This page is dedicated to the many questions we receive

 

Question asked on facebook 7/17/23:

Were you a Compton POPLOCKER ?

Answer: NO I AM NOT , and was NOT a POP locker , I am before there were PopLockers. I am a LOCKER from the streets of Southern California and also a robot dancer ( not mime) born out of the era of the 1960s  Both are considered part of the original Locking streetdance subculture and scene of the early 1970s

Understand So. California’s streetdance timeline

1960s social conscious music reflected the social party dances , representing the struggle of the civil rights era

1969 Robot as a party dance introduced by Charles “ Robot” Washington

1970 cambellocking style introduced by Don Campbell   

1971 both styles introduced in the spotlight dance on the Southern California rendition of the dance show “Soul Train”

1971 unison steps intro’d into the solo dance of Cambellocking , by various originals , LA has its first modern era streetdance movement. This dance movement was identified by fashion and streetdance legends of these styles

1971 the solo style of cambellocking took on the simple generic streetname of “Locking” as unison steps developed within the style

1971/72 crews and groups formed in watts & Compton that included both Cambellocking & The Robot into a performance act under the umbrella term of Locking. The first crews of the Gogo brothers & Creative generation performed for the famed Watts writers workshop

1972 locking , it’s street fashion and streetdance handshake was seen nationally at the Watts Staxx concert

1973 professional groups were formed , the most notable “The Lockers” costuming upgraded from the street fashion and unison was now preplanned choreography

It wasn’t until after this initial so cal streetdance movement that Locking & The Robot was evolving by a younger generation into the Southern California style popping. Referred to as PopLocking giving respect to both its Southern California predecessors as its influence of

LOCKING & The Robot streetdance movement in the early 70s is the So Cal predecessor of Poplocking

Streetdance movement of the Later 1970s

The prefix of Pop was added to the root word of Locking to denote the root of a new popping streetdance movement developing as POP lockingOriginal street Lockers & Robots from LA in the early 1970s were NOT POPLOCKERS ,

poplocking did not evolve until the late 1970s and it evolved into a popping style BUT IT DID SO from its roots of robotics as a dance & it’s locking foundationLocking , Robot ( as a dance )  and Poplocking are all different styles today BUT FROM THE same street   ROOTS.

When poplocking became popular on the so cal west coast scene and some of the dancers had transitioned doing all three  Locking / Robot and now poplocking .. the public within the so cal hoods wrongly referred to all who did any of the three styles as “ Poplockers” and that caused much confusion

During this same era Northern California from Fresno ,Oakland & Richmond also had a developing that included a boogaloo style of popping, that was developing from its unique 1960s social party boogaloo dance. along with a mime street influence and other steps as unison popping was also developing. With strutting and dime stopping. Today poplocking is considered part of those popping style. Even though its historical roots is in the locking style. Isn’t that OBVIOUS with a name like pop-LOCKING

POPLOCKING & Poplockers were not the first so cal / LA street dance movement their history derived from the legends of LOCKING that started with Don Campbells , Campbellocking solo style along with the social party robot !

We cannot expect others to recognize our history until we recognize it and preserve our history correctly.

Og Skeeter Rabbit (James Higgins}

 

Question 7/9/23 Does it matter what color tennis shoes I wear when locking

 

Answer :

Ok let me clarify something we the originals DID NOT wear tennis shoes.. I was sent a picture of a dancer , with the caption “ Original Locker” first let me be clear none of the originals wore Chuck Taylors converse and stripped Sox .. we did not dance in basketball shoes. The first shoes that the original street scene lockers wore were bought at Flagg brothers shoes who sold the striped Sox to match , then after we began to form groups , myself and Pinguin bought the first pair of marshmallow shoes that the locking community adapted.

The wearing of Chuck Taylor’s as part of the locking costuming was something a later generation began to do in the 1980s