The Nigerian Mvies

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Sunday 9 September 2012

A Cursory Overview Of Electric Boogaloo Dancing

By Rashad Brown


The very best strategy to describe the movement of locking would be therefore: You know those little-figured toys which are like inside-out puppets on small plastic circular platforms or pedestals, and in the event you press the bottom of the platform the figure collapses real fast, then whenever you let your finger up it goes back into shape? Well that's what locking looks like. The body moves out of manage then back into control snapping into position, collapsing then snapping back.

By the Early '70s Don Campbell had put together a entire crew of lockers known as "The Lockers." One of the lockers was Shabadoo, the star of "Breaking," and Penguin, who was the chubby locker named "Rerun" on the Television show "What's Happening." The lockers of the early '70s wore platform shoes, loud striped socks, pegged pants that stopped in the knees, bright colorful satin shirts with big collars, huge colorful bow ties, gigantic Apple Boy hats, and white gloves.

At this time, Don Campbell and his crew of lockers had been discovered by renowned choreographer Toni Basil. Basil joined The Lockers, learnt and improved on their dance and successfully secured Tv appearances for them on shows for example "Saturday Night Live". They also appeared in Tv commercials for items such as Schlitz Malt Liquor Beer.

I don't forget seeing her and Don Campbell dance live at a nightclub called Crenshaw Flats in Los Angeles. I was blown away. She was truly far better than he was!

Also around the time "Soul Train" hit the air (1972) and it became an instant media hit by featuring street dancers, specifically The Lockers, of Los Angeles. The nightclub Crenshaw Flats the apartment on Crenshaw Boulevard in Los Angels was exactly where the "Soul Train" gang hung out.

At the time breaking was creating in New York, locking the The Robot were getting popular in southern California. Throughout 1972 and '73 in Fresno, California, a modest city halfway between Los Angeles and Dan Francisco, a black family of all boys had been inventing something new of their very own. They known as their dance the Electric Boogaloo. Pistol Pete (who also starred within the film "Breaking" and was involved with Toni Basil as well as the Lockers and "Soul Train" within the early days) and his brothers had designed The Electric Boogaloo by combining locking. The Robot, as well as the far more smooth and controlled movements of mime. Instead of throwing their bodies in and out of manage like locking, or in total hydraulic control like The Robot, they passed power through their bodies popping and snapping elbows, wrists, necks, hips and just about all the body joints along the way. Electric Boogaloo was a lot more like mime inside the sense that it pantomimed a live wire of electrical present, however it still required the control of The Robot to give it style.

The Electric Boogaloo became huge in San Francisco even ahead of it hit Los Angeles but when it did hit L.A., the Tv capital of the world, it was introduced by way of "Soul Train" as the new dance form and challenged the recognition of locking. The Electric Boogaloo (or Electric Boogie as it is called now) has because spread to New York as breaking later hit Los Angeles.

It's fascinating to see breaking and locking existing inside the very same sub-cultures. I feel it's partly due to the fact they complement each and every other as opposites. The Electric Boogie is in control and tends to imitate the movements of nature like a lightning bolt or a rippling river, whereas breaking is much more out of control and anti-nature or anti-gravitational like a flying saucer. An additional reason they're completed together with the same kids may also be that they're both competitive dances where dancers battle each other to decide who's best. "If my breaker cannot beat you, my boogie can." They live within the exact same competitive atmosphere.

These dances have grow to be a part of a cultural dance sub-culture and community. Though tougher than breakin' to judge, the Electric Boogie will most most likely also become a competitive dance form, with its own championships and awards.




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