expression Crew won the prestigious international breakdancing competition Battle of the Year, exposing the skill of the country's breakers to the rest of the world.

In 1985 the performance of Czech Jiří Korn was shown in the program "Morning Post", and became one of the first official demonstrations of breakdancing on Soviet television.

With the support of the Leninist Young Communist League in 1986 breakdance festivals were held in the cities of the Baltic republics (Tallinn, Palanga, Riga).

[64]Luis "Alien Ness" Martinez, the president of Mighty Zulu Kings, expressed a similar frustration in a separate interview three years earlier with "The Super B-Beat Show" about the top five things he hates in breakdancing: Oh yeah, the last thing I hate in breakin'… Yo, all y'all motherfuckin' internet b-boys...

These songs include "Give It Up or Turn It a Loose" by James Brown, "Apache" by the Incredible Bongo Band, and "The Mexican" by Babe Ruth to name a few.

[88] Critics argue that it is unfair to make a sweeping generalization about these inequalities because women have begun to play a larger role in the breakdancing scene.

[89][90] Some people have pointed to a lack of promotion as a barrier, as full-time b-girl Firefly stated in a BBC piece: "It's getting more popular.

From a production point of view the style is visually arresting, instantly recognizable, and adducible to fast-editing, while the ethos is multi ethnic, energetic, and edgy, but free from the gangster-laden overtones of much rap-culture imagery.

In 2005, a Volkswagen Golf GTi commercial featured a partly CGI version of Gene Kelly popping and breakdancing to a remix of "Singin' in the Rain" by Mint Royale.

Showdown, a breakdancing competition game show hosted by Jay Park, premiered in South Korea on March 18, 2022.