The Origins of Breaking with Its Biggest Name, Crazy Legs

Throughout the history of American art, there are certain people everyone knows by a single name: Madonna, Beyoncé. Others, like Slash or Prince, are known for their catchy given nicknames. But the artist that takes the proverbial cake with a nickname above all nicknames is the one and only breaker, Crazy Legs. Born Richard Colón, Crazy Legs is an inventor and one of the country’s most recognized and prolific dancers. Crazy Legs help invent breaking (or dancing dynamically to hip-hop music). He was there from the virtual beginning in the mid-to late-70s and beyond. Crazy Legs, who appears in popular movies like Flash Dance and Wild Style, has also appeared on Late Night television shows and traveled the world spreading hip-hop culture. 

More recently, Crazy Legs and pioneering rapper, Kurtis Blow, are currently celebrating the 40th anniversary of Blow’s seminal song, “The Breaks,” first released in 1980. The track, which is a tribute to breakers in the South Bronx, helped cement the art form worldwide through verse. On Thursday, June 25th, Blow and Legs appeared on the Red Bull Dance Instagram channel to commemorate the song’s release. We caught up with Crazy Legs, a proud Puerto Rican-American, to ask him about his early days with the Rock Steady Crew, what it was like spreading dance across the world, how he got his nickname and much more.