How to Airflare in Breakdance in 4 Steps

breakdance

How to Airflare in Breakdance in 4 Steps

The airflare is an explosive powermove that’s guaranteed to make a crowd go wild. While it can take time for dancers to master it, being able to pull out this move on-demand in a battle, showcase or cypher can push your dancing to the next level. Not only can the airflare be combined with loads of other moves, but dancers can also add variations to it to help them stand out from other breakdancers.

What Is the Airflare in Breaking?

The airflare is a dynamic and acrobatic powermove where dancers are rotating their bodies in a circular path on the floor with their legs and hips high off the ground while supporting themselves using only their hands. The motion, body postures, leg positioning, and swinging techniques are similar to what you see in a windmill, but the key difference is that dancers are only supporting themselves using their hands.

Some pioneer breakers known for this move include B-Boy Ivan, Nightcrawler (who added his own flair to the airflare), Megaman, and Kujo.

Take a look at this dope airflare battle for some inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdUbi5Bc8c

If you’re pumped to start learning how to airflare, you’ve come to the right place. Grab some water and find some space, and let’s begin.

How to Airflare in Breakdance in 4 Steps

Before you start, it’s always important to get warmed up and stretched. For the airflare in particular, you may want to put more focus into stretching your chest and shoulders – using a resistance band can help with this.

You will also benefit from a wide-legged stretch along with a body-side stretch.

As this power move is quite challenging and requires a strong core and shoulders, you’ll stand to learn it quicker if you already can do a handstand, handstand walks in a circle, as well as single hand taps on each arm in a handstand position.

Let’s get started.

Step 1

These instructions are for doing an airflare in a counter-clockwise direction.

Stand with your legs spread apart and place your right arm down on the ground with your hand facing inwards because that is the direction that your body will be turning towards.

For your legs, you will kick your left heel up in the air at a 45-degree angle until it slightly crosses over your right leg. Once your left slightly crosses your right, you will jump off your right leg will whip your body into a slight handstand position – all this happens as your entire body moves in a circular motion in a counter-clockwise direction while you’re supported by your right arm.

To develop more momentum, it can help you to prep this entire movement by turning your body towards the right first, before placing your right arm down.

Step 2

Now, you should try turning over onto your opposite arm, your left arm, to allow you to prepare for your throw.

Once you’ve swung around your right hand to the point where your hand is facing in the same direction as your body, you will want to begin switching over to your left hand by placing it down on the ground. Keep your arms and body solid, don’t let your arms collapse. Let the momentum swing your body around and then switch from your right arm to your left arm to prepare for your throw in Step 3.

Step 3

After you’ve switched from your right to your left arm, you’ll have to throw back onto your right arm, which requires you to whip your body over too. The key to this is switching from your left to right arm quickly when you throw.

To develop this speed in turning your body and throwing your right arm over, you can get in a crab walk position and work on throwing your right arm over your body and down to the ground while keeping your body tight. Focus on throwing your right arm down quickly, and you’ll be able to get this move easier.

Once you’ve gotten down the quick throw, another key part of this throw working is keeping your legs up while you throw yourself over. A common mistake is that people will naturally bring their legs down after they’ve thrown their right arm down, but this will only stop your momentum. So, keep your legs and your hips up towards the sky until you catch yourself with your throwing arm (your right arm).

Put all together, you’ll be having both your legs swooping down and up through your hips and left shoulder, and you’ll do a hop while you balance on your left arm while whipping your right arm down onto the other side. Once you catch and land successfully on your right arm, you can start going for your second airflare.

Step 4

Time to do your second airflare.

To do this, you need to remember to whip your right arm down quickly before your legs start coming down, which will allow you to continue to your second (and third, and multiple) airflare.

Keep your body and arms tight and solid the entire time, especially when you’re throwing yourself back onto your right arm to help yourself continue into your next airflare.

Ultimately, once you get the hang of your first airflare, you’ll be able to do multiple airflares with time and practice.

Tips to Achieve the Airflare in Breakdance

Keep your hips elevated, over your shoulder, to not hinder your momentum. This helps you go into your second airflare too
Keep your arms tight, make sure they don’t collapse or bend at the elbows
Throw your right arm down quickly before your legs get to the ground. Always have your arms moving faster than your legs

As with any powermove that you’re just starting to learn, it’s normal to not get the move down on your first day of learning it. But with dedication and practice, you’ll nail down the airflare in no time!

Master Powermoves Like the Airflare in No Time!

Learning powermoves like the airflare, windmill, flare or headspin on your own is no easy feat.

For some, it can take many years before they’ve managed to do just one powermove. For others, they might give up after months and months of trying and failing, sometimes running into injuries like a busted pelvis or a strained neck.

That’s why having an experienced teacher to guide you every step of the way can help speed up your learning process significantly.

Learn from B-Boy Focus, a world-renowned breaker who’s won and judged the biggest battles over his 30-year (and counting!) career, in his new Windmill Mastery course that’ll get you successfully doing the windmill in the quickest and painless way possible.

As an added bonus, you’ll get personalized feedback from B-Boy Focus if you’re the first 50 students to sign up now.

Learn from the best to start breaking like the best. Pretty soon, you’ll be doing powermoves in your sleep.