Gritty enough for the streets, dignified enough for a bar mitzvah and doable without getting too dirty, the robot is a dance that won't die
- Peter Hartlaub
Thursday, January 5, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...=printable


The windmill has become a forgotten art. The masters of the headspin are spending their spare time at the chiropractor. And, perhaps saddest of all, moonwalking has become synonymous with child molestation trials.

But nearly two decades after most amateur break-dancers moved on to the next fad, the robot continues to rock the house party eight days a week. Maybe the sixth- or seventh-most-popular break-dancing move during the movement's peak in the 1980s, the robot has become the most ubiquitous dance of the 21st century so far -- showing up in several recent movies, music videos and even an insurance company commercial. Have you been to a wedding in the last 12 months where someone didn't bust a robot on the dance floor?

The story of the robot is both an inspirational Cal Ripken Jr.-like tale of endurance and a proud moment for Bay Area residents. Because while most innovative break-dancing moves were born in New York, the robot is all California -- perhaps the only major move that was discovered by the masses on the streets of San Francisco.

Like all Pop Culture columns on break-dancing, this story begins with "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo," arguably the greatest movie ever made. (Did "Citizen Kane" include a scene during which hot nurses use the power of hip-hop dancing to resuscitate a flat-lined heart patient? No? Then it will never climb higher than No. 2.)

Actor and dancer Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers did the robot multiple times during the 1984 film, including a memorable scene that features Chambers' character Turbo executing several creative dance moves on two walls and the ceiling, after his bedroom inexplicably loses the power of gravity.

Break-dancing was the word the media used in the 1980s to describe moves invented years earlier by the B-boys and B-girls from the Bronx. Chambers recalls that the intent of "Breakin' 2" was to introduce as many different dance styles as possible. But the robot -- an offshoot of a breaking style called popping -- is the one everyone remembers.

"After the film, that's what I started focusing on," Chambers said last week, talking on the phone at his Santa Monica home. "I wanted to perfect the animated look of a robot."

A successful roboteur will program his or her body to make smooth, simple and precise movements -- hopefully looking more like a machine than a man or woman. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, Chambers made a good living off the robot, performing as the Urkelbot in several episodes of "Family Matters" and as Good Robot Bill in "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey."

All the while, he watched old Ray Harryhausen stop-motion films and stood outside department store windows, studying the movements of animatronic figures in the holiday displays. Chambers says one of his biggest robotic inspirations was Robert Shields of the San Francisco dance team Shields and Yarnell, who Chambers and most break-dancing historians credit with inventing the move. In a phone interview earlier this week, Shields said he started moving like a robot as far back as 1967, while working as a human mannequin at the Hollywood Wax Museum.

"I was getting bored standing like a statue," said Shields, who lives in Arizona now. "I started developing isolated movements, and the robot was born."

The robot became one of Shields' trademarks as he rose to fame in the 1970s, working as a mime at Union Square in San Francisco -- and later perfecting the moves with Lorene Yarnell on their own TV series, and on guest appearances on programs including "The Tonight Show" and "The Muppet Show."

Both Shields and Chambers say Michael Jackson was inspired by their moves during his years of greatest popularity. Shields' act seems to have had a particularly strong influence on the pop star -- the marching band fashions that helped Shields stand out in Union Square appear to have been adopted by Jackson during the "Thriller" years and beyond.

While tougher rapping styles killed the feel-good vibe of break dancing, the robot never totally went away, kept alive in part by street performers. But it has experienced a particularly strong renaissance in the past few years, appearing in the movie "Hitch" and the animated film "Robots," on Web sites including Doingtherobot.com and commercials featuring the robot-dancing gecko for GEICO auto insurance. Chambers has also seen the robot performed on several music videos, including one featuring R&B artist Ginuwine that Chambers says replicates his "Breakin' 2" dancing-on-the-ceiling moves.

As urban dance -- including variations of a few classic break-dancing moves -- makes a comeback in movies such as "You Got Served" and TV shows including "Dance 360," Chambers said more people have been recognizing his contributions to the robot. "Breakin' 2" was recently reissued on DVD, packaged with "Breakin' " and "Beat Street" and filled with extras.

