How To Swipe In Breakdancing

Learning how to Swipe in breakdancing is easy, but mastering Swipes is a whole other beast. Swipes are one of those moves that can be modified in a number of ways. Because of this, Swipes aren't only one of the most recognizable dance moves in all of Hip Hop, they also have the most variations. For the purposes of teaching the novice breaker, we'll talk about basic Swipes. Once you get comfortable pulling off a basic Swipe, your creative talents will serve you better in modifying the move as you see fit. So here's how you Swipe in breakdancing.

1. The crab. Swipes in breakdancing are moves that start with you on all fours. More specifically, they start you in the crab position. Start out by laying on your back. Then simply elevate yourself up on your arms and legs. Your chest and abs should be facing the sky. Make sure your butt is level. We want your midsection to be straight.
2. First things first. Lift one of your arms toward the sky. You should be balancing on your two legs and other arm at this point. Swing your extended arm towards the ground. While doing this, you should be simultaneously raising your opposite arm to the sky. Using your midsection, turn your upper half of your body completely over. Your chest should be facing the ground at this point.
3. Your legs. While your arms are doing all that work, your legs need to be turning over as well. After one full turn you should be facing the ground in a push up formation. But you're not done yet. You want to keep this movement going and build up some momentum.
4. Keep going. After you've completed one turn, you want to flip back over into the crab position again. You do this by swinging your initial arm back up and over. Using your torso, immediately swing your other arm as well as your two bent legs back around again. Then it's a matter of wash, rinse, repeat. After you've done this for a while and you feel comfortable, try to speed it up.
5. Variations. There are more variations to this move than can be named. The key to the move is your arms and torso. Your legs don't have to play a big part in the move except for stabilization. You need to have something to land on. As stated earlier, once you've mastered the basic mechanics behind Swipes, you can begin to add your own twists to the move. For example B-boys can do a rotating Swipe where they spin their bodies in a circle while spinning their torsos. You have One-legged Swipes,  Air Swipes, and on and on. All it takes is a little creativity on your part to add some flare to an already cool move. So get out there and get practicing. Just remember, start out slowly until you get the hang of the Swipe moves because you do run the risk of injury with any breakdancing maneuver.