Celebreak

Shutting down Celebreak.net

Posted on May 13, 2009

I’m sad to say that this is will be my last post on Celebreak. Due to some major life changes–namely, switching careers and continents–I no longer have time to dedicate to this blog. And instead of letting it suffer, killing it with a quick and painless blog-post seemed like the merciful thing to do…

I started Celebreak last year to answer a question: why don’t people know more about breaking? Though its been around for over 40 years, relatively little is known about it outside of it’s community of b-boys, b-girls and hip hop heads.

Breakers danced for the president in the 80’s and the pope in the millennium. They’ve chilled in Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and stayed out late with David Letterman. There are b-boys serving life in Uganda and risking their lives to dance in Iraq. It’s a world-wide culture and people of all shapes and sizes are a part of it.

Yet, whenever I mentioned breaking to a non-practitioner, I’d always hear something along the lines of “Oh, can you spin on your head?” Don’t get me wrong, headspins are a part of breaking but they’re just one move. But to the thousands of b-boys and b-girls around the world, it’s also their art and lifestyle.

My vision for Celebreak.net was that of a central location where anyone interested in breaking, regardless of their level, could learn more about it. And over the last 8 months, I’ve done by best to show this dance’s reach, shed light on its growth and otherwise dispel the myth that its just about spinning on your head.

It’s been a great run and I’m glad to have undertaken the endeavor. Even though I’m no longer posting, Celebreak.net will still be up for a while. And after the domain expires, the archives will be accessible at http://projects.ebunoluwa.com/celebreak.

There are fortunately many other sites that are still going strong:

• MoreThanAStance.com - This is one of my personal favorites. Calvin and Paul–the co-founders and editors–have a high-quality b-boy web zine with informative articles (e.g., Bridging the Gap), regular blogs and galleries.
• BreakerNYC.com - This is another favorite. Chris, the owner of this blog, took the initiative to create a regional  site focused on the NY tri-state area’s breaking scene. In addition, he also regularly posts links on twitter and created a Google Maps mashup for crews around the world.
• FreestyleSession Forums - The longest running b-boy forum still in existence. Named after the event (Freestyle Session, which was started in the 90s by B-Boy Cros1 and still goes on today), this site is an online hangout for OG and new b-boys alike.
• BboyWorld.com Forums - Arguably the largest b-boy forum on the web right now. It gained momentum during the pre-YouTube days when b-boy videos were hard to find. They would host videos for breakers around the world to come and download. I have no idea how they could afford the bandwidth but it resulted in over 100,000 members to date! You can find the latest event info, event videos, practice spots (around the world) and tutorials here.
• B-Boy.org Forums - Another great forum with many members. Just like BboyWorld, you can find event info, event videos, practice spots and tutorials here.

I’m sure new ones will come in the future. I’ve talked to other b-boys with interesting websites in the works and may even come back again in the future with some of my own.

Until then…peace.

-Ebun