The Hidden Realms of the Boogaloo

Ahhh…. That sweet sweet boogaloo. It’s like the epitome of funk. When I see boogaloo done to classic funk music, it makes me think that the music was made just so that people could dance like that. The rolls, the groove, the attitude, that’s what boogaloo is. But let’s dive in a little deeper.

All right… What *IS* it?

As I said, to me, boogaloo is a combination of rolls, groove, and attitude.

Hey guys, I’m Otis Funkmeyer, the professor of popping! I write an article about popping here at WCP every Sunday. I have lots of lessons, articles, DVDs, downloads, and music at my website www.funkmeyers.com!

The Rolls

The rolls are the technique of boogaloo. You can roll your neck, chest, hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, and wrists. If there’s anything else you can roll, I don’t know about it!

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those rolls and you mix and match them. The most famous roll, the “full boogaloo roll,” starts by rolling the neck, and then moves down the body in a spiral from the chest to the hips to the knees. But you could also start at your knees and go straight to your neck. See, that’s the attitude of boogaloo.

Freeform and funky.

Boogaloo is all about taking these basic rolls and mixing them up, putting different rhythms on them, and doing them at different speeds and with different feels. You might start off with an aggressive hip roll, and then follow that with a slow and funky neck roll. Basically you just allow the music to tell you what to do.

That Groove

And that’s where the groove comes in. All funk music, all popping music, has a groove. The groove is what makes you start shaking your hips and swaying side to side. Different music has different grooves and the popping groove is about the funk. Tongue sticking out, a big smirk on your face, getting ready to rip it.

Where did Boogaloo Come From?

There’s a lot of debate to this question, as boogaloo evolved out of several different dance styles. I’m not going to take sides in this issue, as I think it’s more important as to where it came from, rather than who gets the credit for making it.

The Influences

The major influences on boogaloo were, in no particular order: locking, social dances likes the jerk and the twist, mime and the robot, strutting, and the military.

Locking: The dance style locking was the most popular dance style at the time. It was done to James Brown style funk and it was all about having fun and being funky. This feeling was incorporated into boogaloo.

Social Dances: The social dances at the time, everything from Chubby Checkers’ Twist to the Jerk and the Pony helped give some of the movement to boogaloo, like the hip sway from the Twist and the jerking effect (pop) of the Jerk.

Mime and the Robot: The mimes had invaded American in the late sixties after Marcel Marceau came from Paris and many of them started street performing around the country doing the wall mime and the robot. This influence had already come into locking and was embedded even more deeply into popping.

Strutting: Strutting is the precursor to popping that comes from San Francisco. It is a very militaristic dance with a lot of tight formations–it’s almost always done in group routines. The quick, fast movements of strutting were also incorporated into boogaloo in moves like the walkout and the twist-o-flex.

The Military: Strutting came out of the military, as many of the original strutters had just returned from service in the Army during the Viet Nam War. They took the tight military formations and incorporated them into their dance. Moves like the neck-o-flex are very similar to the military about-face movement.

All of these influences were kind of thrown in a giant pot and added to the rolls. The rolls were the glue that tied all of these disparate influences together and made them a complete dance style.

Why did Boogaloo Come into Existance?

The most interesting part of the boogaloo story to me is the REASON that it came into existence, which is the fact that music changed!

See, in the early 70’s, right before the Boogaloo era, new instruments started coming on the market. Namely, electronic drum machines and electronic synthesizers. These instruments made sounds that were totally different from the classic funk instruments like the trumpet, the guitar, and the keyboard. The sounds were more, DIGITAL. They were more robotic. They were less fun and more the kind that made you want to squirm up your face and POP.

By the mid-70’s, musicians from bands like Parliament Funkadelic, Cameo, and One Way started using these new instruments in their music. Locking was still the most popular dance style at the time, but some lockers started taking the cue from the music and started flexing their muscles to the beat. The hard electronic clap made them do it!

From here, the rest is history. Boogaloo fit the new music much better than locking did and it soon became the most popular dance style of the day. That’s why most poppers still dance to music from that era. The style of music just fits the style of dance. Sure, you can pop to modern music just fine, but it doesn’t always connect in the same way! That’s why new styles keep getting developed. Glitch-hop made animated, glitchy robot styles more popular and bruk-up made finger tutting and tutting more popular. That’s just how it goes!

Enough Already. How do You do It?

Well, the best place to start is with my tutorials :) No question. This is the absolute foundation of the dance. They teach the basic movements of popping and boogaloo and combine it with the groove and the attitude to set you on your way to being a dance-floor killer. I put a lot of work into them so be sure to check ‘em out!

The Wrap-up

So, if you’re gonna remember anything from this, here it is in a nutshell:

• The important concepts of boogaloo are the ROLLS, the GROOVE, and the ATTITUDE.
• The reason it exists, the reason almost all dances exist, is because of the MUSIC. The MUSIC will tell you how to dance. Listen to the music and let yourself be free! Learn technique so that your freedom can be communicated to other people. Your body is your instrument so learn it well!

PEACE AND KEEP IT POPPIN!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of Popping