On a related note, you can see videos of people breakdancing way back to the 1920s.
Being pedantic, some of the moves that became incorporated in Breakdancing go back to the 1820's when slaves would dance on a square or a box.
Earlier even in that some traditional Ghanaian dances are held inside a circle of people that would in some aspect represent the circle which forms around breakers.
But actual Breakdancing in a linear form to what it is now, dates back to the very late 1960s.
With significant input from The Twins* up to the mid 70's, then with the Rocksteady Crew making it more acrobatic from the late 70's to early 1980's.
Popping and Locking late 60's but definitely can be seen on Soul Train shows from 1972.
Moonwalking at least as far back as the 1950's with Bill Bailey...possibly older.
But a
Fortean aspect of this
blew my mind.
The Twins lectured in London five years ago.
They said the only dancing they had seen was one performance of James Brown at The Apollo in 1971...which would have had some Popping, Moonwalking and possibly The Robot.
So The Twins came up with breaking moves
on their own.
Yet some of those moves are moves which were done before them by others in another continent, which The Twins had never seen.
And some of the kicks from Uprocking are very similar to kick dances from the Congo.
And also similar to Capoiera moves...but The Twins would not have seen Capoeira...which was not even taught in New York at the time they composed their breaking moves....Capoiera came to New York in 1974 as far as anyone can tell, and that was just one class.
So we either have a massive coincidence, or could The Twins have seen clips such as James H has posted above on TV in their early childhood, or could there possibly be an inherited "Spiritual Dance DNA" at work?
The Twins themselves were very aware of this and were quite freaked out by it.
*The Twins's name had a prefix in the 1970's, but they refuse to use it now because of it's prejorative connotations.