Battling under Britannia’s shadow: British dance battles before B Boys

Abstract

In Britain, before Hip Hop and House ruled the dance floor, the sons and daughters of the ‘Windrush’ immigrants, dancing alongside other young people who lived in the UK’s poorest areas, had forged their own dance styles with which to battle for supremacy on the dance floor. What remains of this phenomenon are the testaments of those involved and a few brief video clips that can be retrieved from films or postings on the internet. These reveal how in a Britain struggling with issues of ‘class’ and ‘race’ a generation of youths developed their own dance identities