Just a lil' info... Shuffle is NOT a part of breakin'. In fact, it has nothing to do with hip-hop at all. It was born (I believe) through the house scene, I think around the 80's, and is a very distinct style on its own. In Hip-hop there's a pure footwork style which to untrained eyes might look a bit like shuffle, and it's called the C-walk. However, C-walk focuses more on rhythm, and if you compare closely you can see the clear difference between the two.

Ok peeps, here's a little lesson after 2 years of reading, researching, dancing and teachin' the dance to enthusiasts.

First, if you want to learn hip-hop, you're gonna suffer. If you aint got the balls to suffer to get the dance right, then you'll only make a fool out of yourself. Those who dance out there put hours after hours of sweat and pain into perfecting their chosen style, and if you think it takes 3 hours to learn how to do mills, then either you're a genius like Einstein, or you're plain deluded.

Ok now let's start with the basics.

Get to know the culture first. Hip-hop aint something you see on the TV. It's a culture on its own, and accept the fact that we don't have a healthy hip hop scene in malaysia. Most of the people only know hip hop as those dances on MTV, but little do they know the whole culture of it. Hip hop culture have 4 distinct elements to it - MCing, DJing, breakin' and writin'.

MCing means rapping to some, but in general, it's about having the mic close to your mouth, and using words to show your skills and rouse the scene. This is where freestyle rap comes into play and how MC battle each other using that, with a guy beatboxing (making percussion noises using the mouth alone) to lay down the beats. This came from an era where there were no clubs, and people in the ghetto making music out of their palms and mouth when they are not rich enough to afford a real boombox. Please give some respect to that origin, and the long journey it had been through. It is an artform by itself. To me it's like magic.

DJing means playing music. Lots of skills here - scratching became a well known trademark of hip-hop DJs (the sound like chikak chikak chikak). They mix and match music, create beats and lay down the soul juice for MCs's and b-boys to do their work. This art is pure creativity. They found out that stopping a vinyl disc and reversing it made funny sounds, and linked these sounds into a magical ryhtmn to create what we know as scratching today. And that's only 1% of the whole art. Again to me, it's magic.

Writing means graffitti. The funky artwork you see on walls? Those are distict artworks made by people who dedicate their entire lives to create distinct and unique marks of their own. It is so distinct that oftentimes it is possible to tell who made that particular writing on that wall. I don't really have a lot of taste in writing, but to me it is still something I am awed by. Lots of respect for writers who have gone all the way to liven up this element.

Now comes to the dancing part. Boy, we've got a lot to talk about here. Firstly, you got 3 major dances. Breakin', Poppin' and Lockin'. Those are now called old-school hip hop.

Now don't think if you can dance, you can call yourself a b-boy. You aint a b-boy until you fought your first battle, in front of a real crowd. Until this day I still don't consider myself worthty of the name b-boy, even after battling two amateurs, and one in a club.

I can share my knowledge of these dances with you guys, if you guys want to learn. But bear in mind that none of the three styles (breakin', poppin' and lockin') are easy to learn. It takes more than a month of hard work to finally feel right and look right for just one single move (took me 3 months to get an arm wave look right, and 2 years of on and off training and dancing to look good doing poppin', and still I consider myself an amateur in poppin'), so it needs far more passion than the average hippie can manage.

Therefore I'm sayin, if you don't have that determination to learn the dance, then think twice about starting it. Most prolly, you'll only end up giving up when it gets too hard, or it takes too long to produce results. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying you can't learn the dance. I'm just saying, be prepared for the dissapointment, and hopefully you can survive pass the dissapointment phase to enter the breakout phase.

Good luck! All I need, is a place to dance. If you know a place where we can get a room with mirrors in it, for free (or a minimal fee), then let's all come have fun.

This post has been edited by soggie: Dec 30 2006, 03:45 AM

2 things you need to start b-boyin'.

1) Build up your endurance and rhytmn.
This includes doing moves such as six step, toprock and a freeze or two. Keep yourself fit - regular jogs and muscle training is a good way to prepare yourself for breakin'. Also, work on your stretches. Good flexibility means you spend less strength doing the moves.

2) Watch and learn
Go find videos of people breakin' and battling. When I started, there was no youtube. Now you have youtube, there's no excuse of not having a good online guide. Go watch how they do it, and keep on watching, imagining yourself as that person on the screen, and this self-projection will in turn motivate you and flare up your passion.

Or when all else fails, just imagine how easier it is to start a conversation with a chick in a club with a nice wave and glide.

Hey, I'm into popping more too. Not every b-boy has to break... there're lots of uber good poppers and lockers too, and sometimes they are more fun to watch than breakin'.

Screw the government. Breakin' is dancing, and if they wanna ban it, why not ban ballet and jazz too? Lots of schools teaching breakin'... don't see government officials cracking down on them yet.