This thesis explores the relationship between musical tastes and dance practices in a popular dance style known as breaking or b-boying/b-girling. It is based on a multi-sited ethnography involving the participation in and observation of the practices of breaking, as well as interviews with individual b-boys and b-girls, who often travelled between cities as part of their practices. Although there were many interesting and contradictory observations and participant responses provided by this multigenerational, multicultural scene, one theme emerged as central. 'Vernacular' or street dancers make consistent claims that "it's all about the music." This is to challenge assumptions in current academic writing on the relationship of music and dance. On one hand, many contemporary dance writers argue that musical tastes have little to do with choreographic practices and the meanings of dance performances. On the other hand, sociological accounts of musical tastes rarely consider dance practice in their analyses. The result is that musical tastes are under-theorised in accounts of dance performance, and vice versa. Hennion's (2007) assertion that taste is an activity provides a foundation for a new argument. I propose that taste is an activity that, when theorised in terms of music and dance practices, suggests new epistemological avenues for studies of popular dance. Put simply, I argue that, in breaking practices, dance is a performance of musical taste. This performance of taste has a variety of avenues - from hip hop theatre performances, to international battles, master class workshops, club nights and local events – and in each new context, the relationship between music and dance transforms. These shifts in selection reveal that the dance is not just “about the music,” but also about how tastes are mediated, negotiated and competed over.

abstract: With this document I will discuss and reflect upon the performance and art exhibition show which I presented as part of my MFA thesis at the MonOrchid Gallery in Phoenix, Arizona on February 10, 2017. The approach to my thesis comes from my perspective as a Hip Hop practitioner exploring the relationship between each artistic discipline that makes up Hip Hop. Through this lens I will show the knowledge that is built from both individual and the conventional collective understandings of Hip Hop. As a practitioner for over 20 years, Hip Hop has molded my mind to be multifaceted, giving me a strong interest in art making as a collaborative process. I believe the more you see the relationship between each medium, the more that connection manifests a larger cognizance for where these art forms can progress. The relationship between all of the mediums involved creates a rhythm; it is the understanding of rhythm that can connect all types of art. When you are able to understand the process of rhythm as a through line, you will be able to create from your own personal rhythmic qualities in all things. This paper will delve into how my thesis performance incorporated not only music production and dance, but the written form of Hip Hop culture (Writing), identity, and the fundamentals of design. I will use the discussion of these forms to explore the similarities of meaning in movement-making behind B-boying, the most fundamental aspect of visual art and in body forms within Hip Hop. My aim was to research what we (the dancers and myself) learned from the movement in conjunction with Writing. I will discuss how many ways this can be beneficial to exploring new interdisciplinary creative collaborations with 
design, visual art, choreography, sculpture, and architecture. Rhythm is the connective tissue between these disciplines in Hip Hop culture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Dance 2017