The world needs to be reminded that beloved television personality, Mister Rogers once tried to learn how to breakdance, doing The Wave and The Moonwalk. He learns under the tutelage of 12 year old breaker, Jermaine Vaugh.
Mister Rogers: Well, show me how you do that.
Jermaine: Alright. Just move you body slowly like… like… that.
Mister Rogers: Move it slowly? … Like as if there’s a wave going the whole way through your body? And then make it come back.
The episode that features this clip originally aired in February 1985 during the show’s 15th season. H/T Cracked.com
Breaking originated in New York in the 1970s. The term originally referred to dancers performing to DJ Kool Herc’s breakbeats. Breaking’s popularity spread world wide in the 1980s. Mainstream media eventually called it breakdancing. Breakdancing is an umbrella term which incorrectly includes other dance styles such as popping and locking.
Capoeira, the Brazilian martial art which has a lot of similar foot work and movements as breaking, was introduced to New York and America in the 1970s. This has lead to theories that breaking was Capoeira inspired. But some of the early pioneers of breaking, such as Richard “Crazy Legs” Colon and Kenneth “Ken Swift” Gabbert only site James Brown and Kung-Fu films as inspirations for the dance style.
