Applejacks, turtles, rubber-bands, and helicopters are not just a list of random words, but are a few of the various moves performed by break dancers. These moves are a few of the four elements that structure the foundation of break dancing: power moves, freezes, toprock, and downrock or footwork.
Harrison Hancock, a sophomore and second-year member of Mac-Town Breakers, notes his signature poses are cricketing and the side chair. Cricketing is a type of power move that is performed by “a way of spinning on your hands” and a side chair is a freeze where he places most of his body weight on one hand by “sticking an elbow into [his] side.”
Mac-Town Breakers is the name of the break dance crew here at Mercer. This year Carl Alquinl is the president of the group. They take part in various shows and competitions on and off the Mercer campus, including performing at Bearstock and a few of Mercer talent shows like D3. Members like to also compete amongst each other.
This group does not perform against other break dance crews. However, Hancock describes his favorite dance competition to be the Red Bull BC1 where the best bboys and bgirls compete. This year the competition will be held sometime in December.
This dance crew is open to all Mercer students as well as the Macon community. There are no prerequisites needed to be a part of the organization. Many of the students involved in the club have tried break dancing before and joined to try it out again. From the Facebook page, the Mac-Town Breakers is for “all those interested in the art of breakdance and the culture that surrounds it.”
Hancock states that break dancing is a really creative style of dance and many of the bboys like it because there are no rules. Also he is one of the teachers for the “newbies” to the club.
Currently there are four veterans and four to five new members to the team. Hancock mentioned that they are looking for more females to be involved, especially ones who would be interested in dubstep or pop-locking. If you are interested you can check out their Facebook page or attend their lessons on Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 pm in the aerobic room of the University Center.