I finally got around to watching the 1982 hip-hop classic movie "Wild Style" featuring a number of legends from the rap, graffiti, and b-boy worlds. If you call yourself a fan of hip-hop culture, you need to see this movie. Forget the terrible acting or the almost non-existent plot, it’s all about getting a flavor of what that era must have been like.
The main hip-hop dancers are the Rock Steady Crew, innovators and pioneers in breaking. Watching the dance shots, it’s interesting (at least to me) to observe what moves were performed back then, and what wasn’t. Moves I saw in the movie:
- The Robot
- Miming
- Headspins
- Backspins
- Swipes
- Locking
- Floating
Moves I didn’t see (that perhaps weren’t as common, or hadn’t been developed yet):
- The Windmill
- The Handglide
- Various freezes: shoulder, forearm, el-freeze, etc.
I also didn’t see what I assumed were very old skool moves like the coffee grinder, the worm and the bronco. Maybe that’s on the b-roll.