'Break Dancing' or 'b-boying/b-girling' is an athletic style of street dance created by African American youth in the early 1970s.vTypically set to songs containing drum breaks, hip-hop, funk, soul and breakbeat music. Although the term "breakdance" is frequently used to refer to the dance in popular culture and in the mainstream entertainment industry, "b-boying" and "breaking" are the original terms and are preferred by the majority of the pioneers and most notable practitioners.