B-BOY

A b-boy (or break-boy) is a male dancer who practices breaking or b-boying, the acrobatic hip-hop dance style commonly known as "breakdancing." B-girl refers to a female who practices breaking and the term breaker is gender neutral.

History of breaking

Main article: B-boying

Breaking or b-boying, commonly called breakdancing, is a style of dance that evolved among Black and Latino American youths in the South Bronx during the 1970s.^{[1][2]:125, 141, 153} It is danced to both hip-hop and other genres of music that are often remixed to prolong the musical breaks.
Four basic elements form the foundation of breaking. The first is Toprock, a term referring to the upright dancing and shuffles. The second element is Downrock which refers to footwork dancing performed on the floor. The third element is the Freeze, the poses that breakers throw into their dance sets to add punctuation to certain beats and end their routines. The fourth element is the Power Moves. These are the most impressive acrobatic moves normally made up of circular motions where the dancer will spin on the floor or in the air.
The term breakdancing, though commonly used, is frowned upon by those immersed in hip-hop culture because the term was created by the media to describe what was called breaking or b-boying in the street. The majority of the art form’s pioneers and most notable practitioners refer to the dance as b-boying. 

B-boy styles

There are many different individual styles used in breaking. Individual styles often stem from a dancer's region of origin and influences. Although there are some generalities in the styles that exist, many dancers combine elements of different styles with their own ideas and knowledge in order to create a unique style of their own.

• Power: This style of breaking is what most members of the general public associate with the term "break-dancing". Power moves comprise full-body spins and rotations that give the illusion of defying gravity. Examples of power moves include headspins, backspins, windmills, flares, airtracks/airflares, 1990s, 2000s, jackhammers, crickets, turtles, hand glide, halos, and elbow spins. Those b-boys who use "power moves" almost exclusively in their sets are referred to as "power heads".
• Abstract: A very broad style of breaking which may include the incorporation of "threading" footwork, freestyle movement to hit beats, house dance, and "circus" styles (tricks, contortion, etc.).
• Blowup: A style of breaking which focuses on the "wow factor" of certain power moves, freezes, and circus styles. Blowup-style consists of performing a sequence of as many difficult trick combinations in as quick succession as possible in order to "smack" or exceed the virtuosity of the other b-boy's performance. This is usually attempted only after becoming proficient in other styles due to the degree of control and practice required in this type of dancing. The names of some of the moves are: airbaby, airchair, hollow backs, solar eclipse, reverse airbaby, among others. The main goal in blowup-style is the rapid transition through a sequence of power moves.
• Flavor: A style that is based more on elaborate toprock, downrock, and/or freezes. This style is focused more on the beat of the song than having to rely on "power" moves only. B-boys who base their dance on "flavor" or style are known as "style heads".
• Flex: A style that is noted mainly from its requirement of being flexible. More complicated threading and moves with "flavor" are also accompanied with power moves and freezes that also require flexibility.

What does the "B" in B-boy and B-girl mean?

There has been a variety of definitions of what the "B" in b-boy or b-girl means. Originally in this article it was stated as "beat", I feel that the general consensus among the hip hop community is that it stands for break. The b-boying documentary "The Freshest Kids" interviews DJ Kool Herc and others to define the term. I'll elaborate or quote the interviews if anyone doesn't agree. Love.Of.Knowledge 22:43, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Originally, "b-boy" means "beat-boy", according to oldschool b-boys Trac 2 and Alien Ness. Other (later) 70s terms were "bronx-boy" and "battle-boy". The overwhelmingly known and used "break-boy" is an 80s term. All these things are stated by Trac 2 and Alien Ness, but probably there are also different opinions of other oldscholers. So in my opinion every term has his place in b-boy history. But nowadays b-boys/b-girls use definitively break-boy/break-girl as self-designation, when they don't use the short form. I can try to ask some oldschool b-boys about the history of the term.

I'd argue for re-merging if it can't be fixed...

Right now this article is lousy even as a stub. Two whole sections are devoted to mere lists (none of which contain ANY links to show that the "notable" people really are notable), and there are sentence fragments in the beginning. The salvageable parts of the article, as I see it, are the part about b-girls, the part that's already been copied from the breakdancing article, and the external links (one of which is more about the dancing than the dancers). I'd argue for re-merging this article into the larger breakdancing article if major revision doesn't happen soon

bronx-boy???

bronx-boy? That can't be right. That's part of NYC. So that means b-boys all over the world are Bronx? What is that suppose to mean? Maybe it was originally that way, but now it's gained new meaning? It was orginally started in south bronx, and is not asserting that somehow all bboys are from the bronx.

"fly girl" vs. "b-girl"

I reverted an edit in which the summary claimed "fly girl" was the proper term, citing google search hits. First off, those are hardly indicative of a "proper" term. Not only was the hit count overstated (as a search for the term within the following brackets: ["fly girl" breakdance] with fly girl in quotes demonstrates), but even then around half of the results on the first couple pages are for a song titled "A Fly Girl" by the Boogie Boys and a good number more are for a flash game.