User:Urbananarchyeu/sandbox

Punking/Whacking is a stylized form street/urban dance that was developed in the early 1970's in the underground African-American and Latin American gay community of Los Angeles, California. The name "punking"was adopted from the slang word "punk" which was coined as an insult towards members of the gay community. Since the early creators of the style were considered by mainstream society as "punks", they used the word "punking" as the initial name of the style to describe the behavior and gestures that were expressed amongst themselves.The word "whacking" was borrowed from the word "whack" as seen on the 60's tv show Batman , which means to strike (someone or something) with great force was a description of the sharp striking actions of various parts of the body (head, shoulders, arms, legs, etc) or poses that are performed in the dance. As the popularity of the style increased in the mainstream, the dance became widely known as whacking. It gained mainstream exposure through stage shows with performers such as Toni Basil, Grace Jones, Diana Ross as well as various 70's and 80's TV variety shows and movies such as Soul Train, Midnight Special, The Big Show,  Breakin'1 and Breakin'2 : Electric Boogaloo.

History

Created and developed in the backdrop of the emerging street dance culture explosion in Los Angeles,CA the dance was largely inspired by motion pictures, silent films, cartoons, martial arts, and classic photographs of famous actors and actresses such as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, and others. The earliest incarnation of Punking was in the form of "posing", in which dancers would simply pose to the beats of the music like a screenshot from a film. The dance began to expand with the incorporation more traveling, constant movement such as ice skating inspired footwork, extreme usage of space, sharp striking actions inspired by martial arts and another street style from LA Locking. Detailed musicality and a deeper exploration of emotion and behavior also became a major component of the dance.