Foundation : B-boys, B-girls and Hip-Hop Culture in New York

From deep within the New York hip-hop scene, author and b-boy Joe Schloss takes participant/observer fieldwork to its extreme. The first serious study of b-boying, the pre-eminent form of hip-hop dance commonly known as "breakdancing," Foundation: B-boys, B-girls, and Hip-Hop Culture in New York holds to its name, presenting a truly foundational study of the core concepts in the history, practice, and pedagogy of the dance form. The book delivers a powerful new paradigm for the study of hip-hop culture and of popular culture more broadly, and promises to become a seminal text in hip-hop scholarship and dance theory.

B-boying is a form of Afro-diasporic competitive dance that developed in the Bronx, NY in the early 1970s. Widely - though incorrectly - known as "breakdancing," it is often dismissed as a form of urban acrobatics set to music. In reality, however, b-boying is a deeply traditional and profoundly expressive art form that has been passed down from teacher to student for almost four decades. Foundation: B-boys, B-girls and Hip-Hop Culture in New York offers the first serious study of b-boying as both unique dance form and a manifestation of the most fundamental principles of hip-hop culture. Drawing on anthropological and historical research, interviews and personal experience as a student of the dance, Joseph Schloss presents a nuanced picture of b-boying and its social context. From the dance''s distinctive musical repertoire and traditional educational approaches to its complex stylistic principles and secret battle strategies, Foundation illuminates a previously unexamined thread in the complex tapestry that is contemporary hip-hop.