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Eugene Ahn
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1101
2 November 2014
The Dance Crew in its Natural Habitat
Part 1: Investigation
The subject of my ethnography was none other than the notwell-known dance crew
known as Lay-Z Crew, or just Lay-Z. Lay-Z is a dance crew based in Waxhaw, North Carolina
that emphasizes on bboying and competing in bboy battles to further their nonexistent reputation
around the states. Bboying is a dance style more commonly known as breakdancing, the dance
revolves around doing moves and performing on the floor, often associated with spinning. Lay-Z
crew originally met weekly on Sundays, but has indefinitely ceased their weekly meetings. The
information found in this investigation is made up of my experiences with the dance crew as well
as an interview with current member: bboy Unbroken.
Back in 2009 a dance crew was formed in south Charlotte. This dance crew, originally
named Paranoia Crew, was founded by bboy Unbroken, bboy Ahndroid (myself), bboy Drowsy,
and three other unnamed dancers. The crew went through issues right out of the gate, with the
first half of the crew disagreeing with several of the ideals of the second half, but the crew stuck
together nonetheless. After several competitions/performances, the crew had grown to nine
members, and the internal issues had grown stronger than before, eventually splitting into three
subgroups. The first group was made up of the three unnamed founding members as well as one
of the newer members, the second group consisted of two of the newer members that outright
quit dancing and the last group was made up of Unbroken, Ahndroid, and Drowsy. After

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recruiting a fourth member, bboy Rescue, Symbiotic Crew was founded in July 2011. After
many name changes and member shifts, Symbiotic Crew morphed into the current Lay-Z Crew
and the core members of Unbroken, Ahndroid, Drowsy, and Rescue remain as the heart of this
group.
On October 24, 2014 at the in the basement of a members home, Lay-Z Crew members
reunite for the first practice in several months. The first part of the practice was heavily
discussion-based, boasting about new moves and combinations and complaining about the lack
of practice and loss of finesse coming out from each member. The dialogue used between
members were common words used in a different light combined with the names of moves and
combinations as well as the names of professionals and various competitions. All-in-all, this
conversation would be very difficult to follow for those uneducated in the bboying community.
The following is an excerpt from this early dialogue:
So hows your dancing been?
Im mad rusty nowadays, but I hit like, 3 rotations on 2ks the other day
Damn, really? Im still trying to get my mills to swipes combo down
Can you even do swipes?
Yeah man, of course
Masters?
Nah, just swipes
Oh, I gotcha
Hey did you guys hear about Blond beating Taisuke?
Dude Taisuke is getting really stale now, his sets are so short, Blond is a beast

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During this talk, the members were stretching, fixing shoes or toprocking to get ready for
the coming practice while music played from a speaker, phone or laptop. Toprock is a form of
dance within bboying that is done standing and usually done in preparation for floorwork, this is
often light and allows bboys to get their blood flowing. Toprock has a basic look of the
performer rocking back and forth or side to side to feel the rhythm of the music and their feet. As
the bboys went through their pre-practice rituals, one of the bboys would eventually move into
the center to signal their first set. Similarly to a dance cypher, the bboys are situated in a circle
with one bboy dancing in the center, when this bboy finished with his set or combo, he left the
center and another bboy came in to take his place. These sets or combos lasted anywhere
between 10 seconds to a full minute, varying with the intention of the bboy at the time. The order
in which the bboys entered the circle often repeated throughout the entire practice. A bboys
standard set was a combination of toprock and several combinations he had come up with, or a
set that he comes up with on the spot utilizing his strengths and working on his weaknesses. The
bboys moves were already well-known to the other members of the group and they would
congratulate each other when something went well, and call out crashes when mistakes were
made. Small hand gestures were the majority of conversation between the bboys during this
practice, these gestures represented the bboy terms: props, bite and crash, and these gestures
replaced talking for the majority of the session. Throughout the session, the members would
often attempt to use new moves the other members hadnt seen before in efforts to surprise and
impress one another. As the session nears the end, most of the members are seen lying down and
sweating profusely at the physical effort they had put forth.
The bboys opted the end their session when the majority had reached the peak of their
stamina, the specific session I attended lasted about 35 minutes. As the bboys grew more and

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more tired, they blamed the lack of energy on a variety of things, the excuses I heard including,
but not limited to: I may or may not have pulled something, I dont practice enough
anymore, Im too rusty now and I suck. These excuses were used lightheartedly to signal
the end of the session to the other bboys. After reaching the end, the bboys convened as to
whether another session would take place that day, or whether the bboys would end the days
work and move on to planning the next session. The bboys would also talk about things that went
well and things that went poorly with themselves, but often not critiquing one another unless a
bboy asked for opinions on his moves and sets, but even then, the bboys had nothing but nice
things to say about one anothers performances.

