Breakdancing, 'Present at the Creation'

By Mandalit del Barco

Published October 13, 2002 at 9:00 PM PDT

On the streets of New York in the 1970s and '80s, kids from the Bronx were spinning on their heads and backs, doing acrobatic flips and rocking to hip-hop beats. What began as a competition of skills at house parties and street jams soon became a pop culture phenomenon. NPR's Mandalit del Barco explores the origins of breakdancing as part of the Present at the Creation series.

Mandalit del Barco

As an arts correspondent based at NPR West, Mandalit del Barco reports and produces stories about film, television, music, visual arts, dance and other topics. Over the years, she has also covered everything from street gangs to Hollywood, police and prisons, marijuana, immigration, race relations, natural disasters, Latino arts and urban street culture (including hip hop dance, music, and art). Every year, she covers the Oscars and the Grammy awards for NPR, as well as the Sundance Film Festival and other events. Her news reports, feature stories and photos, filed from Los Angeles and abroad, can be heard on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, Alt.latino, and npr.org.

See stories by Mandalit del Barco