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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