Part 2: Interpretation
Upon a subjective investigation of Lay-Z Crew and the behavior of bboy crews during
their practices, it was eye-opening to see how many aspects of the bboys methods of
communication and behavior were different from the general populace. Due to my involvement
with the crew and growing up with the group around me, it was interesting to note all the
differences bboys really had without even looking at the actual art of bboying or their dancing.
The crews main reason for meeting together was to practice and discuss their art and
how they could improve themselves and one another. The practices lacked things many sports or
even other dance crews or teams would utilize. Where dance teams, sports teams and dance
groups focus heavily on rigid practice schedules with specified warmups, drills and rehearsals or
scrimmages, the bboy crews lacked these and the practice came in the form of a very loose
cypher or session. These practices more closely identified with a showcase to their fellow
crewmates, looking to impress rather than structurally improve like other practice focus on.

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While the format of a meeting and a practice differ heavily from other, somewhat similar groups,
bboys in a crew share the same values and beliefs any other team would: to improve, grow
stronger individually in the craft, and grow stronger as a unit with their bonds, learning to respect
each other and grow. The crew learns to bond as more than just crewmates but also as close
friends. Lay-Z crews four core members of Drowsy, Ahndroid, Rescue, and Unbroken are very
tightknit in their companionship that grew directly as a result of their time in the crew together.
The most interesting thing to note in my personal opinion is their method of
communication during their practices. While the crew focuses on verbal communication during
the beginning and end of one of their sessions, their conversations are heavily dotted with the
names of moves, combinations, professional bboys and competitions. The conversations I heard
included many words of moves such as mills, swipes, 2ks, halos, freezes, and style
and power. The first four were specific moves that bboys can perform, the mills being the
stereotypical windmill where a bboy will spin on his upper back and shoulders, swipes were a
move where a boy rotates his entire body parallel to the ground, using his arms and one of his
legs to push off the ground with every rotation. 2ks, or two thousands, were a move in which a
bboy spin upside on his hand with the other hand resting above the spinning hand, and halos
were a move were a bboy spins on the crown of his head using his arms to propel and catch
himself after every rotation. Freezes is an entire subsection of a bboys repertoire that consist of
moves in which a bboy will demonstrate great balance and skill as they attempt to contort their
bodies and hold themselves up on their arms and hands without the use of their legs. Style and
power were general terms used to describe the method in which a bboy expressed their own
bboying. Styleheads, or bboys that focused on style, tended to stay away from the spinning and
flashy moves and emphasized their unique style and combinations, conversely, Powerheads, or

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bboys that focused on power, often had less unique moves and combinations, but were very well
versed in spinning and launching their bodies using very physically demanding moves and
techinques. As well as these special terms the bboys used during their verbal communication,
their gestures served to be the particularly special point in their conversation. During the main
part of the session, the bboys were mostly silent, aside from the occasional woop or sound to
describe their hype. They used the terms props, bite and crash during the session, the first
serving as a positive word to almost congratulate another bboy, the second meaning the current
performing bboy is stealing a move from a different bboy, and the latter service as pointing out a
mistake. But these terms were expressed in the form of 3 different gestures. Props is represented
by the arm extended above the head and the fingers waving up and down together. Bite is
represented by a bboy brining his arms up to having his forearms parallel to the ground and
mimicking a biting motion with his forearms. Crash is represented by a bboy bending down and
tapping the ground a couple of times with his fingers, the severity of the crash increasing the
intensity of the tapping. These small gestures were nearly ingrained into my vocabulary at this
point in my life, but analyzing them does show how strange these can be to a bystander or
outside. This method of using gestures is most likely important to not distract the current dancer
from his combos or moves or to distract from the music. The gestures also serve as a tiny aspect
of a bboys identity.
After all of the bboys went home, they continued their discussions and conversation
online on a Facebook group that they created for the purposes of the crew. The page includes
possible practice dates, individual videos from the various members, discussion on their practices
and discussion on the professional scene and various competitions and bboys at the world class

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level. The bboys like to link videos of their favorite competitions and battles as well as links to
music or shoes that they like to bboy with.
In conclusion, Lay-Z crew serves well to represent the culture within bboy crews. There
are many nuances that separate a bboy crew versus the rest of society and culture, mostly
revolving around the aspects of their communication and conversation. These bboys like to
practice in a way that focuses more on the aspects of impressing one another rather than nonbboys. I like to believe it is because bboys focus more on their art and their dance than the
opinions of other people, but that is just my own opinion.