The Birth of Breaking: Hip-Hop History from the Floor Up (Book)
Title: The Birth of Breaking: Hip-Hop History from the Floor Up
Author: Serouj Aprahamian
Abstract: Breaking is the first and most widely practiced hip-hop dance in the world, with around one million participants in this dynamic, multifaceted artform – and, as of 2024, Olympic sport. Yet, despite its global reach and nearly 50-year history, stories of breaking's origins have largely neglected the African Americans who founded it. Dancer and scholar Serouj "Midus" Aprahamian offers, for the first time, a detailed look into the African American beginnings of breaking in the Bronx, New York. The Birth of Breaking challenges numerous myths and misconceptions that have permeated studies of hip-hop's evolution, considering the influence breaking has had on hip-hop culture. Including previously unseen archival material, interviews, and detailed depictions of the dance at its outset, this book brings to life this buried history, with a particular focus on the early development of the dance, the institutional settings where hip-hop was conceived, and the movement's impact on sociocultural conditions in New York City throughout the 1970s. By featuring the overlooked first-hand accounts of over 50 founding b-boys and b-girls alongside movement analysis informed by his embodied knowledge of the dance, Aprahamian reveals how indebted breaking is to African American culture, as well as the disturbing factors behind its historical erasure.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/birth-of-breaking-9781501394300/
Primary URL Description: Bloomsbury Academic website page for the book.
Access Model: Book for purchase
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9781501394300
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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