Breakin'

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Breakin'

Breakin' movie poster
Directed by Joel Silberg
Produced by Allen DeBevoise
Yoram Globus (executive producer)
Menahem Golan (executive producer)
David Zito
Written by Allen DeBevoise
Starring Lucinda Dickey
Adolfo Quinones
Michael Chambers
Music by Michael Boyd
Cinematography Hanania Baer
Editing by Larry Bock
Mark Helfrich
Gib Jaffe
Vincent Sklena
Distributed by Cannon Pictures
Release date(s) May 4, 1984
Running time 90 min.
Country United States
Language English
Followed by Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile
This article is about the 1984 movie; for other breakin' or breaking references see breaking.

Breakin' is a 1984 movie directed by Joel Silberg. It was also released under the title Breakdance: The Movie in some international locations. The film is a retelling of West Side Story.

The film setting was inspired by a German documentary entitled Breakin' and Enterin' set in the Los Angeles multi-racial hip-hop club Radiotron, based out of Macarthur Park in Los Angeles. Many of the artists and dancers including Ice-T (who makes his movie debut as a club MC) and Boogaloo Shrimp went straight from Breakin' and Enterin' to star in Breakin'.

The story is a retelling of the 1957 musical West Side Story, which is based in turn on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Kelly's agent Franco has a West Side Story poster directly behind his desk). Breakin' reverses the genders of the white/Puerto Rican couple. Although Kelly and Ozone are clearly a romantic couple in the sequel, and although they peck briefly in the first film (during the song "99 1/2 Won't Do"), the love scene in which they become a couple has been cut, and now exists only as a glimpse during the end credits.

The music score featured the hits, "Breakin'... There's No Stoppin Us" by Ollie & Jerry and "Freakshow on the Dance Floor." Breakin' was followed by a sequel, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Contents

[edit] Plot outline

Kelly, a struggling young jazz dancer (Lucinda Dickey) meets up with two break dancers, Ozone (Adolfo Quinones) and Turbo (Michael Chambers). Overcoming scorn from other dancers disapproving of her hybrid dance style, Kelly soon becomes the sensation of the street crowds.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Trivia

  • Boxes of Special K cereal are visible in the store where Ozone and Turbo work, presumably inspiring Ozone to give Kelly the nickname Special K.

[edit] External links