[Breakdancing at Park West, 1983]

Footage from the Park West night club, circa 1983.

00:00Copy video clip URL Raw footage of the West Side Rockers breakdancing on a stage inside a darkened club. Malcolm McLaren and the World Famous Supreme Team’s “Buffalo Gals” plays. An offscreen audience cheers when they finish.

04:20Copy video clip URL Raw footage of another dance crew breakdancing on the same stage, this time to Michael Sembello’s “Maniac.” They bow to the cheering audience on completion.

7:55Copy video clip URL Various people mill about near the front door of the club as Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” plays over the P.A. Phil Ranstrom, operating a portable video camera, moves through the club capturing club-goers as they talk and drink.

8:35Copy video clip URL Ranstrom finds the second dance crew and chats with them from behind the camera. They declare that they had no real competition. Another man asks them if they think they could teach white people to dance, and they emphatically insist that they could. They attempt to coach him, with little immediate success. Ranstrom leaves to shoot footage of the rest of the crowd in the club.

13:20Copy video clip URL Various candid shots of people milling about, talking and drinking in the darkened space. Ranstrom shoots footage of the bar, finds himself in a mirror, and chats briefly with passers-by. Loud music plays throughout.

24:45Copy video clip URL Some dancers perform on the stage.

26:00Copy video clip URL Ranstrom’s roving camera continues through the club, capturing people smoking and standing around as loud music plays over the PA. Ranstrom engages in small talk with some of the revelers throughout.

31:50Copy video clip URL The tape ends abruptly.