Funky Bay Area women 'locked,' 'strutted,' 'popped'
Davey D

In my last column (March 7), I gave a breakdown of the women who have played key roles in the funk and soul music of the '60s and '70s, which led to the explosion of Bay Area hip-hop in the '80s.

This week, in a continuing celebration of International Woman's History Month, I'm focusing on the area's female hip-hop dance pioneers.

We B*Girlz in a Break-Dancing Battle at Lincoln Center
by JOHN ROCKWELL for tha New York Times

So Lincoln Center decided to celebrate its formative role in bringing this kind of dance and cultural bravado to the mainstream by staging a follow-up called We B*Girlz, this time with female break dancers. Their show late Thursday afternoon on Josie Robertson Plaza, between the fountain and the Metropolitan Opera House, was appealing community fun but a long way from the ferocity and intensity of the original battle.

published: August 12, 2006