But as much as the robot endures, often performed for ironic effect, it seems an unlikely move to survive for two decades. At the peak of break dancing, the robot was often little more than an appetizer that came before the flashier power moves -- including high-flying spins and flares that made a roll of linoleum as important a school supply in 1984 as a fanny pack and Trapper Keeper binder.

The most popular break-dancing moves -- four are listed below -- shared little with the robot:

1. The moonwalk. This was Jackson's signature move, but there was a bigger reason for its popularity. While difficult to perform correctly, the moonwalk could be performed badly by just about anyone.

2. The headspin. Extremely painful when executed incorrectly, the headspin made the break dancer look like a human gyroscope.

3. The backspin. Initially developed as a finishing move, this was another dance made popular because of its simplicity. Even those who couldn't manage more than one or two rotations -- while rolled into a ball and spinning on their back -- could always get a friend to grab their ankles and finish the job.

4. The worm. N.W.A. and other gangsta rappers quickly extinguished the put-away-your-weapons-and-let's-have-a-break-off tenets of movies such as "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." But like the robot, this human wavelength move survived longer than most, despite being difficult for anyone older than 25.

As a way to elongate your break-dancing career, the robot makes perfect sense.

Back in the 1980s, my signature move was a modified helicopter, finishing off with a third rail. (Translation: I flailed my legs around my body and then fell flat on my back and feigned an electrocution-related seizure.) But as the years passed, crowds seemed to be much less impressed, and recovery time extended from days to weeks. After a short farewell tour in 2001 at the age of 30, I retired that move for good and have been working on the robot ever since.

The robot is to break dancing what the knuckleball is to pitching, producing less wear and tear on the body and allowing dancers to perform at a high level well into middle age.

Chambers says the feet-on-the-floor practicality of the robot has also helped keep it alive -- especially at more formal events such as weddings, bar mitzvahs and New Year's Eve parties. "For people who are dressed in a tuxedo, you don't have to go to the ground and get dirty," Chambers said. "You still look good when you leave."

Shields explains that there are intangible elements that are more important to the robot's popularity -- pointing out that when it's done correctly, there's a mystical quality to the movements. "You're watching a human body animate itself," Shields said. "People can't keep their eyes off it."

As the move reaches epidemic levels, Shields says more people have been recognizing him as the godfather of the robot. He just got back from a trip performing in South America, and he's developed a new act -- filled with robot dance moves -- that he'd like to introduce at a San Francisco theater.

Shields points out that "the bad mimes put the good mimes out of business." It would be a shame to see the same thing happen with the robot.

"When these kids are doing it, to be honest, they're all doing the same thing," Shields says. "I'd like to get a bunch of these kids and do something fun and tell a creative story that means something."

I guess the back-slide will forever be known as the moonwalk which is actually a circular movement. besides Michael Jackson much of the good robot stuff (very few people who are really good at that)is not documented on tape.

these kids are really good http://www.youtube.com/wa...E3tqDLjSLA


anyone else have non Michael or amatuer footage of robots?

lilgish said:

I saw this a while back. I love the kid in the red.

lilgish said:

That's what we called it when I was a young'un. I could do the backslide well (enough), headspin, backspin, but could never, ever master the robot or windwill. That shit was hard! There was one kid on my school bus, John Moses, who could do it like mad. We were all envious.

RipHer2Shreds said:

get down with your bad self.

The dude in the red was killin' it.

Here you go: http://www.devilducky.com/media/30561/


[Edited 1/6/06 18:56pm]

Stax said:

That was scary

Vin Diesel poppin: http://www.devilducky.com/media/16656/

Is this the kid in red also? http://www.devilducky.com/media/13782/

Stax said:

he wasn't that good.

Stax said:

that kid is dope.

same guy:

http://www.devilducky.com/media/25263

http://www.devilducky.com/media/34324/
[Edited 1/6/06 19:09pm]

RipHer2Shreds said:

Right.

Stax said:

I knew what that was gonna be before I clicked on it.

lilgish said:

he's awesome. that was incredible.

I found this VW golf advert featuring him (his name is David elsewhere). this was on alot in the uk. basically they CGI'd Gene Kelly's face onto him. it's an update on the famous scene in singing in the rain. check it out!

http://www.detoursvideo.c...ewhere.htm
[Edited 1/7/06 11:14am]