A journey into the cypher: An ethnographic thesis on the individual and social factors that contribute to the breaking scenes' collective action

Break dancing exists in most people's minds as a dance craze from the 1980', but the phenomena is far from dead. How is it that a popular culture survived its perceived death and actually reconstituted itself in an attempt, although conflicted, to retain elements of its past and spread its art form globally? There is a distinct order that plays out in the way of performances by dancers. Like other elements of hip-hop culture, conflict is a prominent feature of these performances. What meaning do dancers assign these performances and the broader space of the "cypher" where these performances are carried out? What role does conflict play in the process of performing the scripts that dancers adhere to? I conducted an ethnographic project where I used participant observation, and both informal and structured interviews, to gather data about the contemporary breaking scene. The results demonstrate that the scene is rich with meaning where dancers are involved in a struggle to represent their idea of the art forms correct representation. While breakers and b-boys agree that break dancers are less valid and authentic in this representation there are strong views on either side as to which of the former is the more appropriate interpretation of the original incarnation of the scene that was found in the Bronx borough of New York in the late 1970's.