Rock Dance InternationalUp Rock vs toprock
Toprock is what b-boys and b-girls dance standing, before going down to the floor. Up Rock is a battle dance of its own, and it came first: two rockers face off for a whole record, improvising on the music. Here are the differences.
Uprock vs toprock at a glance
Toprock is the intro of a breaking set. Up Rock is a whole dance.
| Up Rock | Toprock (in breaking) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A battle dance: two rockers face off and improvise on the music | What b-boys and b-girls dance standing, before going down to the floor |
| The moves | Freestyle, jerks and burns | The intro of a set, before footwork and the freeze |
| How long | The whole song | Breaking is danced for the break of the song |
| The battle | Face to face, often in an Apache Line | In a circle |
| The DJ | Records blended and mixed | Cuts and scratches |
What toprock is
Toprock is what b-boys and b-girls dance standing, in breaking style, before going down to the floor: the intro of their set. A rocker who danced both laid out a breaking set like a story:
you got your intro, which is your Toprock, you got your story, which is your Footwork, then your conclusion is your Freeze
In Brooklyn terms, what rockers call freestyle, breakers call top rock.
Where the names cross
Both words grow out of rock. Many early dancers say Up Rock was first called rock or rocking, and rocking was used in the Bronx too. Then the names crossed. In the Brooklyn account, as Up Rock faded from the mid-1980s it survived only in a modified form called Top Rock, danced by breakers. In the Bronx account, the breakers of 1979 to 1984 had their own simplified take on rocking, called toprocking or uprocking. When and why the dance itself became Up Rock is on What is Up Rock?.
Is toprock a form of Up Rock?
Toprock comes from rocking. Rocking came first and its steps are more complex; b-boys and b-girls dance them in a simpler form, because the complexity of breaking is on the floor.
- A simpler version. Toprock is the modified Uprock danced in breaking, an imitation of rocking. Rock and breaking are two different dances, like merengue and salsa. A crew’s 30th anniversary flyer in 2003 listed Uprock and B-boy as separate contests.
- In breaking. The breakers’ own simplified take on rocking was called toprocking or uprocking. Some breaking books and websites list uprock as one more element of breaking; for rockers, rocking came first.
Top Rock is not the original Brooklyn Uprock style and has been taught all around the world
Uprock vs downrock
Downrock, also written down rock, downrocking or floor rock, names rocking done on or near the floor. What exactly it covers is disputed.
In the Brooklyn accounts, downrocking was the local word for the floor dancing the Bronx called breaking, and the Bronx extended it with spins, glides and other moves. The Bronx account describes the footwork of the Bronx crews of 1975 to 1979 as steps done on all fours, later called downrocking.
Can a breaker learn Up Rock?
Yes, and dancers have crossed over in both directions. Expect it to take time: in a veteran’s view, breaking can be learned faster. The moves are on the fundamentals page.