# Gangster dance battles - fake right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213 "2013-08-26T16:56:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/21 "2013-08-27T13:58:49Z")
Re: “West Side Story.” It’s a wonderful show, but not really germane to the OP’s question. In “West Side Story,” what was going on was real fighting where people got hurt. Jumping opposing gang members, fistfights, rumbles, and the climactic fatal stabbings with knives. While a portion of this was portrayed through dance – it was a musical, after all – dancing was not how the antagonists dealt with each other. The OP is asking about movies where the dancing is the actual means of competition, an alternative to combat rather than an artistic portrayal of combat (or a prelude to combat). Apples and oranges. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/22 "2013-08-27T20:09:33Z")
Breakin’ 2: Electric Bugaloo ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/23 "2013-08-27T22:13:39Z")
It’s not entirely bullshit. Certainly, control over cocaine distribution in the great Los Angeles metropolitan area has never been decided by a display of poppin’ and lockin’, but I suspect that youth gangs often compete for status through things like rap battles and dance competitions. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/24 "2013-08-28T02:54:38Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > AFAIK, dance battles were a part of Brazilian culture, shading off at both ends into dance and violence. > > At one end, the carnival dance schools are in competition. You win status by being better. At the other end, dancing, like at a dance, is what you do in between beating up strangers and rivals. You have a couple of dance numbers, then the crowd splits to the two sides of the hall and you have a fight. Then some more dancing. There’s a brazilian martial art form (capoeira) that looks a lot like dancing. Supposedly, it was developed by slaves who weren’t allowed to study fighting, so they had to disguise their moves as dancing and acrobatics. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/25 "2013-08-28T02:58:13Z")
I walked into a black coworker’s cubicle one day to find her watching Stomp the Yard. I said how ridiculous it was that anybody would do that. I was…not received well. I got a half-shouted lecture in how it’s not my culture and I should leave before…well, whatever the threat was\*, I didn’t stick around to hear it. So apparently such a thing exists somewhere, likely in high schools, I guess. I suppose we need to poll more black people. Anyone know any? \*80% chance she was going to dance at me. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/26 "2013-08-28T03:27:07Z")
Breakdancing is physically difficult; you have to have a lot of upper body strength, and also you have to be pretty brave, to pull off some of the moves. I don’t think it would ever be the case that two gangs right about to kick the shit out of each other just decide to do a dance-off instead. But a scenario I’ve actually seen play out is: two groups who are somewhat hostile or wary of each other having an impromptu competition of sorts. At the end of the competition either both groups are skilled and gain mutual respect. Or, if one group is significantly better than the other, then the other side just got slapped down – unless they have strong reason to think they are the tougher group anyway, they’ll probably just slink away. If all this seems silly, put it this way: Is the only way to work out who is the tough guy to actually have a fight? Because, there’d be a lot more fights if that were the case. Breakdancing is one of the many ways a group can signal their alpha-ness. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/27 "2013-08-28T03:58:03Z")
“We’re the hooligans…” BAM! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/28 "2013-08-28T04:18:24Z")
This is pretty distant, but does show gang rivalry taking place through music. \*The cite contains some eye rolling comments, but I’m not endorsing them or anything. > **[Steel Island - Culture](http://www.steelisland.com/culture.asp)** > [@](#): > > STEELBANDS > As the steelbands emerged, gangs started to attach themselves to them. In those days every district around Port of Spain was its own island, and the steelband within its boundaries was its army, providing warriors to uphold its sovereignty. American movies and the presence of the American Navy base in Trinidad provided the means of identification with a culture that condoned the use of force to settle disputes. Identifying with movie characters in the westerns, ganster movies, and war and propaganda films caused many of the bands to change their names. John John Steelband became Destination Tokyo. Others became Casablanca, Free French, Invaders, Red Army, Rising Sun, Five Graves to Cairo, Tripoli, Boys Town, and Renegades. Hell Yard Tamboo Bamboo band became Cross of Lorraine, now called All Stars, and Laventille’s Dead End Kids became the Desperadoes. > [@](#): > > PANYARDS > The panman in those days was fully aware of his social position as the dregs of society. History repeated itself from the outlawing of the beating of skin drums at religious festivals to the later prohibition of calypso singing and banning certain aspects of the Carnival celebration. When the economically and socially deprived underclass was denied their right of self-expression through their music which gave them a means of creating their own cultural identity, these youths deliberately became “bad boys”, continuing their war against the oppressors, and became violent by choice. Since nothing could be gained by fighting the colonial authorities, their frustration was turned on each other, and gang wars became the order of the day with violence occurring among rival bands and between bands and the police. The authorities gave violence as their reason for opposing steelband. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/29 "2013-08-28T05:23:27Z")
Wait, hold on. I know there were dance battles between gangs in 80’s TV. Are you telling me they’re still trying to push this bullshit? ---
**Author:** ![listedmia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@listedmia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/listedmia)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213/30 "2013-08-28T10:16:57Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > The [Mardi Gras Indians](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi_Gras_Indians) might be a good example in the US. Just listen to the song Iko Iko. The Big Chiefs have a sort of strut off, and there used to be violence involved. I came in here to mention this too. A couple of my friends are involved in the Indians, and I’ve gone out walking with the them on St Joseph night. It really is like a highly ritualized dance fight. The “flag boy” holds this big feathery sign thing called a “gang flag”. He walks up first and is supposed to be like a lookout. Then there’s the big chief and his entourage, which includes family, friends, children and random people. They have a lot of rivalries between tribes from different neighborhoods, too, and they talk about it like they’re actually fighting. It’s fascinating to watch and tons of fun to be a part of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gangster-dance-battles-fake-right/667213.md?page=1)