Breakdance first ever

The first ever breakdancer recorded on film/video. From the film 'Beggers of Life' 1928!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Boy
• Dance
• Dancing
• Breakdancing
• Breaker
• Hip
• hop
• dance
• history
• So
• you
• think
• can
• musical
• stage
• and
• screen
• choreography
• rocking
• head
• spin
• spinner
• drill
• gravity
• aerobics
• street
• dancer
• classic
• breaker
• old
• school
• bronx
• New
• York
• competition
• final
• world
• champion

[RebalWaltz]

Correction people: The film is 'Wild Boys on the Road', made in 1933, same director but the actor doing the head spin is: Frankie Darro.

(thanks for the heads up, Streamline09).

[Streamline09]

This wasn't 1928, and not the earliest example on film...but good to see anyway as part of a long historical record.

[RebalWaltz]

@Streamline09 Its from a film made in 1928.

The film is real, and you can check it on IMDb.com

[Streamline09]

@RebalWaltz The 1928 film by that title with Louise Brooks and Wallace Beery was a silent film, which this is not. Richard Arlen, who starred in the original, was born in 1900. The kid doing headspins in this clip is not a 28 year-old man. BTW, headspins were on film a generation before this (Edison). Still, it's fascinating to watch. The film you identified is actually "Wild Boys of the Road" (1933)--also by William Wellman. The "headspinner" is Frankie Darro. Thanks.

[RebalWaltz]

@Streamline09 Yes you're so right dude. I just re-watched Wellman's doco & it is "Wild Boys on the Road". Originally, I watched the doco, then tried to match the clip with the IMDb profile/plot summary of "Beggars of Life" which is very similar: "After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, & steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada".

[bboychamploo91]

1st ever recorded bboy???

More like first recorded headspin....

[RebalWaltz]

@bboychamploo91 true. Still its 1928, pretty impressive don't u think?

[valho9]

i wouldn't call this breaking. it has a MOVE from breaking, but it's not the dance itself. there's PLENTY of footage from dances that predate the creation of breaking & they all have influence on the dance we know as breaking (eg. tap dance, nicholas bros, mambo, jazz dance when it was really jazz dance done to jazz music, swing dance, lIndyhop), but to call this or any of those other influential dances "breaking" isn't accurate.

not to say that a kid doing a drill in 1928 isn't impressive

[mrohyoudidntknow]

@bboychamploo91 I swear man, if white people didn't document the holy CRAP out of those things that they came up with, our culture/identity would be lost forever. If we didn't somehow record, film, write, or get the law to acknowledge us through trademarks, we wouldn't have any culture left. That ain't bitching, that's just a fact.

[mrohyoudidntknow]

@bboychamploo91 and what the fuck you think they use in break dance dipshit? Can't believe I'm asking the "bboychamp." People just can't accept the fact that they are white. They can't accept that the things that they do, we did before. We just don't get any credit cause we don't splash around in the bitchtub like others do. Last time I checked, the headspin was THE move in break dance bboychump!

[randyslittle]

Why are people surprised by this? What acrobatics wheren't invented probably 2000 + years ago? Nothing is new just how it is combined is sometimes new.

[bboyStuntZ]

@Compui7 Uhhh yes it is.  Headspin is a powermove.

[MissCristinaOcampo]

@compui7 I agree it is not the real breakdance. It is impressive however, to see that our poster shared this. Thank you rebalwaltz for sharing this with us.

[nauris706]

that was no b boy

[Compui7]

This isn't real breakdance! It's a headspin that isn't actually a powermove, sorry! :P

[SirCrooner]

I don't see why the time period is so impressive. Could people in 1928 not do headspins or something?

[shevegen]

he was 16 years old in this movie

[taneclv]

Break Dance in da house! =D